Colchester United have been left to begin their search for their third manager of the season after Matt Bloomfield left to join Wycombe Wanderers, with Ben Garner apparently the clear favourite to land the job, according to Jonathan Waldron from Gazette Standard.
The 42-year-old has started to emerge as the bookmaker’s favourite after Danny Cowley was originally the early leader when the job became open last week.
Garner most recently started this season as Charlton Athletic manager, however, was soon dismissed from his role at the League One side in early December, after a win percentage of just 31% when in charge.
He started his managerial career working his way up the ladder as a first-team coach under Ian Holloway, Tony Pulis and Neil Warnock, while even gaining some experience and insight from Jose Mourinho during a UEFA Pro Licence course.
Garner’s most successful spell as a head coach came last season during his lone year in Swindon. After originally being appointed under a transfer embargo with only seven senior squad players available, the English coach took Swindon to the playoffs but fell to eventual winners Port Vale in a penalty shootout.
Colchester’s head of recruitment Ross Embleton is in interim charge of the club currently, as the U’s remain 19th in the league after a 1-0 defeat to Northampton on the weekend.
Embleton spoke after the defeat and sounded hopeful an appointment wasn’t too far away.
Embleton said: “I believe that there’s been some good work done, in the last few days.
“I think everybody agrees that the sooner that new person is in, whoever it is, the better it is for everybody.
“I know there’s been tireless work done by Robbie (Cowling) and the board over the last few days, to try to make sure that the process is heading in the direction we all want it to go.
“It’s my responsibility to hold the fort to help us through the next few days, hopefully until the new man is in.”
Writer’s View
As a Swindon fan, I feel I have a good understanding of Garner but can only speak on my experience with him at Swindon.
Garner came in during a very tough time and while he struggled at first under tricky circumstances, towards the end of the season Swindon was one of the more in-form teams in the league.
It was kind of surprising to see him jump ship to Charlton after just one season, but if I’m being honest I saw it as a blessing in disguise. I found his in-game management in particular to be poor with a lack of desire to ever get creative. A lot of the time under when the game was getting away from him, changes weren’t made as often as fans would have liked, with the game left to go through the motions.
It eventually led to his downfall against Port Vale but with that being said, when Garner had talented players playing his style of football with reasonable rest in-between games, it was an exciting brand and got results.
