Colchester United have announced their new head coach with former Swindon Town and Charlton Athletic boss Ben Garner taking control, as confirmed by the club.
The U’s were left to look for their third manager of the season, when Matt Bloomfield left his role to take up the vacant managerial role at Wycombe Wanderers.
Garner is expected to observe Saturday’s game against Bradford City before leading his first training session early next week. Additional staff members are expected to join up with the 42-year-old in Colchester, with announcements in due course.
Colchester United currently sit 19th in League Two, nine points above the relegation zone at the time of writing. The club have played more games than the majority of sides below them, which adds pressure on the club to pick up points quickly so they don’t find themselves in a relegation battle in a few weeks time.
Meanwhile, Swindon Town are 10th in the League Two table, five points off the play-off places and have as many as two games in hand on some of the sides above them in the latest standings, ahead of their match against Leyton Orient this weekend.
The Englishmen started the season at League One side Charlton Athletic before being dismissed in early December, but has experience coaching in League Two.
Garner’s most successful spell as a manager came at Swindon Town last season when he got the Robins into the playoffs. After starting pre-season with only seven senior players available, Garner put together an impressive season which saw the West Country team miss out on a playoff-final appearance due to a penalty shootout loss to eventual winners Port Vale.
His departure left some bad blood with his ex-team however, and with both teams already meeting one-another, twice this season, there will be no reunion between the two parties for the moment at least.
Speaking in his first interview with the U’s, Garner said “Delighted to get the opportunity to come and be here at Colchester.
“Had some really good conversations with the members of the board and staff of the club. A big attraction to me was the structure in place and the vision moving forward, I can’t wait to get started and looking forward to the opportunity.”
As for Swindon fans on social media, their reaction to the move is telling, so let’s take a look at how some of their fans have reacted…
https://twitter.com/Callum07251778/status/1631235184346406912
https://twitter.com/0fficalSTFC/status/1631234148219101184
https://twitter.com/jmaundz/status/1631244898765623297
https://twitter.com/stfcjamie/status/1631245925149540357
https://twitter.com/0fficalSTFC/status/1631233916550905856
https://twitter.com/timofthetown/status/1631244153630740483
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Writers View
As a fellow Swindon fan, I witnessed Garner’s time with us first hand and it was a bag of mixed emotions. Expectations going into the season were all over the place with the club’s situation, and while we saw some fun times under Garner it was disappointing to go out the way we did.
On a good day, Garner could get Swindon to play great football, but on many occasions, he was too stubborn to adapt things when they weren’t going his way.
For Colchester, I do believe the appointment is a good one and if they can avoid relegation this year it will be interesting to see how they enter the new season.
