Wayne Brown: Colchester manager will not make lots of summer signings

Wayne Brown made more than 150 appearances for Colchester during his playing career

Colchester United manager Wayne Brown has said he will not be making lots of signings this summer.

The 44-year-old was confirmed as manager in May after steering the U's to safety with a 15th-placed finish.

Since then, he has recruited goalkeeper Sam Hornby and midfielder Alex Newby from Bradford City and Rochdale.

"We inherited a squad of players - a big number of those were already contracted for this year," Brown told BBC Essex.

"[After] the amount of incomings last summer, it's going to be totally different this year because we have a budget to work to."

Former U's defender Brown had three spells in charge as interim boss, most recently when he replaced Hayden Mullins, who left in January with the team perilously close to the League Two relegation places.

Nine wins and six draws in 22 games to the end of the season lifted them 17 points clear of the bottom two.

"We've got a really good dynamic in the group at the moment and the last thing we want is to get one wrong and bring somebody in that's going to upset the environment," said Brown.

"It's really vital that not only do we get the right person that can do the business on the pitch, they've got to have the right characteristics off the pitch, and the right values to match ours."

He added: "We have pretty much the same amount of players as last year under contract and that gives them confidence. It gives them a lot of buy-in to what we are trying to do.

"Players we are trying to identify and bring in need to come in and make a difference, otherwise there's really no point bringing them in."

Colchester appointed former Leyton Orient boss Ross Embleton as head of recruitment last month.

"It's now a case of being patient and being prepared for the little curveballs that are thrown in, whether that be an injury to a player, whether that be a sale of a player - there are so many factors that can impact it [transfer policy]," the 40-year-old said.

"It's not necessarily about us going out and looking [for players] for one position. It's about when things change and when things evolve, the right ones are there to bring in to the club."

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