DANNY Cowley says Colchester United are aiming to sign their own players and not rely as heavily on loan signings next season.

The U’s snapped up nine loanees over the course of this season to mixed success, with many of their signings young and inexperienced players from higher-placed clubs.

Joe Taylor proved Colchester's most successful loan signing after finishing as their top goalscorer following his move from Luton Town but others struggled to discover the consistent form needed in League Two.

READ MORE: Tom Dallison delivers classy message after Colchester exit

It looks unlikely that Colchester will bring in as many loanees this time around, instead placing confidence in their own talented young players in addition to new permanent signings, with a goalkeeper and striker top of their summer wish list.

Head coach Cowley admits the dynamic of the U's squad was probably not right, after they battled against relegation for much of the campaign.

Cowley said: “In an ideal world, we’d like all of our own players, everybody fully committed and fully focused on Colchester United and that’s absolutely our ambition.

“I think probably one of the learnings from last season was that we have our own young players here and we have some brilliant young players, with so much potential.

Gazette:

“You look at the likes of Samson Tovide, Bradley Ihionvien, Jayden Fevrier, Jay Mingi – there’s so much potential at this club.

“But it really does take a village, just to develop one player.

“Probably last year, maybe a mistake that was made was that we brought in a lot of loans and they were boys that hadn’t played professional football before and first-time loans.

“As a consequence, we probably didn’t get the dynamic of the squad right and we just had too many young ones that were living it for the first time.

READ MORE: Former Premier League defender is backing U's to flourish

“We weren’t able to probably provide them with the support that they need, either on the pitch or off the pitch so there’s definitely some learning from that.

“For me, one or two loans can be good if they are going to make the team significantly better.

“It can work but ultimately, they’re the cherry on top of the cake.

"The base of the cake is made up of our own players, whether they be our brilliant young players who have come through the academy, the young players that we will try to recruit on permanent deals this summer or really reliable, battle-hardened, sensible, intelligent League Two signings.”