Colchester United can flourish with ex-Ipswich Town players

The U’s have snapped up four former Town players this summer, with Alan Judge, Freddie Sears (pictured below), Luke Chambers and Cole Skuse all making the short trip from Suffolk to Essex in the close season.

They have linked up with fellow former Ipswich players Frank Nouble, Tommy Smith, Tom Eastman and Dean Gerken, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

And former U’s boss Williams, who played 227 league games for Town prior to joining Colchester as a player in 1998 and then managing them to their highest-ever finish in 2007, is hoping both East Anglian clubs can do well, this season.

Williams said: “I don’t see why Colchester can’t be successful, this season.

“If the players who have come in keep that attitude and lead, they’re looking very strong at the moment, added to what was already inside the club.

“The manager at Ipswich has gone in with a big broom and hopefully everyone who comes in can hit the ground running there, as well.”

The average age of the four players Colchester signed from Ipswich this summer is 33, with each of them having enjoyed impressive careers to date.

Williams was 36 years old when he joined the U’s and says he is sure their experienced quartet will keep their standards high, after arriving from Portman Road.

“The first thing is to be a good professional,” said Williams, who is currently working part-time coaching Ipswich’s under-16s.

“You’ve got to have the same standards that you’ve had all your career.

“You can’t think ‘well, I’m going down to this level so my standards will go down’.

“I tried to make sure that I had my standards.

“Steve Wignall was very complimentary - one day I remember doing the running and he couldn’t believe that I was still in the top group, in my age and that was because I was pushing myself.

“He said ‘do you want to go down a group?’ and I said ‘no I want to be in the top group and push myself’.

“One time we were sat there and he said ‘can you go and get the drinks for the chap that we had’ and I said ‘yeah, no problem’.

“I didn’t realise while I was going to get them but he said to the others ‘look, if he can go and do that then we can all do it’.

“So it’s just about being a good professional like they have been and I’m sure that the boys who have gone there will do that.

“I wanted to go to Colchester to play first-team matches so I still had that thing that I wanted to make sure that I got picked every week.

“Every time I went to training, I tried to get better; if I played a five-a-side, I wanted to win it.

“Every time you cross the white line on a Saturday, people pay money to come and see you.

“You have to have that personal pride and I think that’s what makes a good professional anyway – you’ve got that personal pride that says ‘I’m going to go out and do my best today’.

“When I was there with Steve Whitton, there were also players like Jason Dozzell, Gavin Johnson, Micky Stockwell who are good characters and good footballers that can improve you.

“We took that on with the youngsters under Phil (Parkinson) and got promoted into the same division as them, which was a great achievement and then in the year we were up there, we finished above them – so who says Colchester are smaller than Ipswich!"