COLCHESTER United have signed a player with 'a lot of potential' after sealing the capture of Will Greenidge, according to boss Matt Bloomfield.
And the U's head coach says the former West Ham United youngster is capable of playing in a number of positions for the club.
Greenidge became Colchester's seventh signing of the January transfer window after joining from the Hammers, for an undisclosed fee.
The defender was on the bench for the U's 2-1 win at Hartlepool United on Saturday, after signing a two-and-a-half year deal at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Greenidge has played regularly for West Ham's under-21 side this season, including in all three of their Papa Johns Trophy games and boss Bloomfield says he is pleased to have him on board.
Bloomfield said: "Will is someone who has a lot of potential.
"He's had a real good grounding at West Ham and he's someone who can cover multiple positions for us.
"He's played right wing-back, right full-back, left full-back and left wing-back; he's also played centre-half.
"He's a boy with really good physical attributes and good technical attributes, too.
"He's obviously not played league football before so we need to try and feed him into the team slowly and give him some experience and knowledge about how the game is played in League Two.
"I think it (the Hartlepool game) would have been slightly different to some of the under-21 games he's been playing!
"But he's a real lovely boy, a real good solid character and someone we're really pleased to have in the building."
Greenidge played under Colchester sporting director Dmitri Halajko during his time coaching in the West Ham academy.
He made 18 appearances for the Hammers' development side this season along with 46 matches for the under-21s since linking up with them on a full-time basis, in the 2020/21 season.
Meanwhile Bloomfield has revealed he was cautioned for celebrating Colchester's late winning goal at Hartlepool.
The U's head coach was booked by referee Simon Mather for leaving his technical area to celebrate their 87th-minute winner, at Victoria Park.
Bloomfield said: "I need to stop celebrating goals because I got myself booked for leaving my technical area, which I was a bit annoyed about.
"I'm not allowed to celebrate goals, which is a little bit frustrating."
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