DANNY Cowley admits Colchester United have been eager to bring in the right characters when signing loan players in this month’s transfer window.

The U’s have snapped up four loanees this month, with Harry Anderson, Alistair Smith, Riley Harbottle and Jayden Richardson all arriving, until the end of the season.

The quartet have been tasked with helping Colchester move up the League Two table and away from relegation danger and U’s boss Cowley is confident they have brought in players who will perform for the team and not themselves.

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Cowley said: “When you’re a League One or League Two club, I think you do have to use the loan market intelligently.

“If you sign the right characters, then they come in the building and they become your player, for that period of time and they play for the team and not themselves.

“I think the only time it doesn’t work with loan players is if you sign a player who plays for himself and not the team.

“We do our due diligence to make sure that we recruit the right characters.”

Gazette:

Cowley has hinted he is prepared to allow young players leave Colchester on loan before tomorrow’s transfer deadline, after boosting his squad with new signings.

“We do have numbers now,” added Cowley.

“We had 22 outfield players training today but we also have some really good young players who we also need to find the right pathway for and I’m really conscious of this.

“With our squad, it’s always been lean and mean and we always like competition for places because we think that drives the standards.

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“You never want to be the third player in line; you want to be the first in line and in the starting XI but if you’re not, you’re the next one in line and you see the opportunity.

“Sometimes when you’re third or fourth in line, then that can be really hard for the player so when that moment happens, particularly if we think that’s a young player, we might decide to make a long-term plan for them.

“This is really important to me, because how does this football club have real success – to do that, we’ve got to develop our young players and that comes from the academy, that comes from the first team and absolutely, we try our best to give them outstanding training every single day but they also need to be part of a competitive games programme.

“There’s a couple of young players who I would love to keep in and around us and in our squad but I might just make a really good decision for their future by getting them out on loan and getting them some important minutes because sometimes, the game teaches us.”