Caretaker Joe Dunne says he has not entered the race to replace Paul Lambert as full-time manager, this afternoon confirming he will step down in September.
“The applicants have handed in their CV’s, one of them is not mine. My job was just to take care of things, I’m pretty sure the candidates have a very high standard,” he told BBC Radio Essex today.
Although the news is a shame, given previous signals, Dunne`s revelation will not overly surprise U`s followers, who have seen him suggest previously he`d feel uncomfortable in Colchester`s management madhouse.
Dunne still remains perennially popular in Essex and a clause of Lambert`s contract as manager obliged the Scotsman to keep him on the coaching staff.
Dunne`s name was first suggested seriously after he guided the team to a 2-1 win against Gillingham on the tumultuous day Lambert sensationally quit.
Ex-manager, Steve Wignall, even went on to previously champion him, as the possible final selection, last week.
The comments Dunne made after a narrow first loss this season at Mk Dons, bullish in the face of expected criticism, had sounded almost like a frustrated audition for the role.
“I`ve been in situations where you have no manager and I`m pretty sure today there will be plenty of people sitting in the stands saying: ‘That`s why you need a new manager`, because of this or that reason.
‘We`ve lost a game now so everything will be my fault and so on and so forth – but as players, they have to give their all. If they don`t, they will get beaten every week. But I thought they gave their all.”
He, however, kept saying the win was “not to be.” Maybe he was being ironic, since now we know Colchester United`s next boss is also not to be Joey Dunne.
Joe Dunne title photo reproduced with kind permission of CU-FC – taken by Rob Sambrook.
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