What next for Cambridge United?

The growing feeling is that Cambridge United are at a crossroads after the sacking of Colin Calderwood.

Much of the drama of the past 20 years has been driven by finances - the ITV Digital collapse, the sale of the Abbey Stadium, administration, overly-optimistic budget forecasts - but things are different this time.

The financial ship has been steadied since Paul Barry completed his takeover of the club, with a firm grasp on money matters, however, the revenue-generator, the football, has faltered.

In an industry that is about winning, it is the one thing that the U’s have stopped doing.

In that roll call of despair, there have of course been moments on the pitch when things have plummeted to new depths, not least in the 2004/05 when they exited the Football League, not to return for another decade.

Then there was 2011, when Jez George stepped in to replace Martin Ling to prevent an even greater fall down the football pyramid.

Few will argue that it was, sadly, the right time for Calderwood to leave last week after the 4-0 defeat to Salford City.

The U’s had lost seven of their past nine games - the only two they were not beaten in were both against Morecambe - and it has seen them drop to 18th in the table.

And there are similarities to Herve Renard’s spell in charge in 2004.

The Frenchman had arrived at United that March with the club having lost five of their past six games and facing the prospect of relegation. They then lost only one of their next eight games to keep their place in League Two.

When Calderwood took over at United in December 2018, they were 21st in League Two with just five games in 20 matches, but he kept them in the division.

Now go back to when Renard was sacked in December 2004, United had lost eight of their previous nine games. They failed to get a win in their next 12 games, with Steve Thompson brought in as successor and, ultimately, ended up dropping out of the league.

Things had started so brightly this season for Calderwood, with the team consistently knocking on the door of the play-off places, and the club were sufficiently pleased to award him a new contract.

However, since a 3-2 defeat to Leyton Orient the weekend before Christmas, the fight has visibly drained out of the squad as their form has fallen off a cliff, culminating in the defeat to Salford and the end of Calderwood’s time at the club.

It is not to suggest for a minute that they are under threat of relegation back to the Conference. They look in too strong a position in the table and it would require a miraculous recovery from bottom-club Stevenage, who have only won three times all season and are 10 points adrift of the U’s.

But what it does beg of United is some answers as to what they want to be and how they intend to get there.

Many questions have been asked of the structure of the football side of the club. It is a system that, ultimately, makes just one person accountable for everything.

Much noise and criticism has already been made about this, pointing to the failures of first Shaun Derry, then Joe Dunne and now Calderwood within this set-up.

That may be too easy an approach to take, but it needs the club to clarify exactly what their vision is and how they hope to achieve it.

If it is about progression from within, then that takes time and patience and must be communicated with supporters.

Allowing an organic pathway through the club will inevitably bring setbacks as everyone finds their way and matures, it does not happen overnight.

But chasing a play-off place is more of a quick-fix solution which requires sound investment - and not necessarily in a financial sense - in the right calibre of people to slot straight in rather than learn as they go, which has to make room for mistakes and errors.

The structure of the U’s seems to be about development, but the messages are about immediacy so they are betwixt and between as they battle to manage ambitions and expectations.

It feels as if they need to set out a dreaded plan, maybe not three years though, to categorically state that upper mid-table is the hope as they grow together within this structure.

However, ambition is what brings in paying customers, the lifeblood of a club. If promotion is the short-term target then everything that supports that properly must be in place, including the message.

The current structure is a rarity within the Premier and Football Leagues, where one person has sole accountability but is told what tools they have at their disposal.

That is not to say that it is wrong though, just that, after three failures, the virtues could perhaps do with being extolled to fans, as a pep-talk if nothing else.

With United facing the prospect of a fifth manager/head coach since Richard Money’s departure in November 2015 - Derry and Money at some point both held both titles - it feels as if the U’s are at a crossroads.

They addressed questions about their financial plight and boardroom structure head on and now, for clarity, probably need to do the same with their football department.