Former Tottenham and West Ham winger made heavy favourite for vacant EFL manager post

Former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United midfielder Matthew Etherington is the heavy betting favourite for the vacant manager post at Colchester United. Etherington is rated at 1/2 to assume the role at the time of writing.

Etherington is currently the Under-21s lead coach at Colchester and it seems that the Us may be looking to promote from within, rather than bringing in a new face. As things stand, Colchester are 23rd in League Two, finding themselves in danger of slipping out of the football league entirely - so far, they have won three, drawn one and lost nine of their 13 league games.

Ben Garner was sacked after seven months in charge over the weekend. A 2-1 defeat to Harrogate Town meant four successive league defeats for Colchester. A club statement confirmed: “Colchester United have relieved Ben Garner of his duties as Head Coach with immediate effect. Board members will be discussing the plans to be put in place, for both the immediate period with games on Tuesday and Saturday, and further into the future.

“Colchester United would like to place on record its thanks to Ben for his time at the club. No further comment will be made at this time.”

Who else is in the running for the Colchester United job?

While Etherington is the runaway favourite to lead the Us onwards this season, he isn’t the only name in the running. Neil Harris, who was recently sacked by Gillingham, is the second favourite at a distant 8/1.

In third is Steve Cotterill, who has previously managed teams such as Bristol City, Birmingham City and most recently, Shrewsbury Town. He is rated at 12/1 to be named as the next Colchester head coach and is the most experienced of the candidates in the running.

Following Cotterill is Aidy Boothroyd, also at 12/1, David Artell at 14/1 and Steve Morison at 16/1. As such, it seems likely that it will be Etherington who will take the job at this point.

What experience does Matthew Etherington have in coaching?

Etherington has only been a permanent head coach for a single club, when he was appointed as manager at Crawley Town in 2022. It didn’t last long, however - he was sacked after just three games for the Red Devils, winning one and losing two.

Thankfully, this wasn’t Etherington’s only exposure to first-team coaching. He has also managed Peterborough United, albeit only as a caretaker manager. He was also the Posh’s assistant manager from 2021 to 2022.