Colchester boss reveals U's striker Tovide's move to Luton is now off

Colchester United boss Danny Cowley has revealed that striker Samson Tovide’s proposed move to the Hatters is now off after the two clubs couldn’t agree on the structure of the deal.

The 21-year-old looked set to move to Kenilworth Road to reunite with his former U’s manager Matt Bloomfield, with the Colchester Gazette reporting that a fee had already been agreed, current United chief Cowley stating at the weekend it was a ‘great opportunity’ for the attacker. However, Tovide is now back in training with Colchester ahead of their League Two clash against Oldham Athletic this weekend, and speaking to the Gazette once more, Cowley discussed just why the move hasn’t gone ahead.

He said: “Unfortunately, once we got down to the minutiae of the deal, it was just in the structure of the deal where the two clubs couldn’t agree. As a consequence, Samson has come back to the group and he trained today (Thursday). He’s a brilliant kid – I’ve been lucky enough in my life to work with a lot of special people that have been really, really successful and with all of them, it’s just something that they have. Samson has a phenomenal personality, he has an incredible will and determination and fight and of course, he’s just a young boy and this is the first time that he’s been in this position.

"But I have so much faith in him as a human being and I know that he’ll find a way to come through this disappointment and will find a way to respond, because that’s what he does. He’s a phenomenal boy. I have so much respect for him and I’m categoric that he will go on and have a brilliant career. We’re just excited to try to help and support him, in that process.

"He’s a phenomenon – I’ve never seen anyone so powerful and so strong and so willing as he is. Listen, if it isn’t going to be Luton, he’ll come back to us, he’ll be brilliant for us and it’ll be someone else because football doesn’t miss out anymore and it’s not going to miss out on someone of Samson’s qualities, that is for sure.”

Asked about a move for Tovide, who played 11 times under Bloomfield when he was in charge at the JobServe Community Stadium, netting a first senior goal in the 3-0 victory over Doncaster Rovers, going on to score 14 goals in 101 appearances, then speaking on Wednesday afternoon, the Hatters manager had said: “He was a young player that we had at Colchester, someone I think a lot of, but it’s the boring line, I won’t comment on other people’s players. That’s not what I’m here to do. He’s Colchester’s player, so I feel like it’s really disrespectful to be talking about other people’s players.”