Tony Humes knows all too well how demanding being a Football League boss can be.

So Colchester United’s director of football is well qualified in providing support for John McGreal, as he treads his first steps as a first-team coach.

When McGreal was unveiled as the U’s new boss earlier this month, he revealed the new structure the club now have in place was a big factor in his decision to accept the challenge.

The U’s embryonic system, described by McGreal as a “support mechanism”, is designed to give whoever is in charge of the senior team the help that they need to produce results on the pitch.

A big part of the set-up is the director of football role, a position Humes has been tasked with since being brought back to the Weston Homes Community Stadium by chairman Robbie Cowling, two and a half months ago.

It is a position new to both Colchester and Humes and one still relatively unusual for lower league clubs, in England.

But the former U’s manager, who spent 15 months in charge of the first team before leaving the post last November, believes the innovative new composition is one that will give the U’s the best chance possible of recovering from their relegation to League Two – and one that McGreal will relish.

Humes said: “Over the last few months, we’ve looked at the structure and what the best way forward is for the football club, in terms of looking and agreeing on what we’re doing and what direction we’re going in.

“It’s exciting and we feel that it gives us a good structure and opportunity to bounce back as quickly as we can.

“It goes back to the philosophy of the football club – Robbie wants to promote from within.

“John Ward, Joe Dunne and I have all managed the first team and when I left last November, it wasn’t really quite ready for anybody at the club to take that step.

“But me coming back to the club has given it a different sort of aspect to how it’s structured.

“John’s main strength is that he’s a fantastic coach.

“The way that the job works as a manager is that it’s full on, 24/7.

“At times, it needs somebody else to take certain aspects of the job away from that person who’s responsible for the first team.

“That’s what Robbie has looked at me doing, working with the whole club.

“John is just responsible for the first team and what’s around it – the selection side of it and the coaching side of it, whereas I can assist and support to academies and other aspects of the football club, with John not really having to worry too much about it.”

While Humes’ working relationship with McGreal will undoubtedly be pivotal, his work as director of football will be far wider reaching than purely serving the interests of the club at first-team level.

And having impressed in his role as academy manager for more than five years at Colchester prior to being appointed as first-team boss, it is important on many different levels.

“My role is very supportive to all of the football club, not just to the first team,” said Humes, who returned to Colchester as director of football in March.

“Having experienced that throughout the years and helped build it up to where we are as a Category Two academy, it helps.

“We’re currently looking for a new Academy Manager and I can help in that respect and help people to settle in but also to be around just to share any experiences that anybody needs.

“From a personal point of view, it’s an exciting role.

“I’m not hands-on on the coaching side of it and if that’s the way the club works and the best way we feel to take it forward, then that’s great.

“Thankfully, Robbie has given me the opportunity to do my role and hopefully I can carry it out and give that support and a little bit of experience to the whole staff.”

When McGreal was unveiled as first-team coach, chairman Cowling admitted that the club’s recruitment of players needs to improve.

It is another reason behind the U’s decision to create a director of football role and Humes concedes the players they add to their squad in the off season will be crucial.

“There are certain areas where we have to get better, in terms of some of the players that we bring in,” he said.

“You can’t help injuries and we’ve had quite a few of those this season but you have to look at the players who are being brought into the football club as being right, to take the club forward.

“That’s the biggest thing we have to now concentrate on, in readiness for the new season.

“Even when I wasn’t working at the football club and had a bit of time away, people were still ringing me up asking me about this player and that player!

“It never stops.

“It’s important that we make sure that we do the correct background work on the players and making sure that the right ones come in for the right reasons.”

These are certainly changing times, at Colchester.

Not only are they planning for life in the fourth tier of English football for the first time in nearly 20 years; they are also doing so with a new first-team boss at the helm and a director of football overseeing him for the first time in the club’s history.

Humes added: “I think any change is transitional – that speaks for itself.

“You have to look at what is best for every level and that’s what we need to make sure that we get it right.

“My new role has been different in that it’s been very office based and been about putting structures together and working closely with Tony Ashby.

“Tony is doing a dual side of it as well because he’s still acting academy manager.

“Tony’s been fantastic and there’s a lot of important work goes on behind the scenes and an awful lot of people at this football club who do fantastic work and don’t get recognised for it.

“There’s a lot of things to be done in terms of new players coming in, staff changes and filling those gaps of people who have moved from certain positions.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we get it right and get it right for the people who are working at the club.”