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Everything Was Going Well at Colchester but the Coronavirus Shut Everything Down

Colchester manager John McGreal during his side’s Carabao Cup win over Spurs in September which hastened Mauricio Pochettino (right) towards the exit. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters
Colchester manager John McGreal during his side’s Carabao Cup win over Spurs in September which hastened Mauricio Pochettino (right) towards the exit. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters
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Everything Was Going Well at Colchester but the Coronavirus Shut Everything Down

Colchester manager John McGreal during his side’s Carabao Cup win over Spurs in September which hastened Mauricio Pochettino (right) towards the exit. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters
Colchester manager John McGreal during his side’s Carabao Cup win over Spurs in September which hastened Mauricio Pochettino (right) towards the exit. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters

A couple of weeks ago, I had a phone call from my manager, John McGreal. He wanted to deliver some unfortunate news to four players who were out of contract in the summer and tell us that we wouldn’t be offered renewals at Colchester.

Due to the circumstances we’re living in right now, he told us that the chairman, Robbie Cowling, couldn’t promise to fulfil our contracts and that is just the way it is. The chairman then called us a couple of days later just to confirm the news and to thank us for our time at the club. He said: “You never know what might happen in the future but I just can’t promise you I will be able to afford the contract I wanted to offer you.”

I’m not sure what I had been expecting. I had been offered a couple of deals before the end of the season and we had agreed to continue the conversation when it was over so we could just focus on football. We were sixth in the table when everything stopped and our goal was obviously promotion this year. Then we were going to sit down again to agree something to extend my time at the club.

It was a shock because for a few weeks all that had been on my mind was wondering when we were going to start playing again and complete the season. To get that phone call was obviously a bit of a shocker but at the same time I understand the business of football.

It’s still frustrating because I felt like I had finally caught a break somewhere. I haven’t stayed at the same club for a third season since I was at Chelsea as a teenager but I wanted to stay in Colchester. I’ve settled down, the manager has remained the same since I got here so I have been playing every week and enjoying my football. I’m also based down south and closer to London again so everything was going well until coronavirus came along and shut everything down.

I’ve dealt with situations like this before, although obviously nothing as severe. But in terms of moving clubs and starting again, I’ve had plenty of practice and will be ready for whatever comes next. The big issue is for my family because it means we will have to move again – they rely on me and always have to adjust to wherever we have to move to. We have been trying to get my oldest daughter into the school that we wanted but now we are going to have to make new plans for her to go somewhere else. Imagine trying to move house at short notice in the next few weeks with everything that is going on at the moment?

That was part of the reason I really wanted to stay – people don’t realise some of the decisions you have to make when you are being offered a new contract. It’s not the same as before we had kids and could just stay in a hotel for a month. My partner is probably going to have to go up north with her family while I find my feet somewhere.

We’re going to get paid until our contracts expire at the end of June and I assume that if football returns before then we will be able to play for Colchester again. But the situation still hasn’t been clarified. And what happens if they can’t finish the season until the end of July? It might be a case when we can only play five games in June and there are another four games left to play plus the play-offs, so the boys who have been released can’t play.

We’ve lost our captain, a right-back, midfielder and an attacker who have all played regularly this season so that is almost half our team. It would be frustrating if we aren’t able to complete it, especially because some of us now don’t have a club to go to next season and need to be able to showcase our talents to get a move elsewhere.

I’m not sure how they can resolve it – just deciding the table on a points-per-game ratio and then having play-offs means that any teams who could have made a late charge don’t have any chance. I remember Tranmere last year weren’t anywhere near the play-offs with 10 games to go and they ended up being promoted. But there are so many risks in trying to play the matches behind closed doors that I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not.

The chairman gave us a bit of extra time to try and sort ourselves out but I don’t have anything lined up at this stage. I’m just waiting for news, although the problem is that every other club is still in limbo as well. They don’t know what is happening with the players they already have or what the budget is going to look like so we just have to wait and see. It just shows how fragile life as a professional can be.

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Satellite Images Suggest North Korea Expanding Missile Plant, Researchers Say

A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
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Satellite Images Suggest North Korea Expanding Missile Plant, Researchers Say

A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a suspected missile assembly building under construction (lower center of photo) at the "February 11 Plant" near Hamhung, North Korea in this handout image obtained by Reuters on November 20, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters)

North Korea is expanding a key weapons manufacturing complex that assembles a type of short-range missile used by Russia in Ukraine, researchers at a US-based think tank have concluded, based on satellite images.

The facility, known as the February 11 plant, is part of the Ryongsong Machine Complex in Hamhung, North Korea's second-largest city, on the country's east coast.

Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), located at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said the plant was the only one known to produce the Hwasong-11 class of solid-fuel ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials say these munitions - known as the KN-23 in the West - have been used by Russian forces in their assault on Ukraine.

The expansion of the complex has not been previously reported.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied that North Korea has transferred weapons for Russia to use against Ukraine, which it invaded in February 2022. Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense treaty at a summit in June and have pledged to boost their military ties.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The satellite images, taken in early October by the commercial satellite firm Planet Labs, show what appears to be an additional assembly building under construction as well as a new housing facility, likely intended for workers, according to the analysis by researchers at CNS.

It also appears that Pyongyang is improving the entrances for some of the underground facilities at the complex.

A disused bridge crane that was in front of a tunnel entrance, blocking easy access, was removed, suggesting they might be placing an emphasis on that part of the facility, Lair said.

"We see this as a suggestion that they're massively increasing, or they're trying to significantly increase, the throughput of this factory," Lair said.

The new assembly building is about 60 to 70 percent the size of the previous building used to assemble missiles.

In 2023, state media published images, which Reuters has reviewed, showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walking through new buildings at the complex in Hamhung, where workers were assembling tail kits and nose cones for what appeared to be the KN-23, according to analysts.

In the past, publicly released videos from North Korean state media show that the complex has produced everything from tank wheels to the casings for rocket motors, Lair said.

LOW-FLYING MISSILES

The KN-23 was first tested in May 2019, and is designed to evade missile defenses by flying on a lower, "depressed" trajectory, experts have told Reuters, making them potentially useful for Russia as it seeks ways to penetrate Ukraine's air defenses.

Russia has fired thousands of missiles since the invasion. Leaning on North Korea for additional supplies could ease the strain on its own production facilities, Lair said.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA has reported that construction is underway at the Ryongsong Machine Complex.

This month, KCNA said the facility "is pushing ahead with the projects for attaining the goal for modernization planned for this year." The work includes rebuilding production facilities as well as assembling and installing equipment at machine workshops and a steel casting workshop, it said.

Researchers at SI Analytics, a South Korean satellite imagery firm that uses AI technology to scour images, also confirmed the new construction at the February 11 plant, saying in a report on Monday that some of the construction near the loading area would likely be used to conceal the future operations of the factory from satellites.

"Considering the presence of numerous construction materials, vehicles, and open-top freight cars loaded with materials around the site, the construction appears to be progressing rapidly," the firm said. The report said the facility was used to produce ballistic missiles, without naming the KN-23.

Michael Duitsman, also a research associate at CNS, said it was possible that the new construction revealed in the satellite images could be a storage facility, but he believed it was more likely a new assembly building.

North Korean missiles account for a fraction of Russia's strikes during its war on Ukraine, but their alleged use has caused alarm in Seoul and Washington because it suggests an end of nearly two-decade consensus among UN Security Council permanent members on preventing Pyongyang from expanding its ballistic missile programs.

SI Analytics said on Monday it had also identified new construction at the nearby February 8 Vinalon Complex, which is believed to produce fuel for ballistic missiles. The construction may be aimed at boosting production of solid propellants or UDMH, an important liquid rocket engine fuel, the report said.

Joseph Dempsey, a military analyst with London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that North Korea's expansion of short-range ballistic missile facilities would likely be motivated mainly by a desire to boost the country's own arsenal.

He said it was unclear to what extent Pyongyang may have expanded production capacity to meet the demands of its new cooperation with Moscow.

More than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine launched a major cross-border incursion in August, according to Washington, Kyiv and Seoul.

The troops will fight as part of Russia's airborne unit and marines, with some already participating in battles in the Ukraine war, a South Korean lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary intelligence committee said on Wednesday.

Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war, which it has been waging in Ukraine since launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022.