Wayne Brown will NOT be the new manager of Colchester United.

Caretaker boss Brown dropped the bombshell during this lunchtime’s weekly press conference, in the build-up to this Saturday’s trip to Rochdale.

Brown has been in caretaker charge for the last fortnight, overseeing a 3-2 win over Altrincham in the FA Cup and a 3-2 home defeat to Barnsley in the league.

Former manager Tony Humes stood down as U’s boss at the end of last month.

Brown revealed: “I am not the new manager, and at the moment I am not going to be.

“I had a long discussion with (chairman) Robbie (Cowling).

“And on reflection, after being involved in this environment over the last two weeks, it has been a great beneficial learning curve for me, but I have made the decision that the time is not right for me at the moment to put myself into that environment on a day-to-day basis.

“So that’s where we are, and the club is now looking for a manager, externally or internally, no matter where he comes from, but it’s not going to be me.

“But yes, I am still here, and I am taking the game on Saturday against Rochdale, and I’ll be doing up upmost to prepare the lads in the best way I can to try and get a positive result,” added Brown.