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Colchester United could not "handcuff" head coach Matt Bloomfield to the club, chairman Robbie Cowling has said ahead of his departure to rejoin Wycombe.

Bloomfield has "agreed in principle" to take over at Wanderers following Gareth Ainsworth's move to QPR.

The 39-year-old was appointed by the League Two U's last September.

"Matt's got a big association with Wycombe, he's an ambitious man and they are on the verge of the Championship," Cowling told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Essex.

"I received a call from the Wycombe owner just after 4pm on Monday requesting permission to talk to Matt as Gareth Ainsworth was joining QPR.

"There's no specific clause in his contract other than another club would have to pay compensation. You can't stop someone from talking to another club, we learnt that with Paul Lambert when he moved to Norwich. There was no clause then and he went there."

Bloomfield won nine of his 27 games in charge of Colchester, steering them to 18th in the table and nine points above the relegation zone.

The U's have yet to confirm who will be in charge for Saturday's home game against Northampton, but Cowling is confident they will find a quality replacement.

"It's part of being a football chairman, sometimes you've got to roll with the punches and deal with things when they come along," Cowling told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Look East.

"There's always opportunities in every problem and we've got to make sure that it works out good for the club.

"Matt has a very good personality and lifted the club. We're certainly in a better position now than he found us in. But that's not all down to Matt. The results have turned around because of what the players do on the pitch."

He added: "We've got a few options [that] maybe we can look at in the short term but if that doesn't work, there's certainly a process that we'll put in place again.

"I have no doubt that if we go through that process again, we'll come up with another good head coach."