Town manager Roy Keane says this week’s axing of long-serving coach Bryan Klug was part of an ongoing process of change at Portman Road. Klug, who was contracted to the club until the end of the season, had been coaching the Blues at one level or another since 1987, having been a youth player and reserve team captain in the early eighties.

Keane says he made the decision to curtail 49-year-old Klug’s time at the club in the wake of other people joining the coaching staff: “He’s done very well at the club, he’s been a very good servant, but I’ve been in the job now five or six months and I’ve decided make a few changes. Charlie [Ian McParland] came in, Antonio Gomez and Tony Loughlan came in. I just decided to make that change.

“He’s a very, very good coach, he’s got vast experience, he’s worked at different levels at the club — the first team, the academy, the reserves — and we wish him well.”

The Blues boss says he is constantly looking at areas where Town can be improved: “I said a few months ago that every day of the week I’m sussing out the club and weighing everybody up and hopefully that will continue as long as I’m at the club.

“You’re never 100% happy, you’re always looking for improvement from the first team, the medical staff, the scouting or wherever, and we’ll make changes if we feel they need changes.”

Photo: Action Images

ozzydog added 13:13 - Jan 16 How does getting rid of one of the most qualified coaches in the country inprove ITFC?
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Roosta added 13:18 - Jan 16 It does seem odd that there wasn't a role for Klug somewhere in the club? For someone with only 18 months left on his contract, it's concerning that Keane is dismantling the infrastructure so completely. IF he gets it wrong, it could leave nothing left for his successor. However, maybe this is the answer to lift ITFC from continual medicority, maybe the cuts have to go deep and the changes have to be this fundamental. I hope RK sees it through to success.

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xrayspecs added 13:19 - Jan 16 If he was that good, then would we not have expected better things from the team when he and Jim were in charge? We were very very average, so not sure I buy this great coach theory. Over the last decade, the best team we had was when Burley was in charge. Dale Roberts illness was seen as one of the contributing factors to us losing our way in our second seaon. Also, the academy - despite its reputation - produces very few top quality players. In the last ten years, you can only really claim Wright, Dyer, Bramble (all about ten years ago)........Wickham (recruited from Reading academy when his parents moved).....possibly Rhodes - jury still out on whether he is good enough for championship (recruited from Barnely academy when his parents moved).

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bedsitfc added 13:24 - Jan 16 we have been not quite good enough for years so i can't see the problem with letting long serving people go, as long as we start showing better performances on the pitch
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Blueknight85 added 13:25 - Jan 16 getting rid of one of the most quallified coaches in football? why who else went? didnt realise we had one of them. and as for a role for him somewhere....we are not a charity
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tom_the_blue added 13:25 - Jan 16 I think you'll find an Ipswich Academy graduate is 4th in the prem goal charts, so surely he counts as a success
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bournemouthblue added 13:35 - Jan 16 Why do people seem to forget about Darren Bent? I still think Ambrose should have been doing it in the Prem, at least he's finally showing for Crystal Palace some of the early potential he promised
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ChambersM added 13:38 - Jan 16 harsh
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Roosta added 13:41 - Jan 16 @BlueKnight85 - just thinking that you'd imagine we should be able to get good use and value from one of the most qualified coaches in the country? Not saying we should do him any favours, but you'd have thought he'd have something more to offer? Maybe he was offered something and he declined - we'll never know. I'd add Trotter to the list of successes, plus there is great optimism for Tommy Smith, Jamie Peters and Owen Garvan. Bowditch and Clarke were also close.

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PutYaBootsOnKeano added 14:03 - Jan 16 Cheers Klugger. But times, they are changing.. And I think placing faith in a man that spent his career at Manchester united watching a successful infrastructure delivering constantly is prudent, eh. Keep it going keano. We might stand out from the crowd in a season or so. Je can have a couple of seasons getting it all in place in my eyes, I disagree with so little of what he does.

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Marcus added 14:16 - Jan 16 Perhaps he can manage a lower league team. Or if he wants a managerial work experience placement for a few weeks QPR. However I think he's one of these people who will always be a coach and not a manager and I'm sure some team will find a place for him. I guess he's established in Ipswich so that would leave Colchester or Norwich if either team is looking for a coach but I don't see him being in the dole queue.

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Bluetone added 14:45 - Jan 16 Klug is a far, far better coach than that sadistic clown Keane is manager. We will live to rue his appointment at Ipswich.
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xrayspecs added 15:00 - Jan 16 I should have added Bent and Ambrose to the list of academy successes - apologies. Roosta - Tommy Smith (too early to tell), Jamie Peters (never part of our academy) and Owen Garvan (maybe - but hardly a roaring success so far). Bowditch and Clarke - you can not be seriouos?
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Roosta added 15:29 - Jan 16 @xrayspecs - when Clarke came in, fans were furious at the prospect that he mught be sold for even £1m, and Bowditch was a player coveted by so many. It didn't happen for either at ITFC in the end, but hard to say the academy was at fault. Peters wasn't brought in as young as some, but lets not get into an argument as for who qualifies as an academy player!
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xrayspecs added 16:43 - Jan 16 Roosta - not looking for an argument. Town fans (likely many) crave a local (academy) hero. Unfortunately, we seem to view any local kid who is doing well in the youths as a star in the making. Where are the Young Guns from the season ticket campaign a few years ago - Nash, Mitchell, Murray and the other two (can not even remember their names) who never made the grade? Bowditch always looked like a boy playing a mans game (abeit a naturally talented one), Clarke looked a better prospect and may become a decent Championship player, and even if Peters was was briefly part of the academy (not sure he was), I would not seem him as as a home grown player.

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Blueknight85 added 16:51 - Jan 16 @roosta you are clearly clinacly insane...trotter is an acadamy failure clarke most certainly was and even more so was bowditch. and peters was most deffinatly not acadamy lol acadamy are u16's that dont have contracts regardless of wether they were at somone elses acadamy b4. like many Fans you are putting players on a pedastal of greatness based only on the "hope" and the excitement when u see them come off the bench of them being the next darren bent/kieran dyer (dyer being our best graduate for a long time but has been ruined by injury's) You should only be concerning yourself with their actual abillity when they come into the first team some had an amazing amount of chances to fullfill potential and never did (clarke/bowditch) all of which is completly irrelivant in rating brian klug as you have no idea how they would have grown as players under somone else he could have got the best out of all our youngsters or they could have all been playing in first gear unless you clone them all and put them under various different coaches you will never know. and im sure he probably could have done a job somewhere in the club but theres only room for so many staff in any company depending on budget and application keane either feels he has to many coaches and the rest are better at their jobs or more applicable to what he wants thats life.

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Roosta added 16:53 - Jan 16 xrayspecs - yeah, to support your point I felt a great deal of sympathy for Peters for whom there was so much expectation. The expectant roar from the crowd on a foreign kid which went up when he made his debut was indicative of the hopes we put on our younger players. Nonetheless, as the catalogue of players listed here suggests, the comments from coaching colleagues past and present, and even the remarks of RK, it would be hard to judge Brian Klug's time at the club as anything other than a successful one. I think it's because young players coming through - especially the local ones - are so cherished by the town faithful that letting Klug go could be a big loss for us.

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Blueknight85 added 16:53 - Jan 16 and counago still cant score lol off the line :( would love for him to start banging them in hes gr8 to watch but its just not him
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Blueknight85 added 17:02 - Jan 16 like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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halliday05 added 17:23 - Jan 16 Klug produced great palyers eg dyer, bent we should keep him
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Blueknight85 added 17:25 - Jan 16 we had no hope of keeping darren bent dont be so rediculous lol and unless klug has been sleeping around ipswich he didnt produce any of them and like i said u cant rate him based on those facts anyway bent and dyer have been good but for all you know under someone else they might have been even better jus as much as they could have been worse
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maximoalex added 17:28 - Jan 16 Blueknight85 - what timing! & what a result...
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RobbieScarlatti added 18:00 - Jan 16 So he might not have been a first team coach but i think we'll come to regret this what with the effect on the yoof. Dark times ahead for upcoing talent.
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FarringdonBlue added 18:04 - Jan 16 Why oh why must the RK doubters continually bore us with their negativity? I'm a keen watcher of TWTD and everything Ipswich Town. It really does annoy me when change (which has to happen) is slated at every opportunity! RK was one of the most successful Captains of the modern game, his record is second to none and as much as I detest ManU you have to applaud what they have achieved in the last 20 years. RK has learnt from the best in Alex Ferguson and if in 10 years the rest of the country hates us because we win everything I won't mind one bit. In Keane we trust!! Well done Pablo with the late late show, just a pity we let it slip and had to pull the rabbit out of the hat!

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FarringdonBlue added 18:06 - Jan 16 Just one question, does the academy shut down over night? I think not..... move on and get rid of the rose-tinted glasses!! Thanks Klugger, enjoy your early retirement
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