Former Blues chairman David Sheepshanks wants to take Town’s award-winning groundsman Alan Ferguson to St George’s Park, the FA’s National Football Centre at Burton, according to a report this morning. Sheepshanks, who is due to step down from some of his roles at Town, the Football League and the FA in the summer, is the chair of the project.
Ferguson, Groundsman of the Year on five occasions while with the Blues, has been at Portman Road for 14 years, having previously worked at the St Andrews golf course and at Rangers.
The Scot, who previously turned down the job of groundsman at the new Wembley, is also a non-executive director of Support in Sport, a company which works with both natural and synthetic pitches in the UK and Europe.
He has taken on consultancy roles around the globe, including a trip to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola last year.
Meanwhile, former Town striker James Scowcroft has revealed that his one-time Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock questioned him about places to live in Suffolk in 2009.
Writing in his column for the Bury Free Press, Scowcroft said: "Before Roy Keane got the Ipswich job, I knew Neil was in the frame and one day he quizzed me over places to live in Suffolk.
"I was a little disappointed that he didn’t get it, as for sure Town would now be playing Premiership football. But their loss was QPR’s gain."
Warnock has long been understood to have been on the Blues' short-list to succeed Jim Magilton.