Town boss Mick McCarthy sees Luke Chambers as managerial material but while the Town skipper has ambitions to follow that route he plans to carry on playing for as long as he can.
McCarthy even suggested he would like to be Chambers’s assistant when the time comes and Chambers laughed: "Well, I’m hoping to play for a bit longer, but having somebody like that endorse me as a potential manager is obviously nice.
"Look at his record and however long he’s been involved with football — I’ll always have his phone number and I’ll save it three or four times in case I need some advice.”
For the time being, as well as seeking on-the-field success with the Blues, the experienced defender is working his way through the various coaching badge levels and added: "It’s going well. I still have to finish my A Licence and that should be done by the end of the summer.
"When I have watched games I’ve thought to myself ‘What would I do now if I was the manager?’
"I didn’t do it much last season because I wanted to be as far away from football as possible. But this season has been a fairly decent start and we’ve won a lot of our games.
"We’ve still lost three, however, and that’s something we need to tighten up on.
"We just need to maintain the standard we showed at Leeds and try to prove to ourselves, as well as everyone else, that we’re a good enough team to make the top six.
"For me it’s not about proving people wrong, it’s about being successful. I want to play as well as I can and I want the rest of the lads to play as well as they can.
"I want them to show their ability and show what I know they’re capable of from seeing them in training every day.
"I want us to play with a bit more freedom. Last season was difficult because everyone, including us as players, was frustrated with how we were playing and the results we were getting.
"This year we’ve started well and we need to continue it. We need to play with a bit more freedom and the confidence that I see day in, day out, in training.
"I think we did that at Leeds. They had 34,000 people there, at the top of the league and shouting from the top of the rafters, but we managed to hold our own and dominate, especially in the second half.
"We need to show that again, come out tomorrow night against Sunderland and absolutely hit the ground running, because we’re only going to get people on our side if we’re being attacking and we’re giving absolutely everything from minute one.”
No one is more enthusiastic about playing than Chambers, who not only surprised McCarthy by completing the game at Millwall when he was injured but also returning ahead of schedule to make his comeback against Bolton in Town’s 2-0 win last time out at Portman Road.
A fit-again Chambers was always going to be in McCarthy’s starting line-up and the player added: "It’s always nice when that happens but I never expect to play every game.
"I hope that I’ve made my time here as successful as possible. I’ve tried to give absolutely everything to the cause and I try in training every day to be a better player.
"If that’s what the gaffer wants in the team and he wants me to play then I want to play. I want to play every week — that’s no secret. He’s made me his captain for however long he’s been here but that alone shouldn’t come with any guarantees.
"I said that to the gaffer in pre-season when I’d hardly played any football — I said ‘Look, don’t play me just because I’m captain’ and he said ‘Don’t worry about that! If you’re not playing well you’re not going to be playing.’
"That’s all you want as a player. It keeps you on your toes, keeps you trying to improve and trying to get the best out of yourself and the players around you.”
Chambers’s return to action came as a bonus because co-defenders Tommy Smith and Adam Webster remain sidelined through injury, meaning the skipper lined up alongside Jordan Spence in the centre of the Town defence for the first time.
He added: "I think Jordan has done really well. He came back in pre-season and he looked like a different animal, really, and he’s been brilliant from the very first day of pre-season.
"He’s found himself playing centre-half and he seems to be thriving on the responsibility of being one of the leaders in the team, playing week in, week out. He’s been tremendous.
"We need to keep the ball out of the net as defenders — that’s our job — and we need to get back to keeping clean sheets at home this week.
"It takes time for a partnership to gel. We’re talking a lot to each other and we’ve spoken about the goals we conceded at Leeds, and how we can improve things going forward.
"Jordan’s a very articulate guy who can get his point across very well. I’m enjoying playing with him but first and foremost we’ve got to keep that ball out of our net.
"We want to keep ourselves in the top six so that will be our aim tomorrow night against Sunderland.”
The Black Cats’ visit could see Crystal Palace loanee Jonny Williams back on the Portman Road playing surface, having impressed during his first temporary spell with Town but being unable to repeat that form on his three subsequent stints due to bad luck with injuries.
Chambers said: "It will be nice to see Jonny out on a football pitch. He’s played three games up there, 90 minutes each one, and we didn’t see him too much here last year.
"I’ll be giving him a bit of stick regarding that. He has definitely been very unlucky and it’s a sad story because I saw him for Wales in the Euros last year and he showed what a good player he is.
"He showed it when he first came here on loan and unfortunately wasn’t able to replicate that form when he came back on a further two occasions.
"I wish him all the best because he’s a great lad and he’s still a massive talent. He’s still young and I hope he does well. If I do see him on Tuesday night he’ll probably be looking up to me!”
Finally, Chambers said goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski’s confidence had not taken too much of a hit despite his basic error in dropping a Leeds corner over the line contributing to Town’s 3-2 defeat at Elland Road on Saturday.
The skipper said: "Bart’s alright. He’s been tremendous for us over the past two years — you don’t win player of the year awards two years running for not being a class goalie.
"It’s one of those things, if you make a mistake as a goalie it generally ends up in a goal. He hasn’t done it for…well, I can’t remember the last time he did it. Yes, he’s fine.”