Skipper Luke Chambers says he’d love to manage the Blues at some point in the future with his short spell working under caretaker-boss Bryan Klug having whetted his appetite.
Chambers, who is set to miss the rest of the season with the injuries he suffered at Brentford, was on the bench alongside Klug at the City Ground on Saturday and has joined assistants Gerard Nash and Chris Hogg as part of the temporary management team.
"Bryan and the coaches have had me in all the meetings and it’s certainly whetted my appetite going forward,” Chambers, 32, writes in his column in the programme for Saturday’s game against Aston Villa.
"I’ve said it before but having a look at the job from the ‘inside’, it’s made my mind up completely that I want to test myself as a manager.
"I’d love to have that opportunity here one day. It’s a great club. I’d like to think I have given good service here as a player and I want that to continue. It’s also a great place to gain experience and progress as a coach.
"We have an academy here whose job it is to produce players for the first team, why not have the structure in place to develop managers here as well?
"We have some really good young coaches here already. You’ve also got people working here like Kieron Dyer and Titus Bramble, who have had long careers in the game.
"Cole Skuse is another who wants to progress and move into coaching so why not have that avenue where players can move from playing to coaching here when the time is right? The club could be in a position to bring through its own managers in time.”