Former Blues central defender John McGreal, who was appointed boss at League Two Swindon yesterday, has been explaining why he has recently been spending time at Town’s Playford Road training ground.
McGreal’s presence back at the club where he played between 1999 and 2004 led to speculation that he could become manager Paul Cook’s assistant at Portman Road, however, we understand that was never on the cards with the former Colchester boss having always been on the lookout for a club of his own.
Cook and McGreal played alongside one another at Tranmere for 18 months in the mid-nineties.
"I know Paul Cook particularly well and I've been going in there once or twice a week and just picking his brain,” the 48-year-old said at a press conference following his appointment at the County Ground.
"Over the last six weeks, I've been going in on my own as such, right over the far corner at Ipswich, watching how they train and seeing them putting that training into their games on a Saturday and seeing how Paul works.
"He's had three or four promotions, possibly more - I wanted to use his experience and his knowledge for my next job.”
McGreal will be charged with taking the Robins back into League One at the first time of asking following this season's relegation.
"We're looking to make a couple of signings with intent to show the supporters that we mean business, this year," he added. "It's going to be a really competitive budget.
"With the budget that we've got, we should be and will be competitive in this league.
"I know how I want to play the game and I know the type of players I want.
"It's exciting times for me and now I can go round and start making the phone calls to get those type of players that I've used over the last four years with the success we had at Colchester to bring into Swindon and try and win games of football, to get into the top seven and get promoted.”