Former England midfielder and Sunderland manager Peter Reid could take up a so-far unspecified position with the Blues, reprising a role from Paul Cook's time at Wigan Athletic.
Reid was at Saturday’s 2-1 home victory against Shrewsbury sitting alongside Blues chief operating officer Luke Werhun and chief executive Mark Ashton, having also been spotted at Town’s defeat at Accrington by the same scoreline the previous week.
Ipswich MP Tom Hunt tweeted that Reid had taken up an advisory position with the club, which is not currently the case.
However, while nothing is yet agreed, talks are ongoing which could see the 65-year-old involved with the Blues in a new role created for him, presumably much like the technical director’s position he was in at Wigan during Town manager Cook’s period in charge of the Latics.
In November 2017, Cook was linked with the Sunderland manager’s job but instead suggested Reid could make a return to Wearside where he enjoyed significant success and outlined how they two worked together.
"I’ve said before I think it’s an absolute crime someone like Peter wasn’t involved in and around a football club,” Cook told Wigan Today
"The experience, the enthusiasm, the knowledge… he was first in this morning, watching videos on Crawley.
"If someone like Sunderland did look to go down that road, I’d be very much for it and I think he’d be fantastic for Sunderland. We talk about football for hours.
"People wondered when Peter arrived what kind of a role he would have. But there was never any specific role. It was just about having Peter in the football club.
"I think the chairman and Peter kick each other in the directors' box when the game’s going on, it’s like that. It’s invaluable having someone like him to bounce off. Every day with Peter you’re learning something.
"I might have been tough on one of the lads, but then you’ll see Peter whispering in his ear later, offering something else. As a football person, I enjoy football people, and Peter is a real football person.”
Cook’s coaching staff is currently made up of first-team coaches Franny Jeffers and Gary Roberts, another coach Ian Craney and keeper-coach John Keeley.
Responding to fans’ suggestions he should appoint an assistant boss during the Blues’ slow start to the season, Cook said: "In football again you’ll always look at stuff and rightly or wrongly questions can be asked, there’s never a problem with that.
"If you look back on my time, previously, all the lads I’ve worked with are all at other clubs working well.
"So when Ipswich Town aren’t doing so well, that will be a natural process. Mark Ashton, our CEO, our board give me every encouragement, our chairman Michael O’Leary, to look at every aspect of what we’re doing and how can we make it better.
"So just for our supporters, we look at the club in the same light, and we think ‘Have we got enough?’.
"If you look back, for example, at Macauley Bonne’s miss at Cheltenham, and I can speak about Macauley. Was that due to my assistant manager not being in the dugout? I don’t really think so.
"If you look at Lee Evans standing on the ball against whoever it was at home and giving the goal away.
"And it’s right what people will do. We’ve got a great belief in making the club better. If we feel it’s something that should happen and experience should come in, I’d be all for it. I’d be all for anything that makes this football club better.
"In my world, the thing that will make this club better is more time, more games together on the pitch and starting winning. And once you do all of those things, people won’t be worried about coaching staff or anything else, and they’ll be enjoying what they see on a football pitch. And in my world, that day is coming.”
Reid has also managed Manchester City, the England U21s, Leeds, Coventry, Thailand, Plymouth and Mumbai City, while he was a player at Bolton, most famously Everton, QPR, Manchester City, Southampton, Notts County and Bury in addition to representing England at the World Cup in 1986.