Former Town left-back and U21s coach Mark Kennedy has been appointed the new head coach of Lincoln City on a four-year deal.
Kennedy, 45, was brought to Portman Road by his former international team-mate Roy Keane in the summer of 2010 when he signed him for a fee of £75,000 from Cardiff City.
Having made 34 starts and three sub appearances without scoring, the one-time Millwall, Liverpool, Manchester City, Wolves and Crystal Palace man began coaching at Playford Road late in the 2011/12 season.
Paul Jewell named him his U21s coach the following summer and the Dubliner continued in that role under his former Ireland and Wolves boss Mick McCarthy when he took over as boss in November 2012.
Kennedy, who won 34 caps with the Republic of Ireland, scoring four goals, left the Blues to coach Manchester City’s U15s in 2016.
Since then he has had a short spell coaching the U23s at Wolves, as first-team boss at Macclesfield and leaves a position as first-team coach at Birmingham City.
Imps chairman Clive Nates told his club’s official website: "Over the course of many hours of interviews, we have been hugely impressed by Mark’s knowledge, energy, drive and passion.
"We know that he is a highly respected coach and in the interview process he impressed us with his desire to improve and develop players, while creating an aggressive, attacking style of play that we believe will be successful in League One and excite our fans at the LNER Stadium.
"We believe that Mark can flourish within our structure and help to create the culture and environment to maximise the potential of our squad.”