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Cook: I'm Sure at the Minute I've Not Got Fans' Trust
Friday, 27th Aug 2021 10:58

Manager Paul Cook says he’s sure he and his players haven’t yet gained the trust of Ipswich Town fans but says that’s something he will be trying to develop over the weeks to come as his newly-assembled team begins to find its feet following a summer of great change at Portman Road.

The Blues have started the season slowly and are without a win in their first four league games, putting them 20th in the table, while they exited the Carabao Cup at home to League Two Newport County. Overall Cook has won only four of his 21 games in charge of the Blues.

Asked whether last year’s 3-0 defeat to tomorrow’s opponents AFC Wimbledon was one of his most painful, he said: “I’ve had some painful ones, don’t worry about that, I’ve been managing now too long not to have some painful ones, that’s for sure.

“When you manage, I always think it’s educational. I think football’s so educational. I think when you watch games and you watch teams and you study performances, the biggest thing is you want to be able to trust your players.

“We’re at a club where there’s been so much change, and by the way supporters want to be able to trust the manager. At the minute I’m sure I haven’t got the Ipswich fans’ trust, the players will probably be the same.

“That’s something that we’re looking to develop over the next few weeks where they see signs of what we’re trying to do grow better, grow stronger and then trust levels develop more.

“There have got to be bad days for you to get better. There’s got to be bad days at work, there have to be. No one’s got magic wands in football, but the harder you work, the luckier you will get and our lads are working hard at the minute, I can guarantee you that.”

Town's performance in last week's 2-2 draw with the MK Dons suggested a first win of the season isn't too far away.


Cook added: “I just keep going, I very much keep going. I don’t let the results, I don’t let the goals conceded affect me. I’ve been around football long enough to know.

“I’ve been at other teams where we’ve been through similar patches where something will go your way, the rub of the green and eventually you’ll click and eventually all of a sudden partnerships develop in front of your eyes and all of a sudden you go ‘Wow, we’re looking a lot better’.

“I’m 100 per cent confident that that’s what will happen to this Ipswich Town team. I see the work that they’re putting in at the training ground, I see the work the club are doing off the pitch with recruitment and at the minute now we just want all our players fit and available.”

With no midweek game, Cook has had his players on the training field for a sustained period for the first time since pre-season this week with a number of them having been signed since the start of the campaign proper.

Asked whether the week at Playford Road has been beneficial, he said: “Speaking to you as local press, I never make excuses, I don’t believe in it, I think it just brings weakness, and I think it just allows people to listen to you and think ‘What are you moaning about?’.

“For us, the only appeal we have is just for that bit of time for the lads to gel. At the minute the injured lads are starting to return.

“Last week, I think we had three lads making their home debuts, [Hayden] Coulson, [Kyle] Edwards and [Cameron] Burgess, and you can only imagine how difficult that is for those players, with their families, with tickets, with hotels, with moving house and everything.

“So the reality is with that appeal for time, we’re not talking about a long time we’re just talking about a few games for everyone to get together, for us to travel together, for us to get used to each other and more importantly for us to be on the training ground spending those hours that we need to to learn.”

What specifically was worked on on the training field, improving things defensively?

“No, let’s keep conceding goals, we’re good at it!” Cook joked. “Again guys, as you can imagine, in football work when one door opens, one door shuts when one window closes one window opens.

“For us, we’re a work in progress, you defend from the front as a team and it goes right through, you create chances with your full-backs, it’s the modern-day game.

“So for our development as a team, we have to work harder to be a better team and we’ll keep that up.”

Town could find themselves up to 11 points behind the leading sides if they lose tomorrow but Cook isn’t paying too much heed to the early-season table with Sheffield Wednesday currently top on goal difference from Wycombe and Portsmouth.

“If we were sitting where they are now, would we be promoted?” he said. “No, we wouldn’t. If you go three games on a bad run or you win three games your life changes in these leagues.

“I’ve been in these leagues long enough to know. I’ve been experienced when you’re sitting out of the play-offs and [people say] you won’t get in the play-offs, when you’re in the play-offs you won’t go up.

“The only thing which changes everybody’s mind is results. That’s what the game is about and all we want to do is take three points tomorrow.

“If we take three points tomorrow, the likelihood is that we’ll have got nearer or no further than the teams you’ve just mentioned, and we have them all to play.”


Photo: Matchday Images



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Reuserscurtains added 11:07 - Aug 27
That's because they're a bunch of spuds, Paul
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legoman added 11:15 - Aug 27
The majority of fans all around the pitch stand up and clap and cheer when you enter the pitch so dont know where you get this thought? The same fans can see how great our squad is going to be. There are a small bunch that love to complain and is why they like footy.
20

Europablue added 11:23 - Aug 27
The fans are fully behind the team and want us to succeed, but we got so nervous just waiting for the team to mess up. The previous performances gave us reason to expect a cock up. For the first goal against MK dons, the ref rewarded a dive that should have received a yellow card with a great opportunity for a free kick, then the keeper was a little out of position and couldn't quite keep it out. The second was just a total disaster, but the crowd was so incredibly nervous that we are inviting those terrible indiviual errors.
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Europablue added 11:26 - Aug 27
The only way forward is to stay the course and just do what we are doing minus the individual errors. PC needs to be a bit pig-headed and ignore the criticism and we as fans have to be supportive and only get on their backs when we don't see effort. Scared players don't play well.
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Marinersnose added 11:32 - Aug 27
I'm fully behind the team and want us out of this poor league so that I can watch and enjoy proper football again. I feel we have a better squad now but I'm unconvinced by the formations and substitutions so far this season. Players playing out of position, others not aware of their responsibility in midfield ie protection of the defence. These are just obvious mistakes which haven't been addressed and the results confirm this. Defence get blamed every game but the chasm between defenders and midfield makes us such an easy team to play through. Prime example Shane McCloughlin for Morecambe had a free run several times and MK totally dominated the pace of the game, Let's please get this sorted tomorrow.
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SouperJim added 11:34 - Aug 27
I like Paul Cook and I'm very confident things will come good for us sooner or later, but he's right, of course we don't trust him yet. Regardless of the circumstances, he's won 4 games out of 21.

When we start putting results together and get into the top 6, then I'll trust him. Until then, I'll support him and hope for the best!
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legoman added 11:49 - Aug 27
Hey North stand singers how about a song for Cooky to cheer him up?
6

ian_marshall added 11:59 - Aug 27
I love you Paul xxx
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Linkboy13 added 12:02 - Aug 27
Im fully behind Cook but the players are struggling with the 4231 system. MK Dons exploited big gaps in midfield . We must be more compact and work harder at the press. For me Lee Evans looks a bit one paced and would look better in a 442. The more i think about it i wish we could have kept Downes he would have been a better partner for Harper in Midfield.
1

NthQldITFC added 12:07 - Aug 27
You've got my trust, Cookie, and so have the players and owners. With an almost complete rebuild of the playing squad and back-room staff, it would be nuts to be questioning things at the moment. Four league games. Last season not relevant given the massive and necessary change. The quieter majority understand this and DO have patience, but social media exaggerates and amplifies the angst of a few. COME ON YOU BLUES!
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blues1 added 12:22 - Aug 27
Souperjim. Get where ur coming from. But u, like other fans need to stop with this 4 wins in 21. What happened last season is irrelevant. It's a completely different squad of players now. All of them better than those theyve replaced. But as keeps getting said, bcse it's a whole new squad it will take a bit of time.
Hopefully it will start to come right with a win tomorrow. But what is certain is, it will happen. Just cut out the individual errors and we'll be fine. As Europe says tho, the nervousness from the crowd isnt helping them. Putting pressure on them. We need to just cheer them on right through the game. Even should we go behind, we need to get behind them. Let them know we're willing them on. And anyone who wants to boo at the end if we do lose, just stay away. Ur not wanted there. And trust me, if the players werent trying or we playing rubbish I may understand it. But we're playing good football. And I'm certain that will soon start to achieve the results we all want to see.
9

markchips added 12:23 - Aug 27
Patience needed. There has been a massive overhaul of players and the new one need time to settle .

A nasty deflected own goal giving us a one nil tomorrow will be fine.
3

BobbyBell added 12:41 - Aug 27
99.999999% of fans are fully behind you, there are just a few so called fans who just love moaning at every opportunity.
4

Dog added 12:45 - Aug 27
Have to admit i don't like Paul Cook.

I do like the squad and players he has assembled and on paper they are better than what we had by some way, so he has my trust for another half a dozen games in which i time i expect to see the improvements he talks about. If he does all that then i guess i will have to learn to like him.

Just need to be patient.

2-1 to us tomorrow.
3

Dissboyitfc added 13:16 - Aug 27
Well said blues1
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Monkey_Blue added 13:31 - Aug 27
Blues1 Why do we have to forget last season? There is no doubt results and performances nosedived under him. It's not like with Keane where he had a couple of games at the end of a season. He had more than 1/3rd of a season. Even poor managers usually get a positive reaction from players in terms of performance and or results. You can't sack him on the basis of 21 games but pretending they didn't happen is blind. I'm sick of being told to have faith. Faith is the excuse people use in believing things without good evidence. Cook hasn't provided good evidence as yet. He has won 4 games in 21. That's a fact as well as it's a fact he got less out of players Lambert did…. Who whilst I thought he was average is a shocking enrichment of those that abused him and now blindly trust Cook.
-5

Monkey_Blue added 13:32 - Aug 27
Blues1 The opposite of a honeymoon period is actually expecting results. How long is your honeymoon with Cook going to last and has he started thinking it's ok to fart in front of you yet? 🤔
0

Paddy39 added 14:00 - Aug 27
I hate all this Paul Cook has only won 4 out of 21. Can we stop using last seasons CR@P team defeats. A lot of those players were just not interested. It's this dam season you should all be concentrating on and getting behind the manager and players. All you moaners will be saying how great PC is when we string a few wins together.
4

mib added 14:09 - Aug 27
Paddy 39. I wonder what your response would be if Paul Lambert was in charge getting 4 wins out of 21 games. PL would have been slaughtered by you and others on this forum. Still not convinced that PC is the answer. Paul Lambert would in my opinion have done better had he had any sort of the amount of backing that Cook has, probably better. Cooks results so far are nothing short of abysmal.
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blues1 added 14:12 - Aug 27
Monkeyblue. Put ur brain into gear for a minute. We all know why the results under him werent good. Bcse the players spat out their dummies when he criticised them. Lambert got nothing out of the players for 2 and a half seasons. Wake up. And some1 i know spoke to Lambert a few weeks after he left, and even he said he had to go. How long has cook got for me? As long as It takes, if i can see progress. Which there clearly is. And if you say there hasnt been then ur talking bs. Unlike u, I will give him time. Bcse a manager needs that. Sir bobby was a perfect example of that. Took him about 3 years to really get the team going. Had u been around in 1969, no doubt ud have been one of the fans calling for him to be sacked just a few games in to his tenure. Would I back cook for that long? Maybe not. Would depend on different factors. Yes the 4 in 21 is a fact. But as I say, most of that was last season with players downing tools. Its history. It's gone. Its a new era from now on in and any fan who doesnt want to back them should just go elsewhere. And answer me this, let's say cook was to go and wearing some1 else in. And that manager only wins 4 in 21. You're gonna want him out too? So let's sack a manger every 21xgames then and where would that get us? Nowhere. We need stability, not constant change. So fair enough, hes not ur choice but cant u at least just give him a chance before constantly slagging him off. But u wont. Thats all ur interested in doing on here. And again, so if he was to go who would u wa t to take his place? And no pipedreams such as lampard or howe. Which are not even possibilities.

4

blues1 added 14:17 - Aug 27
Mib. It took almost 2 seasons before Lambert got real criticism. In fact in his 1st season when he won what was it 2 or 3 games when getting relegated into lge1, he was cheered. It was only the sustained failure that caused him to get criticised. And he had a settled squad pretty much all the time, not a whole new team. So even if we accept the 4 in 21,( not even half a season) surely cook deserves more time than that before being slagged off.
4

blues1 added 14:23 - Aug 27
Mib. And how can you think Lambert would have done better? He got his last 4 teams relegated, with far more money available to him then cook has had this summer. Whereas cook has managed 3 clubs prior to us, with little money, and theyve all been promoted as champions. U only have to hear what darren bent, among others, had to say about Lambert to know hes a poor manager.
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Cheshire_Blue added 14:26 - Aug 27
Too right. How can you feel confident with a man who has won 4 games out of 21 with two completely different sets of players ?
As with the hounding out of Mick McCarthy, time will tell.
-6

ringwoodblue added 14:55 - Aug 27
‘There have got to be bad days for you to get better.' Love that line!

I am fully behind Cook and the new team but the better days need to arrive soon otherwise even the most patient of fans will be getting restless not to mention the new owners.

You are still unproven at Ipswich Town I'm afraid Mr Cook.
2

marinermyhero added 15:04 - Aug 27
Here here blues 1u tell them
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