Town have announced that manager Paul Cook has been relieved of his duties following this afternoon’s 0-0 FA Cup draw with Barrow at Portman Road.

Blues CEO Mark Ashton told the club site: "Firstly, we would like to thank Paul and his team for their efforts in what has been a difficult transition period for everyone.

“I know how much Paul wanted to succeed at this club. However, following discussions with the board, we have decided a change is needed for our long-term interests.

“At this moment, there is no one lined up to replace Paul. There will be an extensive search to find the best replacement for the club. I will communicate more to the media and our supporters on Monday.”

It seems likely that former Colchester manager John McGreal, who joined the Blues as an U23s coach on Thursday, an appointment we understand wasn't made by Cook, will be put in caretaker charge.

Cook, 54, joined the club in March having been appointed by former owner Marcus Evans following Paul Lambert's sacking with the Blues dropping out of the play-off zone during his couple of months in charge.

The summer saw a major overhaul of the playing staff with 19 senior additions coming in along with new backroom staff - first team coach Franny Jeffers, goalkeeper-coach John Keeley and coach Ian Craney joining another first-team coach Gary Roberts - and around 30 players departing.

Despite the Blues having one of the largest budgets in League One, they made a slow start to the season and they have remained inconsistent and currently sit in 11th in the division.

Cook's record in his 44 games with Town reads a disappointing won 13, drawn 17 and lost 14.

The Blues new ownership backed Cook's appointment by Evans but, as reported by TWTD at the time, the man they eyed for the job was Lincoln City boss Michael Appleton, who worked for Ashton and chairman Mike O'Leary at Oxford having previously had links with the pair at West Brom.

Town are likely to look for a head coach rather than an old-style manager and other candidates we understand will come into the reckoning are MK Dons boss Liam Manning - who started his coaching career with the Blues having been an academy player - and Plymouth's Ryan Lowe.

Photo: TWTD

ipswichone added 07:28 - Dec 5 Never liked cook,from arriving at club,and publicly slagging off the whole team.this was never a professional manager from this moment.lost nearly all games last season.undoing our position seventh in league table,thanks to Lambert.think playing top five teams in succession, and only taking four points,really sent alarm bells,and thankfully common sense prevailing. Can not carry dead wood.here's to now getting a high calibre manager,instead of a low budget piece of crap.let's face it,last good manager was Joe royle

11

Rootshall91 added 07:30 - Dec 5 Emma Haynes? Worked with top players and has a very successful track record.
-2

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 08:02 - Dec 5 Wow! Quite a surprise to wake up to! Maybe for the best before the relationship with the fans got too toxic. Most will recognise PC's good intentions and desire to succeed. But in retrospect, things went wrong early on. We had a half decent team in 7th place and perhaps just a smaller number of careful additions (4 or 5 ?) would have been enough. Instead, we acted as if we'd won the lottery (in a sense, I suppose we had, but how many lottery winners blow their winnings and end up back where they started?) Then there were the dodgy back-up team appointments; I was never very convinced with those. Now we are really at a crossroads and it could go either way. No Lampard or Rooney or other ”Hollywood” (as someone on here put it) appointments, thank you. Just a solid, experienced professional who can get the job done and carry on some of the good traits PC introduced: vastly improved feel-good factor and communication with the fans. A foreign manager (Dutch or German?) would be ok. Anyway, thanks for the efforts, PC. I'm sure you did your best and will succeed again elsewhere. It just wasn't meant to be with ITFC. COYB!

13

Nobbysnuts added 08:10 - Dec 5 Burley/ butcher maybe?
-11

Tufty added 08:12 - Dec 5 Terminator got terminated.
1

BontyBlue added 08:13 - Dec 5 Having watched the desperate ‘highlights' on Barrow and Cook's irritated response last night with my missus on YouTube, I should have switched over to TWTD to read this almighty conclusion. The new board are really on the hook with the inherited fall guy now gone. Onwards and upwards. C'mon on mighty town. You are the pride of Anglia and beyond!
1

abandon_hope1978 added 08:58 - Dec 5 Not surprised if I'm honest. So many poor results. Incredible bit of foresight though, getting John McGreal on board a few days before sacking Cook. New gaffer already at the club maybe?
0

pistolpete added 09:02 - Dec 5 I really like Paul Cook and was pleased with his appointment based on his previous track record but I do wonder how much of his past success was down to having a great assistant manager (Liam Richardson). It does seem to have been a complete repetition of the Paul Lambert management career - great with a good assistant (Ian Culverhouse) but terrible since they parted ways. Never like seeing anyone sacked and really wanted (and thought) that we would succeed with PC in charge but there was something seriously wrong and I was never convinced with is appointment of his 'mates' as assistant 'coaches' (coaches being a very loose word for what they actually brought to the table).

10

SickParrot added 09:06 - Dec 5 Although I had lost all confidence in PC I am surprised by the speed of his sacking. His commitment and desire to achieve success is undoubted but unfortunately his record here wasn't good enough. He made a bad mistake with his coaching appointments, was stubbornly unwilling to change his team formations and seemed to be lacking tactically. Consequently, he didn't get the best out of most of the good signings he made. I thank him for his efforts and for the rare occasions when we played really well but I don't think he can have any complaint about his dismissal. His sacking shows that the owners are determined to provide the success we crave. I would be surprised if they don't already know who they want to succeed him and I trust them to get it right.

6

RedDust added 09:14 - Dec 5 Gus Poyet & Mauricio Taricco
-2

slade1 added 09:19 - Dec 5 I was pretty excited when Cook was announced as our new manager but he went down in my estimations when he literary told most of the squad he inherited that they were not good enough and all had to go. That wasn't man management, it was a terrible way to treat people. Yes of course some of the 'old' squad had to go but for crying out loud, there were a few with real talent that should have stayed. Unfortunately, the size of our club, new owners, the money, expectations etc were far far too much for Cook, he was well out of his depth.

7

TeHuia added 09:23 - Dec 5 Marcus Evans thought he was getting Batman. He got Robin, the guy in yellow pants.
5

barryblue added 09:28 - Dec 5 have to say i am pleased about this, I could never take to the guy, think he is arrogant and tactically inept. always looked like a rabbit in the headlights, panic merchant. Lets face it we have gone backwards since Lambert left. Who next,, well Farke is the stand out but neither us or he would entertain that, so Hughton but didnt go well at his last 2 jobs. Adkins, no, maybe we could entice Rooney as Derby may not exist next season. Allardyce would be perfect but doubt if he would be interested, so maybe leave McGreal in it for a while, I am sure he will get us organised. Just hope the yanks wont go for a big name to put us on the map,, re- Keane

1

ChantryParkBlue added 09:37 - Dec 5 A classless act. I was not Paul Cook's biggest fan but managers need more time than 9 or so months.
0

Michael101 added 09:40 - Dec 5 Both am 1981, have you been on the Xmas sherry??. Bring back mick, no way PEDRO
2

Europablue added 09:45 - Dec 5 cromwellblue The problem for us supporters is that we only really get to know managers at this level when they actually manage us, so as far as his track record and style of play, Cook was the perfect fit. In terms of his personality and attitude he was not. As Evans was in charge of recruiting him, we didn't have Ashton to soundly vet the top candidate to check if he was the right fit aside from his CV.

2

dirtydingusmagee added 10:02 - Dec 5 Town4me im sure you were joking but marked Curbs down not you
0

royoftherovers added 10:12 - Dec 5 Daniel Farke & David Wright
-10

Kickingblock added 10:47 - Dec 5 The most successful Ipswich managers played in the national team and have a surname beginning with R. There is a man fitting that criteria out there but I doubt appointing him would go down well with the fans.
0

grumpyoldman added 10:47 - Dec 5 Here's a novel idea, get a person who is not stuck with one type of tactic, MM & PC, not keep going on about being connected with big clubs, PL, not a person who is out of his depth, PH, anybody just because they played for us TB, GB or TM. How about a manager/coach who uses his resources to the best of their ability, has a good understanding of tactics, can change a setup during a game to improve chances of winning, dropping players who go off form. Whoever is chosen I personally don't care about whether somebody on here doesn't like them, I only care about this club being successful, I am totally fed up with the underachieving of this great club. Living in the north of Suffolk I also want to be able not to keep “living in the past” when talking to Norwich supporters.

7

Bazza8564 added 10:48 - Dec 5 Sorry but this (Cooks) appointment was made with the full knowledge of the new board and their approval, as was the clear out. Brett Johnson said in June 10% will stay and they knew that way way back. "That was always the plan, we knew that". Credit the board for acting swiftly now but please dont slag Cook for the clear out, that was absolutely Board driven and predetermined. As for last season, well im personally convinced Gamechanger were quite happy to have things end up the way they did, we can talk all we like about a chance of playoffs but we were light years off the pace and we all know it. Its a shame Cook didnt fit with us fans, i liked his infectious personality but for some reason 75% of fans didnt, he clearly got on your nerves and comments even when we were winning were negative. I think we have to look at ourselves a bit, but I dont think many will. The season still has 26 games left, plenty of time if we can have a half decent December, but we need someone in with the personality to galvanize the club (AND FANS) in a way Cook couldnt. Cook was only ever going to be a guy to get us out of this league, his pedigree wasn't PL material, the Q now with the resources the board has, will they go big enough with a guy that can take us all the way, or play safer and cheaper and get in a talented but limited lower league specialist? For me, this is an absolutely critical appointment for the Investors so someone like a John Terry, a Michael Carrick or someone with equally recent PL coaching experience shouldn't be ruled out, there's no restriction on managerial pay within the cap so lets see if the guys put their money up and send us that signal of intent....

3

bluelodgeblue added 10:50 - Dec 5 I liked Cook he certainly saw what we saw unlike Lambert ? I said from the beginning I wonder how he would cope without his trusted No2? Well now we know. Good luck Cookie it wasn't meant to be? As for a new manager I'm glad I don't have to make that decision but please don't go down the road of former players as it nearly always ends in tears!
4

Gforce added 10:58 - Dec 5 Rb Leipzig have just sacked their manager,Jesse Marsch,now he would be a good choice 😀
4

leroy2488 added 11:00 - Dec 5 Whoever we get, if it was their Assistant who had all the technical managerial know how… Can they bring that person too.
2

exeterblue10 added 11:09 - Dec 5 Kickingblock - I like your thinking. Peter Reid it is then….🤔
0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls