Town have confirmed the appointment of former defender John McGreal as interim manager following Paul Cook’s sacking on Saturday, and that the former boss’s coaching team, Gary Roberts, Franny Jeffers, Ian Craney and John Keeley, have also left the club.

McGreal, who rejoined the club last week as an U23s coach, will be assisted by Rene Gilmartin, his deputy during his short spell as manager at Swindon in the summer, U23s manager Kieron Dyer and head of academy goalkeeping Carl Pentney.

The club say the 49-year-old “will be in charge of Town for Tuesday night’s trip to Charlton”, suggesting his tenure may not be too long.

All McGreal's games as manager were at Colchester, one game as caretaker in 2015 and a spell between 2016 and 2020 during which time the U's were in League Two. In his 204 matches in charge, he saw the North Essex side to 76 wins, 55 draws and 73 defeats.

He saw the U's to eighth, 13th, eighth and sixth in his seasons in charge with the latter campaign ending in play-off semi-final defeat.

Dubliner Gilmartin is a former keeper, who played for Walsall, Plymouth and Colchester, during McGreal's time in charge of the U's, among a number of others.

The 34-year-old will be well-known to CEO Mark Ashton having been a back-up keeper at Bristol City for two years until the summer. He has also worked as the Republic of Ireland U21s coach since 2019.

Departing first-team coach Roberts, a Town winger under Jim Magilton, was appointed to his role by Cook in March, hanging up his boots as he did so having been in his third spell at Accrington Stanley.

Jeffers joined as another first-team coach in the summer from Everton, where he had been coaching their U23s, while Craney was recruited as a coach at the same time having previously worked with Cook at Wigan as kitman, although the Blues manager subsequently said that while that was his job title with the Latics that wasn’t his job, that was the only way to get him on to his staff.

Keeley also moved to the Blues in the summer having previously worked with Cook at Portsmouth.

Photo: Action Images

yorkieblue62 added 11:54 - Dec 6 Warnocks too old. I live near Boro & the impression was that he left because he prefers his home in Cornwall & no longer has the hunger for the game. Can't blame him.
5

ghostofescobar added 11:59 - Dec 6 Sounds like a replacement manager/coach, along with that persons coaching team, may well already be lined up? May not be an indicator of anything, but suggests that there is no point seeing whether the new manager wants to keep on any of the current coaching staff on.
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hyperbrit added 11:59 - Dec 6 Cook imo was a place holder that the new owners decided to support in the short term to see which ones of the new players were up to the challenge.He was given a chance to succeed of course but I think they were skeptical from the start given Evan's disastrous track record of appointing managers.A load of duffers in the coaching staff and no assistant didn't help Cook's case either and confirmed his addiction to"yes men" . There is plenty of time to sort this out once the rot has been stopped imo.

4

abandon_hope1978 added 12:00 - Dec 6 As I posted upon Cook's dismissal; John Mc Greal conveniently joins club 2 days before the sacking, and now at the helm, which I have no problem with and I believe he will be a decent appointment if he's made permanent. However, I have to agree with ArnieM ........ we seriously have to get past this foolish belief that Dyer should be 1st team manager. No way is he ready to take over. Yes, a former player and currently works with the academy, but he has no track record at the required level. Please look beyond ex players who served club for a few years and appoint the right guy now or we will sit in this division forever.

11

cat added 12:03 - Dec 6 Happy with this short term but not sure what system or formation he'll go with, but all will be revealed at KO tomorrow night. Think Cook knew his fate, probably why he dissed the fans with his drama Queen comment lol
8

KenHancocksBoot added 12:04 - Dec 6 We all try to read the runes. Personally I think "interim" could be stretched quite a bit, especially if we start to move up the table. I just cannot think that McGreal would agree to take the job on the basis of maybe 4-5 weeks, nor could I imagine his assistant coming in to do the same. Mr Ashton has been quite cute here. We have the defensive qualities of McGreal and the tactical intelligence of KD. By saying the appointments are "interim" the pressure is taken off them and the board still have the option of an outside appointment if it goes wrong. I think they've got to the end of the season at least.

4

Monkey_Blue added 12:10 - Dec 6 THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: We need to come up with a new McGreal chant. I don't want and I'm sure McGreal doesn't want a Gary Glitter tribute.
2

martin587 added 12:15 - Dec 6 Interim is fine by me but definitely not long term.I agree with posters that KD is far from being manager as good a job he is doing with the young lads.Surely this club has learnt from the terrible misjudgment of past managers.I'm sure the owners want a new permanent manager installed within the next month and to this I have great faith in there judgment whoever it may be. Whoever I fear there could well be quite a few faces coming and going in January.Just hope the weather holds out for tomorrow night as we really need this game to get the confidence back.

3

Monkey_Blue added 12:15 - Dec 6 Cat… I don't mind the formation or tactics as long as we play well and get results. I have a guitar which even when spending a large amount on it I knew it would end up just as a cool ornament… I can play a couple of bits 10 years on… but not picked it up for 5 years. McGreal needs to concentrate purely on points even if it's just the Charlton game.
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Monkey_Blue added 12:19 - Dec 6 Money x expectation = time is an equation managers have to accept. He had lots of money and lots of expectation so his time was based on that
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Whos_blue added 12:19 - Dec 6 Monkey Blue. We can always spin it as a Timelords Doctorin' the Tardis tribute. ( No g).
1

ringwoodblue added 12:22 - Dec 6 Im happy with McGreal as caretaker manager for a few games or him being part of the coaching staff going forward but he is NOT a long-term solution for the manager post. Hopefully he can steady the ship and avoid defeats at Charlton and Wigan. The calibre of the candidates and the man they ultimately choose will say a lot about how far the owners are willing to go to achieve success.

5

billyrobinson3 added 12:22 - Dec 6 Billy Boy Neil Warnock always gets abuse from Ipswich fans when he comes to Portman Road. Not for me, let us get a manager who will be here long term. COYB.
2

IpswichT62OldBoy added 12:24 - Dec 6 We had a good run with our last interim manager, between Shambo and Cook, we have some big games up to New Year, if we could three of those things will look different
0

Karlosfandangal added 12:26 - Dec 6 Why do people think past Ipswich players will make good managers at Ipswich. We need a manager who can read tactics and change things around when it's not working, not just hope it will work out and make substitutions with 5 mins left. We need a manager who will not say this work when I was at Southport or Manchester United. We need a Bobby Robson type manager who can find a system that suits the player that we have not try and make the players player a system they don't have the skill for. Last season lots of tippy tippy football and we won the possession stats because we did not have the players skilled enough to do that. Up till last 4 or 5 games Town we're scoring goals because we were more direct but have since been found out yet no plan B.

2

billyrobinson3 added 12:27 - Dec 6 Billy Boy Neil Warnock always gets loads of abuse from Ipswich fans when he comes to Portman Road, not for me. We need to get a manager who want's to be here long term.
1

ForrestsFingers added 12:27 - Dec 6 Frank Lampard and John Terry together. Could be interesting? Would love to see Frank Yallop given a bash. Probably end up with Sam Alladyce
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Linkboy13 added 12:27 - Dec 6 Dont know about anybody else but im not particularly inspired by the candidates so far. I fear for John Mcgreal on Tuesday as some of the players are long term Cook favourites just hope he gets the right response. Brian Klug did an excellent job as stand in last time but is only really interested in working with the young players. Farke is head and shoulders above the candidates mentioned so far and crucially he's got the contacts to bring in some quality players.

0

Linkboy13 added 12:27 - Dec 6 Dont know about anybody else but im not particularly inspired by the candidates so far. I fear for John Mcgreal on Tuesday as some of the players are long term Cook favourites just hope he gets the right response. Brian Klug did an excellent job as stand in last time but is only really interested in working with the young players. Farke is head and shoulders above the candidates mentioned so far and crucially he's got the contacts to bring in some quality players.

0

Paddy39 added 12:35 - Dec 6 Marcus Stewart, has his coaching badges and had a lot of experience with Bristol Rovers. Just another name in the hat. May be good along side McGreal.
1

Monkey_Blue added 12:38 - Dec 6 Linkboy13… other than his annoying voice I can't disagree he'd be a decent choice, but he's Norwich and far more recently than lambert when he arrived and whilst you'd hope people would be rational…. He'll get less leeway than any potential appointment given a percentage of any clubs fans are going to want him to fail if he's just left their bitter rivals.
0

Suffolkboy added 12:43 - Dec 6 Changes were quite obviously needed ,and there can be no doubt PC was aware what was on the cards .Results , tactics and strategy tested patience to say the least , and judging from his verbal enthusiasm he'd be a great cheerleader for Liverpool FC supporters – but has shown us nothing of the qualities we'd hoped for on his appointment . SO the very best of good fortune JM , I've no doubt you've at least been given a clear interim brief : see if you can knock some footballing sense and energy into our undoubtedly talented squad ,and get favourable results ! COYB

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DaGremloid added 12:52 - Dec 6 The best news here is that Cook's bunch of hopeless coaches have gone with him.
5

Pezzer added 12:52 - Dec 6 Seems pretty straightforward, McGreal is caretaker manager while a full time manager is sought and brought in. Anything else is pure speculation.
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BangaloreBlues added 12:59 - Dec 6 He can't do any worse, good luck John!
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