Former Town boss Paul Cook insists he and his staff should have been given longer at Portman Road in his first public comments since his sacking a month ago yesterday, and says working with the performance department brought in by the club over the summer led to “challenges”.

Cook, 54, was relieved of his duties following the 0-0 FA Cup second-round draw with Barrow having only been appointed at the start of March.

Overall, the former Chesterfield, Portsmouth and Wigan boss was in charge of Town for 44 matches, winning 13, drawing 17 and losing 14.

Asked whether he should have been given longer to turn the Blues around even in light of those figures Cook told Sky Sports News: “One hundred per cent we should have been given longer time. One hundred per cent. I get stats, I get all the stats in the modern-day game.

“I think it’s grossly unfair when you can put a manager’s stats on the table when in the summer we released 27 to 30 players and we brought in 19 new ones. So we’re actually probably talking about two different teams.

“The stats can stand up. We initially went six games I think it was without winning, so that would have brought a pressure.

“We brought a lot of new lads in and a lot of good players, some really good players, a very strong squad. No pre-season into them, signing players very late and then, more importantly, taking their time to integrate into a system, a shape and all the above.

“After an initial period of not winning in six, the next 14 league games yielded seven wins, three draws and four defeats.

“We were sacked after 20 league games and for anyone to tell a manager that 20 league games is enough, in my world, you’re wrong.

“The last six home league games with me and my staff in charge at the club, we won four, drew one and lost to Rotherham.

“So you can always look back. I’m so disappointed because it’s a fantastic club, the fanbase, the training ground, the town itself, absolutely magnificent, they deserve success.

“The supporters down there are fantastic. Were me and my staff given enough time? No, not in my opinion, but that’s Mark Ashton and the owners’ decision, and you have to respect that.”

He says he wouldn’t have stuck around had he known that he wasn’t going to be given the time he anticipated: “If the new ownership had told me if it’s not instant success you’d be gone, I wouldn’t have stayed.

“That’s my only regret, I brought new staff in - Franny Jeffers, Gary Roberts, Ian Craney and John Keeley - who were very committed to a project.

“I managed Portsmouth for two years and it wasn’t all swimming and sailing. The first year we just managed to get to the play-offs, the second year we won the league. I thought that was good progress.

“Certainly for myself and the lads who went in, working with a new performance department brought in by Mark Ashton and not by me, the challenges we had within that daily over training and fitness etc.

“My only regret as a senior manager I stayed after the summer. I should’ve been stronger and forceful with my decisions around it.”

In the summer, the Blues added Andy Rolls as director of performance, Jon Ashton as first-team fitness coach and Andy Costin as head of sports science.

Photo: TWTD

Monkey_Blue added 14:01 - Jan 5 Sick of saying this but PC is not honest and never was although I suspect he convinced himself of his BS. I could pick apart every line of the Sky interview but the main points are. You don't want to discuss last season despite the massive downturn in results and performances. You decided to carpet bomb the squad so don't act like the “two different teams” was forced upon you. Other clubs have done far better with huge player influx and far less budget. Yes you did bring in those coaches…. Your mistake that they were lacking in experience and even qualifications in some parts. I'm not a huge lambert fan but if he'd been given a third of the budget in the 2020 summer we'd have signed three or four top L1 players and walked the league. It was always excuses from PC. Take on a job where you have a poor budget relevant to the league you are managing in rather than close to or the biggest and tell us how well you did…. Clearly he's putting himself up for jobs so trying to excuse his inadequacies, Pre interview. 😡😡😡

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Karlosfandangal added 14:06 - Jan 5 Still think PC could have turned it around but not this season maybe next season, However. It was taking so long to see improvements. I get the feeling if the club was progressing he may have stayed but as others have pointed out we have not really improved. KM looks on paper how to get the best out of the players we have. He is safe this year plus he has this transfer window to strengthen when he thinks we need it. He then has another window to strengthen again so by. next season Town should hit the season running. The owners need to see an improvement year on year, let's hope KM has time to stabilise the club as a new manager every 5mins set us back.

2

ringwoodblue added 14:09 - Jan 5 His poor win percentage at Ipswich speaks for itself. Missed Richardson and had no decent coaching staff. Agree he should've gone in the summer before demolishing the squad. Hope he has success at his next club but recently departed managers haven't done very well elsewhere.
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ArnieM added 14:18 - Jan 5 So if Ashton brings in his own performance team…who actually runs the team, the manager and his coaches , or Ashton and his “ performance team”? Hardly surprising there was a rift ….Ashton won though didn't he! More to this CEO than meets the eye i think
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PremierBlue added 14:19 - Jan 5 Cook is inspirational and a character that gives energy. What he needs is someone wise to balance that with some clear, analytical dispositions, like probably Richardson did before and now it seems McKenna is doing for Town. However, McKenna's issue may be that he lacks an experienced and inspirational character like Cook...
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ThaiBlue added 14:24 - Jan 5 U had all the tools cooky but did not no how to use them.
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cat added 14:24 - Jan 5 Love him or hate him that's everyone right, but I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed the match day experience and brand of football P.C played this season in say the last 15 years. Due to covid and match cancellations I haven't had chance to personally witness McKenna's brand of football yet but I'm hoping for much of the same with more wins.
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KenHancocksBoot added 14:38 - Jan 5 In comparison to McKenna who looks seriously professional, Mr Cook looks and sounds like the manager of a Sunday league team. I really believe we've hit the jackpot with our new manager and it shows what a great operator Mr Ashton is
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Suffolkboy added 14:44 - Jan 5 Nothing here from PC that wouldn't be predictable if you put your mind to it ; so it's largely water off the duck's back and the motives can be left to speculation ! Now is now ,and the future is to be led by KM who has the task of setting a fresh well determined and coached ,talented squad to produce a confident team ethic and conviction ! He appears to have acquired all the right experience and qualifications to introduce more rigour and confidence , and to get the most out of our resources . PC gave us a lot of flannel , some questionable analysis and sought both sympathy and empathy ; ultimately we look for a leader and performance to meet both our and his expectations . PC fell well short , became verbose and diversionary in analysis ( if there was any !) and let ITFC down in many respects - though seemingly an agreeable character ; his presentation now is somewhat ‘ limp ‘ ! We move on with positivity ; have a great New Year everyone at ITFC and KM and Co. COYB

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stevieiriswattii added 14:54 - Jan 5 Yes, it probably wasn't long enough...but equally any improvements seemed to have stalled and gone backwards. The stats Cookie quoted can be countered by, this season (ignoring the rubbish at the end of 20/21) we have 4 wins at home out of 17, poor. & since the wonderful Wycombe game, 2 wins in 9. Unfortunately not good enough. Best of luck Cookie with whatever you do next.

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Marinersnose added 14:56 - Jan 5 Cook took a Lambert team from the playoffs to obscurity and then culled a majority of them. His coaching staff appeared clueless along with his tactics. For me he was an unprofessional but likeable guy who would be fun on a night out but together with his staff was a total failure. Some of his acquisitions are worse than those they replaced. I'm very pleased that the club has moved him on. Running on before a game was so annoying. Imagine Robson behaving in such a manner. He put the team first.

11

dyersdream added 15:03 - Jan 5 It was his off field antics that were the problem!
2

jayceee added 15:05 - Jan 5 Showing about as much dignity as when he was with us.
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Bluroo added 15:09 - Jan 5 In my view a decent coaching team-less Cook is frankly a lower leagues journeyman dinosaur, with some moderate man-management skills but very, very little in the way of contemporary and dynamic management skills. He says stats don't tell the story and I agree because he inherited a decent situation at Portsmouth and especially Wigan where he had his team around him. He inherited an ideal situation at Ipswich and leaves win a win record of 29%... I rank him as no better than Hurst in all honesty. I think Cook would have taken us down in 2019 too. I know Lambert gets a lot of stick because he used to manage Norwich, but he had a team of Colchester United pensioners, wantaways and prima-donnas pushing for the playoffs (I wanted Lambert gone too, principally because he was a grumpy oaf). Cook fluffed a very good chance to make the playoffs last season, demolished that squad and did even less with a new and supposedly better one he was given unrivaled backing to put together. He was tactically one-dimensional, his in-game management was abysmal, our fitness compared to other teams in the same league with smaller squads left a lot to be desired and he was already losing some of the dressing room that he himself had hand picked. Consistency was inconsistent and desire was lacking. THAT is not about gelling that is about believing. On what planet does he or any fan for that matter beleive he deserved MORE time. Talk about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If he honestly thinks he needed it spelt out to him before he "stayed" that he'd need to do better than be 11 points adrift of the playoffs after 20 games... well he can't be helped. He's a fool.

13

Rimsy added 15:09 - Jan 5 This was'nt a situation where he was tring to improve a team. He was backed to the hilt and then could'nt get results from 'his' team. The biggest issue though was his intransigence in how he set up the team, not being willing to alter things when it was obvious to everyone watching, that his way was'nt working. It would'nt have mattered if he'd stayed the rest of the season, he would have carried on with his tactics come what may, just too pig headed to admit his failings. Did'nt do himself any favours surrounding himself with so many unproven coaches either. Although it seems harsh for Ipswich to be replacing managers so soon, i'm afraid it just had to be done, it was'nt working.

6

MickMillsTash added 15:09 - Jan 5 Football is a results business By the end the only thing Cook had going for him was that he had 'done it before' but there was not much evidence he was going to 'do it' for Ipswich
3

Bluroo added 15:20 - Jan 5 I'm hopeful (and quietly confident) that given time KM will ultimately throw a spotlight and a barometer on what we've had to suffer in terms of managers in the entire ME era. Football has revolutionised in terms of science in the last decade and IMO the emerging and successful managers now are following that philosophy. KM is the first we've had of this new era and provided he can get his messages across and accrue the respect amongst the squad, staff and fans - which I think he will - we'll all be regretting not having realised sooner...

4

OliveR16 added 15:33 - Jan 5 Like others I would have expected him to be given a full season, but this is a disappointing interview. He treats the end of last season as though it didn't exist for him. Yet we were paying him an astronomical sum to be manager during those games. He as good as admits he just waited for the season to end and cull the lot of them - some of whom are doing fine now elsewhere. PC's skill was identifying with our misery after every poor performance, KMcK's skill will hopefully be to improve the performance.

4

Barty added 15:42 - Jan 5 Simply not a good manager - far to one dimensional and not having the ability to change things when needed. His poor record speaks for itself.
0

bluelodgeblue added 15:49 - Jan 5 I liked Cookie especially after the Lambert ‘incredible performance' era?? However, he lacked a good no 2 , he lacked an experienced coaching staff , yes we had some great results but also some abysmal ones? A manager of his experience should have been able to do better and in the end we were sliding in a direction which was unacceptable bearing in mind the investment? However, I do wish him well for the future.

2

WalkRules added 15:50 - Jan 5 If Cook really was GameChanger's choice of manager then he perhaps would not have said that he had a problem with the fitness team and they were clearly part of the "bigger picture". So, as we suspected, he was not their choice at all. Saying that he was given a chance, allowed to re-invest (and then some), and then still couldn't get them playing. Just how much longer did he need to be able to count the fairies?

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stocktractor added 15:53 - Jan 5 good luck Paul, you'll do well somewhere else im sure Top bloke
3

Bert added 16:21 - Jan 5 PC is right to express his opinion and many in football would agree that he was not given sufficient time. However, it was his decision to make a wholesale change so he has to be judged by that and his lack of nous in changing things that clearly did not work. In that respect the decision to sack him was right and courageous.I think he genuinely liked the club and it's supporters but in KMcK I think we have something and someone very different who fits our club. I hope Cook gets a job soon and wish him well.

3

blueboy1981 added 16:22 - Jan 5 The thing that does concern me is that obviously people WERE being brought into the Club that were close to the Playing Level, that were over the head of the Manager. This should be at the Managers discretion surely ? - i.e. Cook's at the time. It remains to be seen if that is still the case - and if it is acceptable to McKenna ? - and proves successful going forward. Much still to be proved before any Promised Land is reached - in my view.

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dubblue added 16:28 - Jan 5 I would have liked PC to have had more time.....at least 6 months earlier than he took over from Lambert!! Bottom line results might not have been much better but the football would have been!
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