Former Blues boss Paul Cook says he never felt in control of his own destiny at Town, citing the approach to pre-season training and the lack of a recruitment room.

Cook was relieved of his duties at Portman Road following the 0-0 FA Cup second-round draw with Barrow a month ago having only been appointed at the start of March.

Yesterday, the 54-year-old insisted he should have been given longer with the Blues while suggesting working with the performance department brought in by the club over the summer led to “challenges”.

Speaking to the Legends of the Spire podcast, the one-time Chesterfield boss was asked whether the job of manager has changed in the 15 years since he took charge of his first club, Southport.

“It just has changed,” he reflected. “From my last job now where I went into a club, and there’s no criticism here towards people, it was different, we went in with a performance department, I never took training during the pre-season. There was no boxing gym cultures, there was no making players feel hardship.

“And somewhere now along the way we’ve created the term head coach. I think in the modern-day game what they’re trying to do with the head coach is to take a lot of the pressures away from them. Yet we still sack the head coach and everyone else stays.

“I think as a manager you want to be in control of your own destiny. At all my clubs apart from Ipswich I felt I was in control of my own destiny.

“I look back at Ipswich. For example, no recruitment room in the summer. No problem with that. When I left two weeks ago, still no recruitment room in place. How can Ipswich Town not have a recruitment room when we’re signing a lot of players? Come on.

“As I go back to all my other clubs, I’ve had my own recruitment people. I had my own fitness guys. I’ve implemented my culture and my habits and I think the change in football now [is] where people want to see a modern-day young coach playing football.

“We actually just want to see a good manager, who has got good values and good principles. That’s what we want to see.

“And at the football club, that managers should be allowed to make sure that he’s the one setting the culture. He’s the one that’s ingraining the habits into the players and he’s the one that creates the trust amongst everyone.

“It’s something I’ve had at three out of my four clubs but unfortunately it’s something that has seen me sacked at Ipswich when I didn’t have it, that’s the saddest thing for me.

“And I wish Ipswich Town every success, every, every success because they’ve got an amazing support base, an amazing football club and they’re just a little bit starved of success and hopefully time will bring that success for everyone at that club.”

Cook has no doubt that he wants to get straight back on the bike following his Portman Road departure.

“Right back in to management,” he said when quizzed on his plans. “I love football. As you can see from the podcast, I breathe it, I live it. I watch Liverpool whenever I can’t, I’m getting tired of watching Liverpool, I’ve watched three games in the last week.

“I’ve had enough of my mates, I’ve had enough of Christmas and I want to be back in football as soon as possible, hopefully at a club that allows me to create trust, culture and habits.”

Photo: TWTD

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 16:40 - Jan 6 I hope I am not alone in having no idea what a "recruitment room" is. Can anyone explain?
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Barty added 16:44 - Jan 6 He don't half talk some cr*p
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istanblue added 16:54 - Jan 6 Sorry Paul, but these are just poor excuses. No ''recruitment room''? Well you still managed to sign 19 hand-picked players alright. Wanted to employ your ''own people? Well your record of doing so includes hiring all your joker scouse gis a job mates as coaches who were either underqualified or completely unqualified. Accept it Paul, your failure here is entirely on you.

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blues1 added 16:57 - Jan 6 Arnie m. Sorry. Ur normally pretty balanced in ur comments but this time ur off the mark. If ud spoken to Ashton ud know he's the best thing to happen to this club for years. Cook was able to get rid of the whole squad from last season and bring in 19 players of his own choice. Does that sound like he had no control? The fact is tho, that football has moved on from the manager having total control of the whole club, which actually allows the manager to concentrate on what he's there for, to get the team performing. Something he did for a while, despite the results not being great. But the performances fell away, and along with some off the field misdemeanours, he lost his job. I liked the guy and very much wanted him to succeed but this part of his interview does make me believe him going was very much the right decision.

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Stato added 17:22 - Jan 6 How many of our ex-managers are currently employed. When was the last manager to achieve any sort of success after leaving Ipswich. Cook is no different from every other manager of the Evans era and delivered so much less than was promised or expected. Hurst was meant to be the new bred but was possibly the worst of the lot and only a half season of brilliant results from Mick McCarthy playing goofball a bit too much before the wheels fell off shines out. Let's hope we do get a recruitment room for KM because the current squad is producing less than the sum of its individual parts.

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Linkboy13 added 17:26 - Jan 6 I liked Paul Cook and i really wanted him to succeed. But its pretty obvious that the Ipswich job was just too big for him.
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DaGremloid added 17:28 - Jan 6 blues1 - I know we don't always see eye to eye but you're spot on there. Happy New Year.
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Karlosfandangal added 18:29 - Jan 6 So the decision to put Norwood in the U23 and on the transfer list was Mr Astons then. Naughty of McGreal and McKenna to play him in the 1st Team, looks like they will get a good telling off. Does any one know If Norwood still on the transfer list
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Europablue added 19:13 - Jan 6 I think it would be fair to say that Paul didn't quite gel with us.
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Europablue added 19:17 - Jan 6 If anyone was in any doubt, it is clear that PC was not the right man for our club at least the way it is set up. PC should have come out and said which players exactly we missed out on because of the lack of a recruitment room. I'm sure that he had players in the building who were impressed by the facilities and said: "This club has a proud history and great facilities, where do I sign? Shall we go to the recruitment room? There's no recruitment room!?! I'm outta here this is a tinpot club with no recruitment room!".

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adamisablue2 added 19:30 - Jan 6 I have nothing against Paul Cook. I REALLY wanted him to do well. BUT... This club just wasn't a fit for him. He is used to a lower league set up where the dinner lady is also the receptionist. Where the coach is also the scout and the physio also doubles as the electrician. We do not have that set up anymore. With Marcus the club was a wild west of "Ah just do what you want" Whilst counting beans. The new ownership seem to be setting up for life at the top of the Championship Yes, mistakes have been made. Getting rid of Chambo, Freddie, Cole and a few others without passing on the culture of the club to the new talent was a massive misstep (A few had to go though) but does Paul Cook honestly believe that both Manchester got to where they are due to a "Boxing gym culture" or is it because they actually set up shop properly with a performance department? Training in cold hard gyms and hardships is all well and good if you want to scrap your way out of the league but what good is it if you cant play the damn game as a team? Sad fact is he is a couple of years out of date now. This aint your mamas league one anymore and towards the end it REALLY started to show that playing each game as it comes just aint going to cut it anymore

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Dissboyitfc added 20:26 - Jan 6 i havent a clue what he is on about, what is a recruitment room? Ashton worked around the clock to get him the players he wanted! He would have done better to have kept a dignified silence. After reading that it was 100% right for him to go!
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DavoIPB added 21:35 - Jan 6 Everyone knows now that it's not the managers who call the shots. It's the directors and higher ups that set the tone and carry out the recruitment. For everyone calling for Richardson to he along side cook I'm not convinced I would have wanted that. Wigan were poor and uninspiring. Had a couple of decent players that could make things happen but otherwise a poor footballing team straight out of the Paul cook mould.

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Sospiri added 21:47 - Jan 6 Cook was an old school manager. Their day is done. It's all about analysis and tactics now, as it should be. KMc is one of the new breed, and we have him. I think we can feel reasonably optimistic at least!
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algarvefan added 22:04 - Jan 6 I don't think McKenna will be Ashton's puppet, he seems like a lad who knows where he is going and we are going with him. I quite liked Paul Cook as a person but he has gone now and we must get on with the business in hand. Perhaps TWTD we can put all this behind us now and leave it to the Sunday papers? I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming games and I have a good feeling in my gut that we will start to do well. In McKenna we trust.

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Town4me added 22:31 - Jan 6 What the hell is a recruitment room?!
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blueboy1981 added 10:26 - Jan 7 Our ‘New Regime' still has much to prove - the problem with ‘hissy fit euphoria' is that disappointment can easily follow. For one - I reserve judgement !!!
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blueboy1981 added 10:38 - Jan 7 There's some ‘excellent potential Managers' posting on here - some not even understanding rational thinking … !!! Ashton is obviously the ‘messiah' in many Supporters eyes, and Cook the fall guy…… the full outcome of which will be revealed in time - and Results. I personally have an uneasy feeling about certain things at the Club still - but lets hope positivity is continuous into the future …… !!!

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bluesman added 18:39 - Jan 13 He says the team weren't fit when he left. We knew that from the way they were playing. But why?
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