Ipswich Town fans and ex-players react to Paul Cook sacking

Ipswich Town manager Paul Cook has been sacked after nine months at the League One club. What do fans and ex-players think of the decision and who would they like to see take over in the long term?

The club has announced that former player John McGreal has been appointed interim manager, a week after he joined the coaching staff.

"The problems at Ipswich Town are not fixed overnight," says fan Richard Woodward.

"It's years and years of decisions or poor decisions which have culminated in a situation where several managers have now left and Paul Cook has joined those managers," he says.

"That takes time to fix, and I guess Paul Cook was hoping to have more time and he hasn't, so it'll be interesting to see what happens next."

He says given the number of players Cook was able to sign "you would've expected more".

"But I think a lot of us expected the time to be given to him to make that team work," says Mr Woodward, who runs the Blue Monday podcast.

"The trouble is that the results, the performances, have started to deteriorate of late."

Although he thinks Cook should have been given more time, he says the decision is a "demonstration of the club's American owners and their investment being so significant".

As for his replacement, he says his first reaction was "please, no more Pauls" after the short reign of Paul Hurst and two-and-a-half years of Paul Lambert.

"Maybe a progressive coach? We've gone for experience quite a lot in the last few years, maybe a younger coach who has got new ideas?" he says.

"It might be a bit of a gamble but thinking differently is the way we need to go."

Former Town striker Marcus Stewart, who was the club's top scorer when they finished fifth in the Premier League in 2000-2001, says he was "shocked" when the announcement was made.

"When I've watched the games, I've seen a bit of progress and I know the last nine games haven't been brilliant, two wins in those games, but that happens sometimes in football," he says.

"It seems like at the moment they want success within six months or a year, and that might not happen.

"You've got to be patient with people and give them a chance a little bit."

He adds: "Ipswich expect to be up there. They're 11th at the moment but they're still within touching distance of the play-offs with a good run and the Christmas period coming up."

Stewart says his frontrunner for the manager's job in the long-term would be his former team-mate McGreal, who managed Colchester United for four years taking them to the League Two play-off semi-finals, followed by a very brief spell at Swindon Town earlier this year.

"He has got a great track record of bringing young lads through and success - someone like him would be perfect," says Stewart.

The new man will be Town's sixth manager in 10 years and their fourth since Mick McCarthy left in 2018.

There were one or two murmurings and rumours but no real indication that the axe was about to fall, so Paul Cook wasn't recently fielding questions about his future because they really weren't relevant.

When the bomb dropped after 19:00 GMT on Saturday, it was a huge surprise and I really feel for Paul, and I think most people were caught on the hop, whether they were fans of his or they wanted to see a change.

I think everyone was pretty shocked by this announcement.

He was allowed to make his squad his own in the summer, but the more you are backed in terms of finances, bringing in all these players, the less time you are going to have in the modern game to turn things around.

We were right to expect a lot more from what does look on paper a very talented group of players in the third tier of English football.

Although Saturday's announcement came as a surprise to Town fan Richard Moss, he says he thinks it is the "right decision".

"I'm a massive Paul Cook fan but if you look at his record over 44 games, he's got 13 wins and that's really, really poor," he says.

"He's had 19 new signings and I know people will say in football it takes time, but there's no time in football nowadays.

"They're coming to make money and they're not going to be happy sitting 11th in the third tier."

Mr Moss, who runs the Talking Town podcast, adds: "Look at the teams we've played at home this season, we lost to West Ham Under-21s, Arsenal Under-21s, Newport, we drew with Oldham, Barrow, Colchester, Morecambe, AFC Wimbledon, it's not good enough, not for a club the stature of Ipswich Town."

As for Cook's replacement, he says: "It's not a time for experimenting, all I want is a safe pair of hands and someone who can come in and coach my football team and to make it better."

Speaking ahead of McGreal's appointment as interim manager, Mr Moss says his frontrunner for the job long-term would be Michael Appleton, the current Lincoln City manager.

"He's a good coach, don't think he'll set everyone's pulses racing but this is the time for Mark Ashton [Ipswich's chief executive], Mike O'Leary [club chairman], they've got to get this appointment right," he says.

"We've got to wake up, we're 11th in the third tier; everything around the club is ready to go; on the pitch we need to perform."

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