Ipswich Town: John McGreal takes interim charge as club looks 'far and wide' for new manager

John McGreal played 151 games for Ipswich between 1999 and 2004

Ipswich Town plan to look "far and wide" in their search for a new manager after the sacking of Paul Cook.

John McGreal has been named as interim boss, having only re-joined the club on Thursday to work with the under-23 and development squads.

The 49-year-old former Colchester and Swindon manager will be in charge for Tuesday's game at Charlton.

"This is too big a job not to look at the whole market," Town chief executive Mark Ashton told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"I want to be able to spread the net far and wide. I believe we have got as talented a group of players as anyone in the division and we need someone who can bring the best out of them and make sure they perform as a team and work with us towards the January transfer window.

"My phone has been red hot. While this might be a mid-table League One club as someone has said, it is Ipswich Town and that is a very attractive proposition to many managers. I've had a lot of people apply, we have to sift through those.

"There are managers in jobs, managers out of jobs, coaches in jobs, coaches at high levels, coaches out of work, coaches and managers from overseas - this is a very, very attractive job. It's a big football club that they only see going in one direction."

Cook was dismissed following Saturday's goalless draw with Barrow in the FA Cup, after nine months in charge.

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Backroom staff Gary Roberts, Franny Jeffers, Ian Craney and John Keeley have also left the club, who are 11th in League One.

Ashton dismissed suggestions the board were not comfortable with Cook in charge, as he was appointed by previous owner Marcus Evans just a month before he sold the club to US investment fund ORG.

"We were more than happy to inherit Paul, we had no issues with that at all," he said.

Mark Ashton (right) left Bristol City at the end of last season to take over as Ipswich chief executive

Ashton, a former Bristol City CEO, and chairman Mike O'Leary will draw up a shortlist and then present it to the owners, but there is no definite timeframe for completing the process.

He added: "There is no preferred candidate and I'm certainly not going to just jump back to someone I've worked with in the past. The American board won't be doing that.

"It certainly won't be days (before an appointment is made), that's for sure. We've got to get the right one. Putting John McGreal in place as caretaker gives us that bit of breathing space to do this properly."

Ashton said former Ipswich defender McGreal's arrival at Portman Road only the day before Cook's departure was a coincidence.

"There was no mischievousness there whatsoever. He's experienced, he's managed but when we asked him, he was totally shocked but said 'I'm an Ipswich Town man, I want to help the club so I'll take it' and we were really grateful," he added.

"We'll do the right thing by looking at the wider market and at the moment our thought process is bringing in someone external."

Rene Gilmartin, who was McGreal's assistant during his brief spell in charge at Swindon this summer, will work alongside him, with under-23 coach Kieron Dyer and head of academy goalkeeping Carl Pentney also part of the backroom team.