Ipswich Town captain Luke Chambers says the stick that manager Mick McCarthy has received in recent months hasn’t put him off seeking a future career in management.

The 32-year-old defender, who started working on his UEFA A License coaching badge in Ireland during the summer of 2015, said: “I’ve made it clear that I want to go into management when my playing days are over and everything I do now, I’m trying to do with a manager’s head on.

“I watched the way the manager dealt with the stick he took last season – and the way he continues to deal with it – and I try and learn from him.

“He has worked at the highest level as a manager and I have gained so much from working under him.

“I know criticism comes with the job. You get it as a player – but you get it 100 times worse as a manager.

“That hasn’t put me off doing the job in the future though. If I don’t have a crack at it I’m going to wonder how I would have coped. I want to find out. I want to see how I will react to all parts of the job, including the criticism.

“And if I do become a manager, I know the criticism will come at some stage.”

In an interview with the club programme he continued: “It’s been a tough start to the season for our Under-18s. I took the opportunity to sit down with the boys a few weeks back and have a chat. It was nothing formal, I just wandered into the dressing room and spoke to them.

“I asked them to tell me how they felt things were going. It was an open chat, no coaches around.

“I said ‘come on, some of you are chirpy around the place’, speak up’. The view seemed to be that as soon as they conceded a goal their heads went down.

“I told them you need to change that because you are going to concede goals. You are going to go behind in matches. You are going to lose games. If you drop your heads in the Championship every time you go behind you’ll soon be three or four goals behind.

“They will be getting the same messages from the academy staff but sometimes I think it’s good for the senior players to speak to the youngsters.

“I think that is one of my strengths as a captain. I can see the characteristics of the players. I can see how needs an arm around them and who needs a word now and again.”