Ipswich Town boss Paul Cook joked he went to Colchester United last night to run the rule over veteran centre-back Peter Clarke.

Cook was spotted in the stands at the JobServe Community Stadium as the U's drew 2-2 with Tranmere Rovers in League Two.

“I love my football lads, I love watching footie," said the LIverpudlian. "If it’s not on Sky we have to get out there and find games.

“I’ve got about 10 teams I support and Tranmere’s one of them, so I enjoyed watching the game at Colchester last night.”

Ipswich have signed the likes of Anthony Wordsworth, Freddie Sears and Kane Vincent-Young from Colchester in recent years, with former Town players Dean Gerken, Tommy Smith, Tom Eastman and Frank Nouble all currently at the Essex club.

Asked if he had been looking at anyone in particular from the game, Cook laughed: “We were looking at Peter Clarke, the 39-year-old centre-half from Tranmere!”

Meanwhile, Cook was asked about midfielder Brett McGavin’s return from his loan spell at Ayr United.

After going up there at the end of January the 21-year-old made just one brief substitute appearance for the Scottish Championship club.

“As you can imagine, we’re a big club, I haven’t seen a lot Brett, I don’t generally know a lot about Brett, so I’m not going to be discussing players I don’t really know about," said Cook.

“Brett’s a young lad, like a lot of our young lads, who has been in the first team, been out on loan, he’s obviously coming back now.

“These lads obviously have to have a pathway and a plan for their future, that’s for sure. So we’ll pick Brett up as the week goes on.”

Town currently have 52 professionally contracted players.


With the likes of Corrie Ndaba, Janoi Donacien and Ben Folami all currently out on loan, Cook added: "You just want everyone be happy that they’re going to get a fair crack of the whip, that they’ll get looked at.

“One of the criticisms I’ve had of the club, if you like, is that we have too many players. When you bring players in at a club, I’ve always maintained, when you bring any signing in, it’s for the right reason.

“The reality is when other people come in, they look from the outside and say ‘how have you really done that?’. I do believe in working with tighter numbers, that’s for sure.”

Ipswich terminated Barry Cotter's contract by mutual consent this week, with Cook saying that 'there will be other players leaving the club, 100%'.