Ipswich Town boss Paul Cook says that managers 'need transfer windows to try and be successful'.
The Liverpudlian, who replaced Paul Lambert in the Portman Road hot-seat last week, has so far overseen a 3-1 defeat at Gillingham and 1-1 home draw with Lincoln City.
With the Blues just a point and place outside the League One play-off places heading into the final 14 games, Cook says he is embracing the pressure of a late promotion push.
However, the 54-year-old is getting little time between games to implement his ideals and assess a bloated squad which contains several players who are rapidly nearing the end of their contracts.
Speaking ahead of Saturday's visit of Plymouth, he said: “You know yourself, for managers today with the way football is, you get judged very quickly, you don’t get honeymoon periods. Managers need time to breathe, you need transfer windows to try and be successful.
“In my opinion people demand change too quickly, I think sometimes to the detriment of clubs. Certainly going forward here, my talks with Lee (O'Neill) and Marcus (Evans), we’re going to try and build a team and we’re going to try and build a football club that the town can be proud of.
“And that’s nothing to do with any other managers that have been here, that’s not being disrespectful. It’s our time at the club now."
Only six teams in League One have a worse goals scored per game ratio than Town at the moment, with Cook having quickly highlighted the need for his team to create more opportunities in games.
Asked if he currently had the personnel at his disposal to change that, the Blues boss said: “Of course we have, sometimes we’ve too many players.
“The reality is that when you don’t get good results you just change teams. And I’ve never been a chopper and changer. I think if people look back on my teams historically, I don’t use a lot of players because I trust the players I have.
“Here, it’s getting to know the players that I trust. Certainly if you look at the changes we made tonight, (Keanan) Bennetts, (Alan) Judge and (Troy) Parrott coming off the bench, that's three good players coming on the pitch and we took three good players off, so in my opinion, the players are at the club.
“It’s a quiet dressing room, there’s a lot of young lads in it, but there are no bad eggs, and that’s a great credit to way the players have been assembled.”
Asked if naming a starting XI with none of the club's six loanees in it had been a conscious decision, Cook replied: “Honestly, no. For us going forward, it’s just about repetition. Josh Harrop started Saturday (at Gillingham), so if that was the sort of decision I’d made, I wouldn’t have started Josh Harrop.
“I just want to get balance in the team. I love getting it wide and getting crosses in the box, I love full-backs penetrating. We want to see a really good brand of football don’t we? So we’ve got to keep tipping away.”
Ipswich Town contracts
Season-long loans
McGuinness, Bennetts, Thomas, Harrop, Parrott, Matheson
2021
Chambers, Donacien*, Wilson*, Nsiala*, Ward*, Bishop*, Skuse*, Huws, Nydam*, El Mizouni*, Edwards, Judge*, Jackson*, Sears*, Drinan, Wright, Przybek*, White*, Cotter, Clements*, Andoh*, Gibbs*, Hughes*, Z.Brown*, K.Brown*, Folami*, Morris*
2022
Holy, Cornell*, Kenlock*, Ndaba*, Nolan, Downes*, McGavin*, Lankester*, Norwood*, Hawkins*, Crowe*, Smith*, Chirewa*, Crane*, Simpson*
2023
Baggott*, Vincent-Young*, Dobra*
2024
Woolfenden*, Dozzell*
*known to have a 12-month contract option
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