IPSWICH Town owner Marcus Evans asked for advice from Tottenham Hotspurs manager Harry Redknapp before replacing Roy Keane as the Blues manager in January.
Evans has got to know Redknapp during the annual charity golf tournament in Portugal in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Foundation.
The highly successful and wealthy businessman has been a regular at the event in recent years.
But he did not take the advice of Redknapp, who is understood to have put the name of Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill forward.
Cotterill, who is believed to be keen to get away from Fratton Park, was not in the final reckoning with Paul Jewell and Gary Megson the two who made it down to the wire.
Cotterill’s name was mentioned at the time but he was not believed to have been interviewed and has continued at Portsmouth ending on the winning side when the south coast-based club visited Portman Road at the end of February.
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