BRYAN Klug is back in football and helping Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur develop their next generation of players.

The highly-respected coach, who played a leading role in a once highly-successful Ipswich Town youth production line, has been out of work since leaving Portman Road last winter.

Klug is overseeing the coaching of young footballers up to the age of 16 at White Hart Lane although still based in Ipswich.

When Jim Magilton replaced Joe Royle as Blues manager in the summer of 2006, Klug moved up from Academy director to become head coach and assistant to the manager.

When Magilton brought the experienced John Gorman in to help him at Christmas 2008, Klug ran the reserve team and reverted back to working with youngsters.

But he became surplus to requirements midway through Roy Keane’s first season in charge of the Blues and left a club he first joined as an apprentice upon leaving school.

Klug’s move to Spurs will heighten speculation that the London-based club will show even more interest in Ipswich’s young hot-shot Connor Wickham.

The 17-year-old striker has been watched by the country’s top clubs for the last two years, and if he was to move on Tottenham’s position has been re-inforced as favourite to take him to the top flight.

There is no secret about Klug’s love affair with Ipswich Town and his departure marked the end of an era at Portman Road.

Now he has a new challenge to take on, and will relish the chance to reproduce the successes that led to a host of international players coming through the Portman Road system.

Klug was a leading light behind Town winning the FA Youth Cup in 2005, and when he moved on in 2006, Sammy Morgan took over as Ipswich Academy director where he soon became a distinguished figure.

Mike Pejic has moved in this summer to work with Morgan in pepping up the Town youth policy and with money set to remain tight the need to continue to produce young talent increases.