Early team announcements and continual dialogue are the tools Paul Cook is using to keep his large squad happy.

The Ipswich Town boss has remarkable strength in depth at his disposal and, with very few players in the treatment room at present, there will be plenty of players disappointed when the line-up for tomorrow's game at Sunderland is announced after training this morning.

“You can only imagine the difficulty of leaving player A, B or C out," said Cook. "It is difficult because all the lads are desperate to play and, as a manager, you don’t want to take that fire out of them.

“It’s hard when we have got some good players now. As a club we look around at our squad and go ‘yeah, we have got good players’.

"I always tell the players that over a period of time we don’t remember individual games, but we remember success for the club and to achieve success we need all the squad to be behind each other."

He continued: “A lot of times our team is picked on a Thursday. I always think that allows the disappointment to go by the time Saturday comes.


“Historically I think managers used to pick teams at two o’clock on a Saturday. Imagine doing that today!

“Our team and subs for Sunderland will be picked this morning. Our lads will then know travelling up.

“I try and get everything out the way as quick as I can and then if a lad ever wants to speak to me they know my door is always open every day, Monday to Saturday from very early to very late.

“I try and make sure that when we do change a team the players understand the reasons behind that from continuous conversations rather than one sudden conversation. I think the lads have respected that really well.

“There will always be disappointment though. Our fans would not be very happy if they thought a player was not happy playing. Believe me, all our players want to play."