“We obviously had to play over the odds, we were going to pay it and in the end we did. The transfer fee, £2 million, never bothered me because I knew what he was bringing but subsequently it bothered him, I’ve read interviews where he felt it may have weighed heavy on him and things like that. I don’t know, David would have to clarify that. But I felt we were getting a very good player.”

The Blues came close to making the play-offs, missing out on the final day despite beating Hull City 1-0 at Portman Road.

In the summer Town seemed to look at even bigger signings, some of which didn’t come off, perhaps most notably a €3.5 million (£2.8 million) approach for FC Köln’s Slovenian international striker Milivoje Novakovic.

“He was at Köln and I’d watched him and watched him and watched him and liked him. I liked him a lot, I thought he was a player and in the Championship he is going to eat it alive and he was going to be the difference-maker for us,” Magilton said.

“My suggestion was that whatever we had to pay, we should try and pay it. Again, the conversations with the agent were very, very productive but he was using that to his own advantage, which they do. But it wasn’t a lack of commitment from us to try and get him, definitely not.

“There were other signings which didn’t happen but it would be unfair to turn around say who because with the players that we had I felt that we had enough to get us to a level where we could be really competitive.

“You look at the players that we had in the group, we had enough experience, enough quality to really have a push and if anything else came along, we were constantly monitoring outside players.”

Among the other nearly signings was Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi, who failed a medical after a £2 million fee had been agreed.

“Shola Ameobi was another one,” the ex-Blues boss said. “Shola we liked a lot and again I’ve played against him and knew that the Championship for Shola, if we got him fit and ready, he’d absolutely eaten it alive, there was no question.

“Shola was such an underestimated player. I spoke to Alan Shearer, I spoke to players who played with him, it was a no-brainer. Playing in the Championship? No-brainer, absolute no-brainer. But then it just didn’t happen in the end.”

There were also injuries to those that did come in. Old boy Shefki Kuqi had returned towards the end of 2007/08 but picked up a knock and rarely featured, while Argentinian winger Luciano Civelli, a £1.1 million signing from Club Banfield in his home country, suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury just as he was starting to find his feet in English football.

“An awful, awful injury, and he was a fantastic lad,” Magilton said. “We had a lot of background knowledge on him, his brother was playing at Marseille, his mum and dad were doctors, and on the boy himself and we thought ‘Right, we’ll take the plunge, get him over’ and he was starting to come really good.

“He was a lovely, lovely boy, a real workaholic, he wanted to do well and unfortunately these things happen.”

During Magilton’s final two seasons at Town there were bizarre disparities between results home and away.

In 2007/08 the Blues went on a 15-game unbeaten run at home with their eventual record won 15, drew seven, lost one, but away they won only three, drew eight and lost 12.

The following campaign their home record was a disappointing won eight, drew nine and lost six, while away they had a better record, winning nine, drawing six and losing eight.

“I was scratching my head,” Magilton admitted. “I looked at the dressing room and I’m trying to figure out why. I’m looking at the characters because I was big on character and I was big on attitude.

“Training, we were flying, home games for whatever reason [in 2008/09], there was a reluctance, a hesitancy. Away from home we were strong, resilient, played counter-attacking football, played really good football at times. Looked the part.

“I’m looking at them thinking ‘Where are the differences here?’. Nobody analysed the game more than us, nobody analysed it more than me, trying to find the answers was painstaking, watch the game again, watch this, watch that, you were trying to find trends. You were coming up with things.

“People of my experience it just comes down to, one, bad luck but more importantly it can be attitude of players, maybe that one instant or maybe being punished for mistakes that happen in the game and maybe this was all part of the learning curve.

“I was constantly criticising myself, looking at it, looking at it. Becoming obsessed with watching instead of maybe sitting back and going ‘Right, that’s OK, here’s last season, here’s this season’, although we did that, we had conversations.

“I remember reflecting back, did I as a player want to be watching where you’re potentially failing? And the answer’s no, of course you don’t. You want to be watching where you’re doing well and you’re this, that and the other.

“So we were looking for all sorts and you were getting the highs and the lows. But you’re thinking, let’s take stock again, let’s look at the core group of players. They’re constant, they’re going to be there.

“Now let’s have a look at who we can potentially shift on and who is out there to bring in. It was always trial and error, I always looked at George Burley, trial and error, when he brought one or two in they were great additions to the group.

“In my opinion we had to go heavy early on and then bring in one or two that were going to make real differences.”

As well as pressure on himself, there was growing pressure from outside with one of the local newspapers calling for his head as the 2008/09 campaign reached its business end with the Blues chasing the play-offs, albeit not overly convincingly.

“Unnecessary,” is Magilton’s view of the media coverage. “I thought it was unjustified. Of course there was a lot of media attention, of course Marcus was high profile, of course we were spending money, but I was still learning the job. I was still becoming a better manager, I expected a little bit back the people and people that I’d built relationships with over eight or nine years.

Photo: Action Images

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