“Marcus hired a top gun to come in and then at the 11th hour he was shot down in flames. I told the truth, 100 per cent right the way through and my statements never changed.

“And Simon Clegg was going to be put on the stand and it was like a watering can, he had that many holes in his statement.”

Magilton confirmed that the club had tried to persuade players and staff to take to the witness stand to speak against him but says isn’t aware that any agreed to do so.

“I don’t know,” he said. “In my opinion it was a bluff and a bluff that failed and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I didn’t want it to come to that point but I was guided by the League Managers Association, who were looking after one of their clients. It was as simple as that.

“I didn’t want it to go that way, I wanted it to be done differently, the club chose not to go down that route.”

He admits that period left a bad taste: “Yes, because you’re living with it, you’re dealing with it. But I was in very capable hands. I had nothing to lie about, I’d nothing to be ashamed about.

“There was nothing in it. It was completely fabricated and totally unnecessary and it was led by whoever and it didn’t sit well with me and the LMA were there to protect my integrity the whole way through this and in the end I was proved to be 100 per cent right.”

Would there be things that when he looks back he would have done differently during his time as Town boss?

“What would I have done differently,” he mused. “Right from the start I would probably have been more strategic and in a way more ruthless. I gave a lot of people the benefit of the doubt, I was very trusting.

“And I’d have been more direct, if that’s even possible for me! But I would probably have been more focused, there are a lot of things that a young manager has to deal with and when I got to grips with that and delegating. Delegation was a huge part of it in the end, which then bought me time on the pitch and bought me time with the players. I’d probably have been more ruthless in that.

“In saying that, three years into the job, I was such a better manager than I was going into it and I’d learnt so much.

“And I learnt so much from Marcus too. And I learnt so much from the board, I’ll always be so honoured and so thankful for them giving me the opportunity and I was such a better person and manager than when I first came into the job.”

Eleven years on from Magilton’s departure and more than 12 after Evans’s takeover, Town are further away from the owner’s target of the Premier League than ever.

Perhaps surprisingly, Magilton isn’t overly critical of his former boss’s subsequent appointments: “If you look at the quality of manager that Marcus has brought into the club, all have proven success, you can’t blame him to a large extent.

“Roy had proven success, Paul Jewell had proven success, Mick McCarthy, you look at them, you can’t fault the owner for that, whatever else has been going on in terms of money or whatever, I don’t really know, I haven’t got that in-depth knowledge.

“But in terms of quality and experience and in terms of delivery, the three of them all had it.

“Paul Hurst may have been a gamble but he had a track record and he was a young, up and coming manager, he took a punt, it didn’t happen. These things happen. He took a put with me, it didn’t happen.

“And then Paul Lambert’s come in, again a proven track record. Can you blame Marcus for his selections? Can you really blame him for his selections?”

Currently Magilton is back in his native Northern Ireland working with the Irish Football Association.

“I’m the elite performance director, so I make a major contribution to our coaching education programme and I also have developed a programme to work with the best young players in Northern Ireland up to the age of 16 here,” he said.

“I also work with the U17 international group and the U19 international group, and I’ve also taken care of the U21s and been active with [manager] Michael O’Neill around the senior group at times.

“The last five and a half years have been really proactive, a brilliant learning curve for me, another string to my bow, continuously developing, looking at all aspects of youth development and player development, elite player development.

“I’ve been across Europe, built up many opportunities for young players, we’ve 80-plus players go across to England and Scotland beginning their professional careers, which is great.

“And I managed to hoodwink UEFA, convince UEFA to set up a full-time academy in Northern Ireland, so we have 18 players in full-time residential in one of our universities and they are coached and trained every day, Sunday to Thursday, then they’re home for the weekend and they play for their clubs.

“That is a massive sea change in terms of youth development in Northern Ireland for young players. So I’m delighted, really, really pleased with it.”

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls