Town chairman David Sheepshanks introduced new manager Joe Royle to the press this afternoon and said the club needed a man with experience to turn its fortunes around. Royle himself asked supporters to give him a chance in this his fourth job as a league manager.

Sheepshanks, along with directors John Kerr and Richard Moore, sat alongside Royle as he was welcomed to the club. The ex-Oldham, Everton and Manchester City manager has signed a two-and-a-half year deal with the Blues and the club have approached Sheffield Wednesday for the services of Willie Donachie who worked with Royle at all three of his previous clubs. Royle says he has spoken to Tony Mowbray and has persuaded him to stay on the staff.

Sheepshanks outlined the reasons behind appointing Royle: “Joe has been appointed with the express mandate of returning us to the Premiership as soon as possible. This is a board appointment. We have had a large number of applications, 38 to be precise as well as many other calls from agents who would have liked their clients to have this job.

“The board narrowed this down to a long-list of eight, we were declined to speak to two clubs [probably Leicester and Rotherham — TWTD] and we then spoke to six other individuals from the long-list and short-listed three, from which Joe Royle was the absolute number one choice. He was a clear favourite and we're absolutely thrilled to have him aboard.

“The recent decline of the team has left the board with the view that this is a time for experience. We want to arrest that decline and turn our fortunes back towards the successes of the previous couple of years. This really wasn't a time for experimentation.

“Joe has an excellent track record, is a strong leader, is proven winner and he has a record for fine leadership and managerial control in terms of pulling a dressing room together and uniting them behind the cause.

“Perhaps most importantly, Joe is ambitious and hungry for another chance at management and especially at Ipswich Town Football Club.”

The weekend saw a number of fans demonstrating against the appointment of Royle, however Sheepshanks is confident he has picked the right man: “I think we always take account of supporters' views and people have a right to express their opinions.

“But I think the best way to answer those are with results on the pitch and at the end of the day frustrations are running deep amongst lots of our supporters and directors too.

“We're all intent on seeing success on the field of play, we've enjoyed some very good times, but the last 12 months have been very frustrating and very disappointing and so I can understand people venting their frustrations. I'm quite sure Joe will answer those fans over time with the right results on the field of play and that's where it counts.”

Royle says that Ipswich was a very attractive proposition to him as a club after an 18 months where he has turned down a number of offers: “It's a club which has always had a great reputation for fine sportsmanship and great football. But most of all what attracted me was a chance to be successful here.

The new manager trained with his new players this morning and feels that they are a squad well capable of promotion. Initially though, he says there are other concerns: “First of all we must get away from the bottom and then look to the play-off places and then who knows. But initially we've got to be realistic, we've got to start winning games and get away from the bottom of the table.

“They trained very, very well this morning. I think there's a lot of quality here. There are a lot of players that other clubs in the division, and maybe the Premiership that would covert, so I think we've got to tinker with one or two things to get them playing again.”

Royle hasn't seen Town play since he was a commentator for Channel Five in Moscow last year when he was very complimentary about George Burley's side. Despite not seeing them for a while he confirmed he will be picking Thursday's line-up for the UEFA Cup tie with Slovan Liberec.

He feels there is plenty of ability there, but feels that there is clearly a lack of confidence amongst the squad at present. He is familiar with Chris Makin who played under him at Oldham while he says he know Jim Magilton well and admitted trying to buy Matt Holland twice when he was manager at Manchester City, and he is a player he rates very highly: “He's what you need in a midfielder, he can pass, can tackle, scores goals and he's excellent off the pitch too.”

He felt the supporters chanting against him on Saturday may have picked up on his Norwich connections, but called on them to give him a chance. He also refuted claims that he made a derogatory comment about Ipswich during the 1999/00 season when his City side were vying for promotion with Town.

He was unsure quite what prompted the reaction: “I don't know, I've got to get to the bottom of that and if anyone would like to come and tell me I'd love to know. There are rumours that I've said that Ipswich is a small town. I can't remember ever saying that and I wouldn't say it. You can't tell. Sometimes when people are frustrated and annoyed there is always something to pick at, but no doubt I will get to the bottom of it.”

Royle is associated by some fans with a style of football very different from that played under George Burley, however, the new man says he likes passing football: “We've always done that. My side at Oldham, I'm very proud by the way they played football. At Everton we won the FA Cup, people didn't always see it that way, but we played some exciting soccer, I always thought so.

“And at Manchester City, we came up two divisions playing positive soccer. We need winning soccer first and foremost. We've got to get to the Premiership and we'll do our best to entertain along the way.”

Royle, who will be moving to Suffolk, has no money to spend at Town and, although he is looking forward to being back in Europe on Thursday, it is clear his main ambitions are towards promotion to the Premiership: “There is only one ambition. We've got to get back into the Premiership as soon as possible. This season if possible.

“If you look at the league with 46 league games, then the League Cup, the FA Cup on top of hopefully a European campaign, then there is a lot of games left in this season for us.

“Winning can breed confidence and we'd love to win the Liberec game. I'm told the club has a proud record of never losing at home in European games, so we certainly like to continue that, but equally we've got a game against Crystal Palace fairly soon after which is slightly more important in my opinion.

“I've got to get to know the squad and formulate a team in my mind for Thursday for the European tie and hopefully start with a win.”

Photo: Action Images

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