Boss Roy Keane says he is hopeful that chairman and owner Marcus Evans will continue to back him despite the Blues’ disappointing season. The Town manager admits that his side will have to pick up a few wins in the next few weeks to ensure his longer term ambitions with the club.
Keane said: "We hope so, but as much as you’ve got to look at the bigger picture, you’ve got to live in the day as well and try and get a few results under our belts. We need to look at players for next season, look at the characters that we possibly need.
"I’ve had 10 or 11 months at the club now, I’ve got a feel for the fabric of the club, what I think it lacks and what it needs. Unfortunately it’s taken a lot of setbacks to get there.”
The Blues boss says other owners might not have shown so much patience with him: "I’ve been very fortunate, very lucky. I’ve seen managers under a lot more pressure than me even with better results. I think Gareth Southgate was about fourth when he lost his job [at Middlesbrough].
"I suppose I’m new to the club and sometimes you don’t get that benefit of the doubt when you’ve been at a club two or three years. When you’re first at a club you get that, and rightly so as you’re sussing out your players, still learning about the club, and I learned a lot about the club on Tuesday night.”
Keane says he’s going to stop answering media questions about issues away from Town for the remaining weeks of the season: "Sky in particular come down here and always focus on what’s going on at other football clubs. I think for the next eight games I’m just focus on what’s going on at my own club, because that’s the priority for me.
"Whatever’s going on at other football clubs, I’ve got enough of my own troubles. I’m a football manager learning my trade and I’m not doing a good enough job at Ipswich and I need to focus on that. I need to focus on my job.”
Keane was speaking prior to the news that former Town skipper and coach Tony Mowbray had left his job as manager of Celtic, a position the Blues boss has been linked with due to his reported friendship with Bhoys director Dermot Desmond. However, the Blues boss, who played for the Glasgow giants in the final days of his career, has shown little sign on of wanting to move on from Portman Road.