Roy Keane goes into tonight’s Carling Cup quarter-final against West Brom at Portman Road convinced that he’s capable of turning things around at Town despite the Blues having lost their last four games. The Irishman says he will know when he’s no longer able to bring success to the club he took control of in April 2009.
Keane says he is always analysing his own performance as Blues boss: "I ask myself every day whether I’m capable of turning things round and the answer is yes.
"But it might be tomorrow, it might be Thursday when I think that I’m not the one that can turn things around, then I’ll sit down with the owner and we can have that conversation. But I’ve not felt it’s got to that stage.”
Club owner Marcus Evans and Keane haven’t spoken since Sunday’s 4-1 derby defeat to Norwich City, but the Blues boss says that’s normal: "Our relationship doesn’t work like that, we don’t speak to one another on a daily basis. He lets me get on the job.
"It’s never worked that way. It’s not in my make up, I just try and get on with it and we don’t need texts or emails or phonecalls to know how disappointed everyone at the club will have been. You have to look forward to the next game and look to bounce back.”
The Blues boss is typically honest in his assessment of the club’s recent form but believes things will improve as more senior players return from injury and further additions are made to the squad: "Obviously, I’m not doing a good enough job at the moment.
"The way that things have panned out over the last month or two, in terms of the injuries and suspensions to experienced players, it is costing us. But we’ve got to keep our heads and hang in there and survive over the next few weeks and hopefully we’ll get into January, strengthen our squad and get some of our senior players back.”
Keane says he’s not one to leave football behind him when he goes home: "I think it’s hard to switch off. The day I go home and sleep well or relax after being beaten is the day I’ll get out of the game. Defeats are meant to hurt you. It hurts your pride, you’ve let supporters down.
"I think 4-1 was a bit harsh on the team on Sunday, we took a few gambles with 10 or 15 minutes to go, I have to take responsibility for that, but you want to try and get back in the game. However, the damage was done in the first half.
"You have to get on with it, we were back in on Monday morning and working for the game on Wednesday. And hopefully we can get a good result then.”
Overall though, Keane says he’s coping with the current pressure: "I’m surviving. Just about! It’s part of the job and part of life. An old Irish friend told me not long ago, ‘some days are about surviving, you’ve just got to hang in there’.
"I’ve seen other coaches and managers going through difficult spells and it’s about hanging in there and hopefully things will turn. You might get that bit of luck, someone might score from 30 yards tonight and turn the season around.
"But, if you continue to lose matches, the pressure builds and then ultimately the manager pays the price. That’s the industry we’re in.”
The Town manager feels that injuries to senior players have meant his youngsters have played more of a role than he had hoped: "We’ve been far too dependent on young players who are 18 years of age and learning their trade.
"And that includes the loan players. We’re grateful to the loan players, we were very dependent on loan players last year and it’s the same situation this year.
"If they’re missing, like they are Wednesday, or they get called back, then we’re back to selecting some of our young players, who I think are still learning their trade.
"There’s no hiding place in the Championship. I think the Championship is as hard a place as any for young players to learn their trade.
"If anything, it might be easier for some of our younger boys to be in the Premiership, which sounds mad, but the Championship is all about experience, knowledge and being streetwise.”
When all his senior players are fit, the 39-year-old believes he has a decent side: "I think when we have a full strength team we’re not a bad Championship outfit, but when we’re missing a few of our players, we find it difficult to win football matches.”
The travails of the last two seasons have caused Keane to revise his initial assessment of how long it might take him to return Town to the Premier League: "When you come in and you try and do things in two years, that probably isn’t enough time. I think you need a bit longer but, of course, when you don’t get that, pressure builds.”
Despite players such as Jon Stead having departed in the summer when Keane wanted them to stay and the club failing to land targets like Shaun Derry, the former Manchester United man says his relationship with Marcus Evans is fine: "I’ve no issue with the owner. When I had opportunities in the summer, I shouldn’t have allowed players that I’d been speaking to about joining the club to leave the training ground until they’d signed.
"I’m the manager, it’s my job to try and attract players, although I don’t do the contracts. But I don’t want to go down that road today, it’s not about who we missed out on and what we should have done. That’s all about learning.”
Keane feels that things aren’t immediately going to become easier for his side - who are now 17th in the Championship - starting with this evening’s Carling Cup quarter-final: "The games coming up are as tough as the last few games. West Brom are a very good team, they’ve got a good squad. They’ve bought very well on the back of promotion.
"They’ve used their squad well in the Carling Cup, they had a good result at the weekend and there’s a chance for them to get in the semi-final of the Carling Cup. They’ll come down here and want to do a good job on us.
"No one’s going to do us any favours and when you don’t win football matches - four on the spin now - the pressure builds and the players have to deal with that, be brave in terms of dealing with the ball and cut out the silly mistakes.
"The mistakes we’re talking about are very, very basic and we need to cut them out because it’s costing us.”