Boss Roy Keane says he would love to be the man to take Town forward and make the massive changes he believes the club needs, but conceded that he doesn’t know whether he’ll be given the chance.
Keane said: "Of course I want to take this squad forward. The changes at the club have got to come from the owner and the chief executive and obviously I’d like to be in charge in terms of guiding that.
"There are massive challenges ahead. A lot of the players’ contracts are up, a lot of our young players, Gareth McAuley, David Norris and others. We’ve got loan players like Jack Colback, Gianni Zuiverloon and Jake Livermore.
"Last year we were dependent on loan players and we’re going back down that road. We’ve got to get the nucleus of a squad that we think can challenge for the top six. But that’s a big challenge.
"When I took the job we were on about two years, to me it’s definitely a bigger job than we all first thought.”
Last week Keane admitted that owner and chairman Marcus Evans would eventually have to make a decision on his future if the poor run continued and despite Saturday’s win says that still might happen: "I haven’t got a clue whether I’ll keep my job. I think the downside for me is that people keep talking about my job. My job is not important. I’ve been very lucky in football, I’ve got a good life.
"What I want is to be given a chance. I think I have been, but sometimes you ask for more of a chance. We need reinforcements, there have been players coming and going and that’s up to the owner. I can only control what I can do and that’s to win matches. It was a bit better [against Leicester] but let’s not forget, we were on the back of six defeats.
"January’s an important time, but January’s a long way away. We’re desperate for more players. We saw that on Saturday, we’ve one or two injuries. But whether I get that chance is up to the owner.”
Keane says Evans may feel he’s given him enough time: "The owner will probably say that he’s already given me a chance in my 20 months. What I would say is I need a bit more time, but I’m sure Sam Allardyce would have said that, Chris Hughton would have said that.
"Every manager says that, so you’ve got to be careful. There comes a time when you say ‘how much time do you need?’, but I still think a year and a half or two years at a club is not enough. But that’s my opinion.”
The former Ireland skipper says he is still to hold talks about a January budget but already has some targets in mind: "I’ve not had that conversation with the owner yet, but hopefully I will do over the next few weeks. You’re certainly better off going into these conversations on the back of one or two results. You don’t make plans to sit down with the owner when you’ve lost six or seven on the bounce.
"I’ve identified one or two players that I think would help us, but whether we get them or not and whether we can hang on to one or two of our own players remains to be seen.
"We’re talking about improving the squad, but we’ve got stuff to deal with with players whose contracts are up, the speculation about Connor, the usual scenario that goes on at every club. But on top of keeping them, we need to add. So many players left the club in the summer that we’re short and we need more players.”
Meanwhile, one of this morning’s tabloids claims that Town players were sounded regarding Keane’s future by "senior officials” from the club last week with Alan Curbishley yet again said to be the current manager’s potential replacement.