Town boss Paul Jewell says he understands fans’ frustrations after five defeats on the trot but urged patience as he looks to bring success back to Portman Road after a number of lean years. The Blues manager says that while he has “materials that are top class” to work with, it takes time to build a successful side.
Jewell said: "I understand fans’ edginess but all I would say is be patient and if you go back to when I came here, I didn’t say it was going to be a one-season wonder — I thought it was going to take time.
"We’ve had a lot of mediocrity for a long time, [some people] think this club is in a mess, [if it is]we’ve got to get out of that mess.
"Personally, I don’t think it’s in a mess. The owner’s got a huge ambition for the club but it hasn’t been successful for a long time, you’ll know that better than me.
"We’ll have to have a bit of pain, but we’ve got a lot of materials that are top class here, but getting the right team, getting the right spirit takes time.
"The supporters have been great, but at the end of the day I understand their frustrations. But no one’s more frustrated than me and no one’s more determined to put it right than me either.”
The Blues boss says that while results are bad a lot of good work which is going on off the field can be overlooked: "I’m trying to build [an infrastructure] but people only want to know what the result was on Saturday, and I fully understand that.
"I think we’ve got to bring through some younger kids, we’ve got some talented young kids coming through.
"We’ve got lots of good things going on, we’re trying to improve all aspects of the club, the running of the club off the pitch.
"But the key thing is getting it right on the pitch, I fully understand that, but in time I’m sure all those things will make a successful football team.”
Regarding Town’s current woes, Jewell insists there’s no panic: "I think you’ve got to be calm. Things are tough for us at the moment but I’ve done about 500 games and I’ve been in tough situations before, I’ve got through some of them, I didn’t get through some others.
"But from my perspective I’ve got great belief in what we do, what we’re trying to do and as I said when I came here, it’s a long-term plan.
"I didn’t come to get promotion in a year, there might have to be a bit of pain [in order] to get better. I’m not panicking, I’m disappointed, hugely disappointed, but I’m not panicking.”
Going forward, he says he’ll be looking to start building his squad for 2011/12 when the transfer window opens in January: "We brought a lot of players in in the summer at once [this year].
"My idea would be to try and get players in for next year as we go along rather than all at once. I came in January with the window already half-closed and then we brought a lot of players in at once.
"Maybe the way to do it next year is to keep the players that we’ve got here that we want and try in January and between then and the new season to try and target people who will take us further on.
"It was never going to be a short-term thing. We’ve got 29 games left yet, so we’re not giving up on this season, but we’ve got to be aware we’ve got no divine right to be in the play-offs.
"People think that just because we signed one or two experienced players that we’re automatically going to be at the top of the league, but it’s a tough league.”