Simon Clegg says the atmosphere at Town’s Playford Road training ground has undergone a complete change since Paul Jewell took over as manager in January. The Blues chief executive was speaking at last night’s PLC AGM where assistant boss Chris Hutchings stood in for Jewell, who was absent on what Clegg described as “important family business”.
Clegg says he believes progress has been made in Jewell's time in charge, despite the current run of seven successive defeats: "I think you only need to go up to Playford Road to feel the complete change in the atmosphere up there.
"We’ve got a much closer, much more cohesive group of individuals working together, and I think that can only be good for what happens on the pitch.
"Last Tuesday aside, there was absolutely no question on Saturday that those players were passionate and were very unlucky [against Watford].
"They were playing for themselves, they were playing for this club and they were playing for the manager.”
The Blues chief executive says there’s no alarm at Portman Road despite the current run and with Town sitting 21st in the Championship: "I’m not shying away from [the results]. We are where we are and it’s a bloody uncomfortable position. I don’t take any pleasure at all in standing up at an AGM on the back of seven back-to-back losses.
"Up until Portsmouth we were on a good run, but let’s not suggest that we’re in panic mode at the moment, because we’re not. Things are bad and we need to turn things around, but I’m confident that we will do.”
He says that if the defeats continue to rack up then the situation will be addressed as and when: "If we get to that point we’ll be thinking about it as we’re going along.
"I’m not going to speculate in terms of what may or may not happen and when it may or may not happen. What I’m focused on now is turning these results around.”
Clegg, who is as yet unconcerned by fears of relegation, reiterated that while Roy Keane’s tenure may have been viewed as a quick fix, Paul Jewell’s appointment marked a more measured approach: "It's about the long-term.
"A couple of people here were talking about short-term gains but we’ve made it very clear since Paul’s arrival that this is about a long-term game-plan in terms of putting in place the building blocks that will take us up.
"OK, we’ve taken a couple of steps back over recent weeks, but I’m confident that we’ll turn things around. We’re still some distance from the halfway point of the season yet.”
The meeting itself, chaired by David Sheepshanks, who remains the chairman of the PLC, which owns 12.5% of the club, was a surprisingly muted affair given the current on-field woes.
Chris Hutchings took a question about the age of the side, saying that that wasn’t the issue behind the recent downturn and that the same players had been involved in the earlier good run, also highlighting the progress of youngsters such as Joe Whight and Byron Lawrence.
The running down of former defender Gareth McAuley’s contract was criticised, Clegg responding that it was part of a collective decision to give manager Jewell and his staff time to assess the existing players when they came to the club in January before offering new deals.
Hutchings was questioned about Michael Chopra’s progress, telling shareholders that the striker has trained every day since his recent spell at the Sporting Chance Clinic and that he was also coming in for additional sessions as he continues a recovery from his gambling addiction which will take some while.
Match day prices were criticised, Clegg saying that a lot of thought goes into deciding them and that his main priority is to protect season ticket holders, adding that he was disappointed to have to increase their cost after five years ahead of this campaign.
There was applause after one shareholder suggested that fans were frustrated not to see more young players being given a chance. Hutchings answered that they are the club’s future with Josh Carson cited as someone who has made the breakthrough.
Others, he said, are progressing from the U18s into the reserves and will get their chance in the first team. But, as fans will have seen with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas after his summer move from Arsenal, young players can be inconsistent. He praised the job U18s coach Russell Osman is doing.
Clegg gave his backing for the club’s youth set-up: "Every single person in this room, myself included, would like to see 11 players in the starting XI, all of whom have come through the academy.
"We will continue to invest and prioritise the academy accordingly and we will continue to select players when it’s right and when they are ready to move into the first team.”
He added that the decision whether to opt for Category One or Two status when the Premier League-led changes to the system come in for next season will be made between him, manager Paul Jewell and owner Marcus Evans.
Hutchings said that whether the players whose loans are up in the near future — Danny Collins, Keith Andrews and Reece Wabara — will remain at Portman Road depends on a number of factors, not least their parent clubs’ plans for them and that the situation will become clearer in January.
All the meeting's resolutions — including the re-election of Roger Finbow and Philip Hope-Cobbold to the PLC board — were passed by the 158 of the overall 3,790 shareholders present and the evening was wrapped up within 40 minutes.
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