Skipper Carlos Edwards would like to see under-fire boss Paul Jewell revert to the “horrible” person he was upon succeeding Roy Keane in January last year.
Edwards is adamant he has seen a significant change in the manager, who considered resigning after Saturday’s 2-1 reverse at Hull, during his 21-month reign at Portman Road.
He said: "I’ve told him that he has to get back to the horrible guy that he was when he first came to the club. If he starts doing that there will be a few unhappy players — you can’t make everyone happy — and that’s when you will see who wants to be at the club and who doesn’t.
"I think he has changed loads. He is a nice, genuine man — maybe too nice and genuine for his own good sometimes — and that has put his job in jeopardy and his future up in the air.
"As you all know I can sleep in water and while it’s hard to change I do try to keep a solid head on. Maybe it’s the same for the gaffer.
"Being the type of person that he is, I don’t think he is the type to be horrible and I don’t think he wants to be branded as that type of individual because he has been round the block a long time. Hopefully the guys can rally round him and start getting the results that we should.”
Edwards took time to have a brief, one-to-one chat with Jewell before Monday’s training session in preparation for tonight’s home clash with Derby County.
He added: "I had a quick word with the gaffer. It is a hard job at the moment — harder than we think it should be because of our results — and he thanked me for the players being there for him and giving him their support.
"We are the ones who can put a smile on his face. Like I said, he is a nice man and I think we as players take advantage of the situation and don’t perform in the way that we should.
"I hope the players can open their eyes to the bigger picture because there is still a long way to go. But we do have to start getting results sooner rather than later.
"We can’t be saying the same thing week in, week out, that there are still 30-odd games to go or we might be saying there are still so many games to go until the end of the season and we will still be in the bottom two.
"The sooner we get results, the better things are going to be in and around the training ground.”