Chief executive Simon Clegg says he and owner Marcus Evans believe the appointment of Mick McCarthy as manager will see the Blues to “great things” in the years to come.
Speaking at this afternoon’s press conference, Clegg said:"The owner and I have every confidence that Mick’s appointment today will lead to great things for this football club.
"We recognise we’re in a difficult position in the Championship table at the moment and that’s the first priority.
"Mick’s 20 years’ worth of managerial experience is going to hold him in good stead for taking on the challenge of this football club.”
McCarthy revealed that he hadn’t applied for the job at Town and instead had been headhunted with Clegg confirming that the former Ireland boss was very much the man they were after all away down the line: "Mick was top of the long list, top of the short list and top of the interviews as well. His track record, his experience, his CV speak for themselves.
"One of the really interesting things for us is that although he’s been in management for 20 years he has only managed four teams. That shows a lot of consistency.
"This is a club which doesn’t jump ship easily, we’re a club that’s given managers a full opportunity here to turn things round and deliver the success we all aspire to do.
"But Mick’s experiences and passionate, he’s still incredibly ambitious as an individual. We felt that he had the right skillset, the right experience, particularly at this moment in time, to get us out of the relegation battle and take us on to greater things going forward.”
He confirmed that owner Evans will give the new manager money to spend and says they have already talked about the number of loan players currently at the club: "He wouldn’t have taken this job unless he had some assurances from the owner in terms of the finances that will be made available to enhance the squad going forward.
"Mick and I have already spoken, the loan situation isn’t ideal but we are where we are, we need to deal with it and we need to get out of the hole we’re in at the moment.”