Skipper Carlos Edwards has revealed that he recently met with Marcus Evans at the Blues’ owner’s house where he was quizzed on his thoughts regarding next season. Edwards was speaking at last night’s Supporters Club event at Brantham, where he was joined by team-mates Tommy Smith and Jason Brown, joint-managing director Ian Milne and player liaison officer Simon Milton.
More than 100 fans were at a packed Brantham Bull for an entertaining question and answer session in which the established players, new boy Brown — who already appeared very happy and settled at the club — and Milton painted a very positive picture of life at Playford Road under Mick McCarthy.
Edwards was in no doubt that Evans remains "100% committed” to Town despite five years in which the Blues have failed to seriously challenge for a place in the Premier League.
The 34-year-old said he wasn’t expecting to be sounded out by the club’s owner: "I had a meeting with him a couple of weeks ago. The questions that he was asking me, I was really surprised. I don’t think a manager has asked me those sorts of questions.
"He was asking me things like ‘What do you think we should be doing for next season? Which areas do I think we should be strengthening?’.
"But obviously I’m the club captain, a senior player and he took everything on board. He himself was really surprised and I was surprised at the conversation that we were having.”
The Trinidad and Tobago international, who recently triggered a clause in his contract entitling him to an additional year with the Blues, left feeling confident about the 2013/14 campaign: "He was so straightforward and the feeling that I got after I left the meeting was that we’re going to good come next season because he wasn’t just asking me the questions for the sake of it, just for conversation. He could have seen me for five minutes, but I think I was there for maybe 45 minutes at his house.
"It made me feel that this is the place to be come next season because I can guarantee you that whatever the gaffer needs for next season that he’s going to do his best to make sure he has it. I just hope that I’m not just saying that, that it could come to reality this time next year.”
Milne, who was asked about Town’s financial results and reiterated the earlier comments made by financial director Mark Andrews, says Evans will continue to back his bosses and will soon be speaking to Mick McCarthy regarding their summer transfer plans: "Marcus takes the advice of the manager at the time and I’m sure it will be a very interesting discussion that he will have with Mick.”
After the question and answer session and a raffle, in which skipper Edwards was one of the winners, Milton chaired an auction of memorabilia donated by the players — Brown’s gloves, Smith’s boots and Edwards’s shirt - raising £500 for the academy.
Milton, who is also the academy’s sponsorship manager, flew out to Spain earlier today to join up with the U13s squad which is playing games against Barcelona and Espanyol this week.
The Supporters Club’s next event is Legends in Legends on Saturday with full details on their website here.