Town MDs Ian Milne and Jonathan Symonds are enjoying working with manager Mick McCarthy and don’t expect him to move on, despite continued links with the vacant Republic of Ireland job. According to some bookmakers, the Blues boss is the favourite to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni and return to the position he held between 1996 and 2002.
Milne says there has been no approach from the FAI regarding McCarthy: "Not that I’m aware of. The last time I spoke to him about this was a couple of weeks ago when it first came up and he said ‘Look, I’m not going anywhere’. We don’t want him to go.
"You don’t know what’s around the corner, things may change and what have you, but I think he likes the day to day running of a team and it’s quite a different job doing an international role.”
Symonds added: "We’re clearly keen to see him stay. We enjoy his style of football and the way the team is performing.
"Although we’ve not had the best set of results at the beginning of the season, we’ve had some difficult fixtures, but we’re playing better football and more entertaining football as well.”
Milne says they get on well with the Town manager, who will celebrate a year in charge at Portman Road in a fortnight’s time: "He’s great to work with. We have regular chats and reviews and he likes to know what’s going on.
"We’re pleased he takes an interest in what’s happening in the rest of the club. He and Terry are fantastic, all the staff are down there.”