Joint-managing director Ian Milne reaffirmed that Town have heard nothing from the FAI regarding manager Mick McCarthy at last night’s Supporters Club AGM. McCarthy continues to be linked with the role he previous occupied between 1996 and 2002, although former Sunderland, Leicester and Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has edged ahead of him in the betting this morning.
Milne, who was answering questions from fans along with club secretary Sally Webb at the meeting in Legends in the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand, said: "We’re in constant contact with Mr Evans, we also talk to Mick and there’s been absolutely no approach been made to Mick or the club about Ireland.”
Would the club let McCarthy speak to the FAI if a move was made? "I’m not heading the question off, but it hasn’t happened.
"It all depends on how it manifests itself. It’s the same if you were to employ somebody and they wanted to leave. You can’t keep them there, but Marcus, myself, [fellow MD] Jonathan Symonds and everybody in the club love him.
"He’s a very honest, decent human being and he would be very honourable in his dealings, and he’s said that many times when questioned on the issue.
"So far as we’re aware, and we don’t disbelieve him and you'd have to talk to Marcus first, there has been no approach [to Mick] at the moment.
"We get into the fairyland of ‘what ifs’ and I don’t know what if. All I can say is that if a member of my staff came to me and said I want to move on, naturally we would try and convince them not to move on, a player or what have you.
"But if they don’t want to be with you then you’ve got to work something out. But we’re not at that yet. It’s ‘what ifs’.”
He added: "There’s been no approach, we don’t want him to leave, we want him to stay. Marcus is very content with what the squad is like and the way that it’s working, very content with Mick and TC and he wants things to stay as they are.
"We’re the best I’ve known, where the squad is and where the club is, in the five years since I’ve been at the club.”
Milne says McCarthy "is a totally committed to the club” and has yet to indicate whether he would be interested in the Ireland job as "the issue hasn’t arisen” and that "it’s a ‘what if’ situation and he doesn’t get into that. Until he’s asked or until Marcus is asked, it’s not an issue.”
Much of the rest of the meeting was taken up with discussions regarding various aspects of ticketing. There was criticism that away fans are charged too much at Town and that some visiting supporters are put off coming to Portman Road by the ticket prices.
Sally Webb explained that travelling supporters have to be charged the same as home fans for equivalent seats, with the visitors’ end at Portman Road currently in the upper tier of the Cobbold Stand.
Regarding matchday prices, which have been the subject of widespread criticism this season, Milne said: "On season tickets we took the view to keep the same prices because we believed that that was the right thing to do.
"We look at all pricing, from drinks to everything else and we took a view this year when looking at our fellow clubs in the Championship that we could raise [matchday] prices.
"So far we’ve proved that we were not wrong because our overall matchday revenue has gone up. Our gates are slightly down but our revenue has gone up compared to last year. We’re not the cheapest, I agree, but we’re not the most expensive.”
Fans expressed concern that gates are falling and he added: "I hear your point. Nobody likes increasing pricing and we do take it very seriously.”
The club were called on to drop the additional £2.50 surcharge on tickets purchased on the day close to kick off. Webb said that a charge of that type had been in place for 10 years and it was largely a stadium management issue; it’s preferable for the club to have a good idea of matchday attendances in advance of games.
The dropping of the ticketing phone line was also brought up with some believing fans, particularly older or more rural supporters, are put off from coming along as they are no longer able to purchase tickets in that way.
Milne also responded to claims that this is indicative of a lack of a personal touch at Town: "If we can’t make generate the income then it falls on the owner to foot the bill and at the same time we have to keep pace with what people do and many people when they buy concert tickets, for example, they buy online.
"I think it’s quite reasonable if we know that Suffolk is 100% broadband, which it is. We know that libraries are online as well for those who don’t have a friend or a relative who have a computer.
"I don’t recognise that we aren’t still a family club. We’ve all got families. We do our best to provide access to matches and to other the other things we provide here, and it takes a lot of hard work to do that.
"I’m sorry if you feel that we are no longer the community club, I don’t see that, quite frankly, but I’m sorry that you do.”
While some fans praised the online ticketing system, others said they had had problems with it, something Milne and Webb said the club were aware of and are addressing.
As per the recent interview with TWTD Milne said that McCarthy would have money to spend in January "if needed”, although the club was working within the parameters of Financial Fair Play, which limits the levels of cash owners such as Marcus Evans can spend above a club’s annual turnover.
Webb says there are Championship clubs who are taking a more risky attitude to the rules in order to gain promotion to the Premier League but are likely to face censure if their spending fails to take them into the top flight.
"There’s nothing fair about Financial Fair Play,” she said. "All it is is something to stop the industry self-destructing and the Premier League are doing the same thing with their own form of Financial Fair Play.
"Financial Fair Play, if you’re going to spend money there are two ways of looking at it. As another club’s chairman said to me when I was talking to him the other day, ‘We’re going to go for it’.
"And they’re gambling really because if you go over the edge with Financial Fair Play and you get it wrong you’ll have to pay a fine.
"They haven’t quite decided what happens about the fines yet. There has been lots of talk in the industry about fines having to have teeth - it’s going to be financial, it’s going to be points, it’s going to be transfer embargoes.
"But if you get it wrong, and football is often a gamble, you have to be prepared that maybe there will be some long-term issues.”
Milne said the club is close to confirming "a rock band” for next May’s second concert, which will take place the day following Barry Manilow’s visit to Portman Road.
With the recent bad weather continuing to impact on transport and thousands in Suffolk still without power, the attendance of 30-odd was well down on recent years.
In the main business of the AGM, chair person Elizabeth Edwards, secretary Rita MacKenzie, treasurer Steve Doe and committee members Irene Davey, Paul Voller, Martin Swallow and Nigel Cole were all re-elected to their positions.