Boss Paul Hurst says he’s in regular contact with Marcus Evans even if they don’t meet face to face too often and believes the club’s owner, like everyone else, is realistic that it will take time to successfully implement the summer’s changes. Hurst feels Town haven’t been too far away in their opening games even if they are still to pick up their first win of the season and sit bottom of the Championship.
"We're always in touch and that’s genuine,” Hurst said when asked if he and owner Evans have spoken often.
"I think I’ve only once been able to sit in a room and look him in the eye but I’ll let you see my phone bills and you can see that we’re in touch often.
"Certainly during these times bringing players in we have a lot of conversations and we speak after every game, so there’s certainly no lack of contact there.”
Does Evans understand that Hurst is presiding over a long-term project and that there might be a few bumps in road along the way?
"I hope so!” he laughed. "But he’s the man who will make any decisions on my future and on the football club’s future, but I think we’re all realistic about what’s set out and there has been a lot of change asked.
"It’s unusual if you can make that all come together instantly and certainly in terms of results it hasn’t.
"But I’ve been happy with a lot of other things at the football club that have happened quite quickly.
"We just need results to back all of that up because, again, I’m fully aware that results are the most important thing in football.
"There was a call perhaps to change how the football club was going, what direction. Do you stick with that or do you think, ‘Oh no, we haven’t quite got the results, let’s go back to the way it was?’.
"I think if you are going to opt to try and change things, you should try to give it a little time.”
Overall, despite taking only two points from their first five league games and exiting the Carabao Cup at Exeter, Town aren’t too far off the pace.
"No, I don’t believe so,” he insisted. "I think if you look at each game we’ve played, there’s hardly been anything in it really.
"Certainly scorelines, Derby we spoke about maybe that second goal really killing that game off.
"But every game we’ve been more than in and it kind of frustrates me but it is fine margins and many people have said that to me.
"On goals scored and opportunities, a lot of the stats that I’m getting match up with a lot of other teams and certainly the opposition that we’re facing.
"For me it’s more about keeping the ball out of the net, we haven’t kept a clean sheet. That makes it more difficult to win a game of football.
"I’ve been used to having teams which have nearly always had one of, if not the, best defensive record in their league.
"If we carry on as we are, we’re not going to have that. We could argue, ‘Yeah but you’re playing better opposition’, things like that but we’re still in a league and that’s our league.
"We’ve got to stop giving soft goals away and if we win games 1-0 you still get three points.
"We’d all love to win 5-0 and 6-0 but it doesn’t happen very often, so, to be honest, I’m focused about that side than worrying about anything else.”