Caretaker-manager Bryan Klug says everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong for departing boss Paul Hurst during his short spell in charge at Portman Road. Hurst, assistant manager Chris Doig, fitness coach Nathan Winder and physio Chris Skitt all left the club yesterday with Paul Lambert on the verge of being appointed the club’s new boss.
Asked where he felt things went wrong for Hurst, who was in charge for only 149 days and 15 matches, the shortest in the club's history, Klug said: "It's very difficult to put your finger on any one thing. You don't just become a bad manager or a bad coach.
"In any walk of life, certainly in football, you need those crucial moments to go your way.
"While I haven't been at every game, I've seen moments where I've thought 'if that had gone that way or if that decision hadn't been made', we could have been talking about a very different scenario.
"I think everything seems to have gone wrong that could possibly go wrong for Paul. He needed a bit of luck and I don't think he's had that. You can look at lots of other things but being a manager is a very difficult job, trust me."
Rumours of unrest behind the scenes had persisted for some weeks prior to owner Evans sacking Hurst, but Klug, 58, insists that that’s not been the case.
"No, I wouldn't say that,” he said. "It's normal when you're losing games of football, the atmosphere is not going to be electric.
"When you're going through change, there's always ups and downs, and you hope you come out the other end better off.
"Obviously a decision had to be made and the owner has made his decision now, so we have to now start trying to find a way of getting up the table.”
Klug, a stalwart of the Town academy currently working as head of coaching and player development, says he got on well with Hurst: "We had a good relationship. I'm a Grimsby lad so I was at Wembley with him when we got back into the league, so there's no problems at all.
"He showed a great interest in how I work with the young players. He had his own ideas about players he wanted to bring in but he saw the bigger picture that we're trying to do with the younger players here, so I'm very sad that he's lost his job."
Regarding taking the reins on a temporary basis again having taken charge of four games at the end of last season, he added: "You don't really get much choice when Marcus gives you the call. The reason behind it is that the club is not where we want to be.
"It's not something I want to be doing because I want the club to be thriving. Obviously a situation has arisen and the owner's made a decision, so here I am."
He admits he is disappointed to be back in the role so soon: "It does sadden me really. As you know I've been at the club for a long time, and it's not a club that would make this sort of decision very lightly. It is a shock.”
He added: "Decisions have to be made if things are not going how the owner wants. Clearly we go and we make another plan.”
Asked whether he believes the decision came at the right time, he said: "I think change is always very, very difficult, and we were going through a period of change.
"I'm not knowledgable enough to say whether it was too early or too late because sometimes change can look pretty ugly before it becomes pretty good.
"'Bounce' is probably what Marcus is looking for in this situation. It's easy for me to say that - Marcus is the owner and he knows the consequences if we carried on that way. But I'm a great believer in continuity. There is a tipping point obviously."
Town now face another change but Klug says they need to make sure not everything is made completely different: "No. After five years for the players and that stability, that's maybe shaken a few.
"Then we had an influx of 12 new players, that's big change. That's why an experienced manager coming in and man managing will be massive.
"What they say now on the courses that we go on is 20 per cent is what you actually know and 80 per cent is man management. I would 100 per cent back that up in my experiences of football."
He says the owner will have looked at the situation from his perspective before making the call on Hurst.
"You have to put yourself in different people’s shoes, don’t you?” Klug reflected.
"If I’m putting myself in different people’s shoes I can see the picture [from] everyone’s [angle] but we have to deal with the reality. It is [his money on the line], as he frequently tells me!”