Blues boss Paul Lambert has sought to clarify his post-match radio comments from last weekend and says he will be at Town next season unless owner Marcus Evans sacks him, something which looks highly unlikely to happen.
In January, Evans and Lambert put out a joint-statement confirming that the Blues boss, who took charge in October following Paul Hurst’s sacking, would remain at Portman Road for 2019/10 regardless of which division Town would be in. However, Lambert appeared to put that in question last weekend.
Asked this afternoon whether he saw why fans found his comments unsettling, he responded: "No, I don’t understand it because I was only answering the question.
"The question to me was, ‘People [are critical] of your record and results’, so my answer to that was that if Marcus the owner wants to make a change, fine, I’m not going to argue with it. It’s no problem, see what happens at the end of the season.
"He might still change it at the end of the season, nobody knows. But I get on really well with him, really well with him.
"The results drive me mad, playing-wise we play some really good stuff but we don’t get the reward for it.
"But not once in in an interview did I say I’m walking away. And not once did I say I was going to Celtic, not once did I say I was going to Scotland.
"What I would do is leave here and go and enjoy myself in my life. But I wouldn’t beg somebody for me to hang around because the crowd deserve better. As I’ve said before the crowd have been overwhelming.
"That’s what does my head in, we play that well and we can’t give them what they want. But the other side of it is that they see us playing really, really good football, without getting a break.
"We feel the frustration of it and vice versa because you can’t keep playing as well as you can and not get any breaks.
"We’re creating chances, we’re playing good football, we do everything but the only way we’ll go is if the owner says, ‘Listen, thanks very much, see you later’ then, I don’t have a problem.”
Evans’s position is understood not to have changed since January and there appears virtually no chance of him sacking Lambert at the end of the season.
Was the Blues boss just saying last week that he’s been in the game long enough to know that owners saying they’ll stick with a manager doesn’t always mean that?
"Yes, probably,” Lambert reflected. "I know the game, I know how it works, so I never really look too far ahead as such at what’s going on.
"I know how the game works and I know the pitfalls of it. Steve McClaren lost his job at QPR the other day and I thought he was doing really well. In football things come out that you don’t see coming at certain times.
"But I was asked a question about it and the only way we’ll go is if Marcus makes a change.
"Marcus is probably better sitting here answering that question, you’re probably better asking him that if you can get hold of him.”
He added: "The question was about people questioning the results so in a roundabout way, I know how you guys work, [it was about] if Marcus [might] made a change, [that] sort of thing.
"That is not a problem for me that. Not one problem with it. Never once in an interview did I say I was walking away or give any indication I was walking away.
"I know what I want to happen at the end of the season, I know where I want the club to go. I know in my head what’s planned for the club to move forward, I know exactly everything that I want to happen.
"I hate it for the supporters because they’ve been that good for us, they’ve been unbelievable.
"I want them to enjoy it. They enjoy the football and all those sorts of thing but the results are not there for us at the minute.
"We draw, even draws are like a defeat for us. We’ve drawn I don’t know how many games and it’s like a defeat for us because of the position we’re in. We need wins.
"But I don’t hang my hat on everything, that’s for sure. But never once did I say that I was walking away. People can read into that how they want it, but they've also got to realise my position; I know what’s happened before at certain clubs I’ve been at so I know exactly how the game works.”
Pressed further, he was asked to make it 100 per cent clear that the situation is that unless Evans sacks him he’ll still be here next season.
He added: "Yes. We got there in the end, that was longer than Brexit!”