Blues boss Paul Lambert says Marcus Evans is a “very good” club owner but admits he doesn’t always agree with him and says the pair have “running battles”.
Asked at last night’s PLC AGM whether Evans was going to back him with cash for experienced signings in January, Lambert said: "The last conversation I had with Marcus was him saying to never really protect him. And I agree with him, I won’t protect him in a lot of stuff, I did it once and it never did me any favours.
"There two sides to look at him, I think. If he wasn’t as good as what he was then your club could be the same as Bury, it could be in real trouble. He keeps everything afloat. We work within the parameters of what he says.
"Do I agree with him all the time? No, I don’t. I don’t agree with him all the time. I’ll probably want things that he doesn’t want and vice versa, it’s give or take with him.
"But as an owner he’s very good because he looks after the club where you look at the way some football clubs are run now, it’s a precarious business that the owners are in.
"Unless there are so many investors, five or six of them, then that’s not a problem, but you’ve got one investor here.
"I heard the debt earlier, £90-odd million. Jesus! That’s incredible, absolutely incredible. You look at that side of it, there are good bits to him.
"But definitely, the other side of it, we have a running battle, [general manager of football operations] Lee [O’Neill] will tell you, we have running battles. And probably the best man wins and [the other one] succumbs to it.
"We can’t go and buy loads of players, it’s impossible, that isn’t going to happen, spending millions isn’t going to happen, that’s me being realistic.
"We have to try and battle against a lot of things to try and get ones in that we think can help us, whether that’s experience, young guys who have played 100 games, that’s experience.
"So, if we can’t go out and do it, no doubt me and Marcus will probably have a little nibble at each other!”
O’Neill added: "It’s also important to point out that we’ve got a big squad. We’ve got players returning from injury, players that we’ve had at the football club that have done very well.
"Both Freddie [Sears] and Teddy [Bishop] are coming back from long-term injuries, that’s two more players to add to the existing squad.
"I think there’s really healthy competition, so if we are looking at any players out there, they have to be fundamentally better than what we’ve got or not stopping the opportunity for one of the younger players coming through.
"It’s an ongoing conversation, they don’t just stop and happen in the transfer window in the summer and in the winter, they’re ongoing conversations that myself, Paul and Marcus have all the time about the squad and areas we can make improvements on. Whether that be financial or development, we have to look at it all the time.”
O’Neill says Evans has shown willingness to loosen the purse strings when signings have been required.
"I’d just like to say that 12 months ago we were talking about how much more involved Marcus was going to be involved in the day to day operations of the football club,” he added.
"Myself and Mark Andrews, head of finance, have lots of meetings with Marcus and we have got that long-term strategy and plan and vision in place, along with the manager’s thoughts on how we’re going to play.
"Like we’ve talked about, it is one of our key initiatives to bring younger players through the football club.
""We’re not going to be in a position where we’re going to have an open chequebook in the transfer windows to go and buy significant players.
"But if you look at the last window where, for example, we didn’t have a successful right-back in the building that we feel can do the job the manager required, Marcus was willing to invest into that area [by signing Kane Vincent-Young from Colchester for £500,000] and we looked at the strategy going forward.
"I think it will be looking out there, with the recruitment strategy, we wouldn’t invest in those areas if we weren’t looking.
"We have to go out there and try and find the right blend of players that can fit both the way the manager wants to play, the age profile and the position profile.
"And if we can do that, and if we can find them at the right price, then I’m sure that’s a situation Marcus will look at.
"But one of our fundamental strategies though is to try and encourage the development of the younger players from within the club.”
You can find notes from the question and answer session on the TWTD Forum here.