Blues manager Paul Lambert says he has no problem with owner Marcus Evans taking a greater interest in football matters.
Evans has taken a close watch on matters at Playford Road during pre-season and during a two-day visit early last month talked all the first team players individually as well as Lambert, general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill and other off-filed staff.
Evans is understood to have reiterated that he remains committed to the youth-focused, attractive-football-based five-point plan outlined in 2016.
In contrast to 2019/20, pre-season has seen the Blues stick to a 4-3-3 system, while Lambert has said he will be sticking with a more settled side in the campaign ahead.
"I think any football club needs that, the owner, the CEO, their boss to be round about the place, without a doubt,” Lambert said when asked whether he welcomed Evans’s more hands-on involvement.
"I was watching the Tottenham thing on the TV the other day and I saw Daniel Levy and Jose Mourinho sitting there. I think it’s important because if it’s miles apart, it’s no good, it’s not healthy.
"If Marcus can take more of hand on the club and more of a lead on it, it’ll be in a better place.
"You certainly need direction and leadership at any organisation. He’s the owner of the club, the custodian of the club, if he comes in and watches training every so often or comes to the games or just comes up here [Playford Road], I think that benefits everybody.”
While some managers might view such input as interference from an owner, Lambert says it’s something he’s experienced previously as a manager and a player.
"I used to have lunch with Mr Coates at Stoke, who was an absolute diamond of a guy, an absolutely brilliant guy, really a top, top bloke,” he added.
"Even when I played in Dortmund you’d see the people come to the training ground. It never fazes me because I’m used to it, I’ve seen it before and I’ve seen how it works.
"It’s no problem that. You embrace that, it’s no problem. If the owner or CEO or leaders of the club come into it, then I think it can only be a good thing.”
What was Evans’s message to the players? "Just to try and correct the wrongs really and try and play in the identity of the club he wants us to put in place, which we’ve tried to implement.
"And let’s see how we do. You can’t predict what’s going to happen, but I’m pretty sure he probably thought from last August to January that this was easy and then all of a sudden the wheels came off it and then it’s like, ‘I never expected that’.
"It’s not easy, it’s definitely not easy but I think he wants to try and carry it through, and if we do that then we’ve got a chance.”