Manager Paul Lambert’s meeting with owner Marcus Evans is still set to take place later in the week, TWTD understands, despite the two having talked yesterday.
Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, Lambert revealed that he was due to talk face-to-face with the owner next week with his management of the club hanging by a thread.
However, Football Insider reported this morning that those talks were brought forward to yesterday and a source similarly told TWTD that Evans and Lambert spoke yesterday afternoon.
However, we understand that that conversation was not a moving forward of the meeting which is still set to take place later this week and was merely their regular pre-match catch-up.
Lambert has been highly critical of the structure within which the club is run in interviews and press conferences over the course of the last few days and also implied he was being used as protection for the owner, drawing parallels with his situation at Aston Villa working under Randy Lerner.
It appears inevitable that Lambert’s time at Town is very close to coming to an end and it seems certain that his position, and also presumably the terms of his exit, will be on the agenda.
The Scot remains in charge for this afternoon’s home game against Oxford United and seems likely to still be in position for the Hull City match on Tuesday.
TWTD understands Town are not close to having another manager lined-up, however, as previously reported, at least preliminary contact has been made with a number of potential replacements, including Paul Cook, Danny Cowley, Nigel Pearson and Neil Harris.
Evans usually likes to have a new boss waiting in the wings before he sacks his previous manager but it seems likely that someone on the staff will be put in caretaker charge when Lambert does finally depart.
Academy head of player and coaching development Bryan Klug has previously reluctantly filled that role but Kieron Dyer and Terry Butcher, currently the U23s coaches, would appear more likely candidates in the current circumstances.