Town have confirmed the appointment of chief operating officer Luke Werhun, who new CEO Mark Ashton says will be his number two at Portman Road. TWTD revealed that Werhun, who was previously working with Ashton at Bristol City, was being targeted for a role at Town back in February.
"Luke’s the chief operating officer,” Ashton said. "In essence he’s my number two. As with [chairman] Mike O’Leary, I’ve worked with Luke at two previous clubs [Oxford United in addition to the Robins], they’re people I trust implicitly but more importantly understand the standards that I set, understand the tempo that I work.
"Joking apart, they don’t do holidays, they don’t do days off. It’s Saturdays, Sundays and they will totally commit to this football club.
"I think in their areas of expertise, the club will benefit. They’ve got great knowledge, great understanding.
"I’m delighted that Mike’s here from a board perspective and from an operating perspective, Luke will be a very, very important member of the team.”
Asked whether general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill will be part of the team going forward, he said: "I’m just getting to know Lee. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. He has this football club’s interests at heart.
"I’ve tried to make it really clear to the staff. We’ve not come in here with the intention of moving anybody on, we want to take people on the journey with us.
"All we ask is that they commit, their professionalism is high and they work hard, because we will set a tempo.”
He says that was the message at this morning’s meeting with all staff: "For sure, and to smile, to come in and enjoy it. We want people to be proud of this football club and be part of it.
"I keep using the word ‘together’. We can’t do this unless the players, the staff, the fans, the business community are all together and one of our challenges is drawing everyone together.
"We will communicate as much as we can. There are obviously things in a transfer window I can’t talk about because I’m going to compromise the club’s ability to sign players.
"We intend to hold a fans’ forum before the start of the season. I’d like to have all our board members from the other side of the pond on that. If not all of them at least some of them.
"We want to put a plan in place where fans know when we’re communicating to them, and we can set a programme up throughout the year on things like that.
"We’ll be accessible on matchdays because engagement with the supporters is key and we’ll do our best to communicate as much as we can.”