Eight months into their new roles as joint-MDs of Ipswich Town, Ian Milne and Jonathan Symonds are thoroughly enjoying life at Portman Road.

“There are still some challenges to go, but we’ve enjoyed the ones we’ve taken on,” Symonds told TWTD.

“It is still a bit of a work in progress, but we’re getting towards somewhere where we’re happy in terms of the club’s management.”

Milne says one or both of them are usually at Portman Road but when they're away they remain in contact with staff: “We’re here two or three days a week or we’re on the end of a telephone.”

Symonds comes from an IT background and Milne is a solicitor, which he says is an advantage: “I’ve got certain strengths and certain weaknesses and so has Jonathan, so we complement each other, we don’t agree on everything.

“But we get on very well and we’ve got a good idea what each other are thinking and I think it benefits everybody. But from a personal point of view. It’s great running a football club. You pinch yourself.

“We enjoy the game, I think you’ve got to enjoy the game to do this job, I’m convinced of that having done it for eight months. You’ve got to enjoy it and be interested in football.”

Symonds agrees: “It’s a fantastic opportunity. I enjoy it and feel privileged to do it.”

There have been redundancies in a number of areas at the club and Milne says there were areas where cuts were required, although their aim has never been to simply reduce the head count.

“I think over the years there has been some sorting out. I think there was still, from when the club was in the Premier League, some overstaffing when it came down into the Championship.

“Our job when we came in eight months ago wasn’t to get rid of staff, it was to generate income. And from that, working with people, getting them back to their specialisms and all the rest of it.

"We found that they could get their own teams together and it was up to them who they chose and who they didn’t want to complement them. Primary for ourselves was to look at cost, but in order to generate income.”

Symonds adds: “The club has to be the right size, it has to have the right number of people for the size of the organisation and for it to run efficiently.

“That is what we’re driving towards, to make sure we have the right quality people, which is shown by what happened [at the England U21 match on Tuesday] night, and the right number of people.

"It’s not about taking staff away, it’s actually about making sure we’re the right size for the organisation and for the club.”

Symonds dismisses rumours that they were put in place to get the club in good order ahead of its sale: “There’s no truth in that at all.”

Milne continues: “He put us in here, not to sell the club, he’s put us in here because he’s got trust in what we do. We know how he works.

“We’ve got the reporting mechanisms to the standard that we have within the group, so we and he feel that he’s got a greater grip of what’s going on in the club.

“We have two regular reviews with him because he’s interested in it, he’s happy with the state of the club, he’s happy with Mick and the playing side, he’s happy with what we’re doing running the non-playing side.

“We know there are areas we’ve got to improve on, the non-matchday event side which along with [director of sales] Rosie Richardson we’re working to improve. But it’s a tick and pass at the moment for all of us. He’s not going anywhere.”

Symonds added: “He’s been here five or six years now and he’s continued to support the club as he did from day one, that hasn’t wavered. The suggestion that that may not be there, I don’t really see where that comes from, to be honest.”

Milne says other Championship clubs will be going through the same process with Financial Fair Play changing the landscape: “We talk with other owners, similar people to Marcus who put their seven, eight, nine or 10 million a year in and they’re all going through exactly the same exercise, trying to understand how the club is running.

“But Marcus, again with other club owners, understands and is quite happy to continue to invest in the club and he’s got the confidence that Mick is doing his job.

“Of course, the performance of the playing side, he’s gone through the whole gamut of managers, players, spending fortunes on players and getting nothing, but at the moment he feels at ease, as I think we all do, with the signings we made this year.

“We were talking with Carlos Edwards [at the U21 game] and the confidence in the team and confidence in Mick is where we all want to be, and that very much includes Marcus. He’s very comfortable with where we are.”

Publicity-shy Evans is unlikely to enter the limelight at any stage but Milne wonders whether the situation is that much different from other clubs: “Who could recite all the owners of the Premier League and even possibly the Championship?

“He’s chosen that, but I would counter that by saying, he is somebody putting in money, he’s decided he doesn’t want the limelight, he wants Mick and us to do the talking and is happy coming along, watching the match as any other supporter. He’s a big Town fan, full stop.”

He says that Evans’s commitment is undiminished despite six so far unsuccessful years and that, having learnt from past failures, is positive about the future: “He’s confident in Mick, he’s happy where he is. He’s got a greater understanding, as we all have, about the club.”

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

Kesgraveblue57 added 17:26 - Oct 17 Two many Chiefs and not enough Indians !
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hoppy added 17:28 - Oct 17 Or too many chefs possibly, by looks of things...
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MyBlueHeaven added 18:00 - Oct 17 specialisms. SPECIALISMS?! ffs.
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BerraforBallon_Dor added 21:54 - Oct 17 Paul Jewell could probably do a better job then these muppets! this statement is purely regarding they're answer to the 'matchday balance' article.
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Hegansheroes added 23:46 - Oct 17 What an absolute load of bxllxcks. ME is in the West Indies or Monacco or some where else exotic on match days and every other day. This was a PR exercise.
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