IPSWICH TOWN: Blues legend Mick Mills today revealed that he thinks Joe Royle would have got the club into the Premier League working under Marcus Evans.

Mills said after watching Town draw 2-2 with Championship title winners Newcastle United at the weekend that he saw enough to suggest that Roy Keane can take Ipswich forward next season.

But the man who led the Portman Road-based club to their FA Cup and UEFA Cup triumphs in 1978 and 1981 and a succession of high First Division placings under the management of Sir Bobby Robson says that Royle would have blossomed with the benefit of Evans’ money.

“Joe would have done well,” said Mills.

“He is a good manager who would have reaped the benefits of having the �millions that Mr Evans handed to Jim Magilton and Roy Keane to spend.

“Joe has a good network and if there was anything around that would have helped Ipswich he would have known about it.

“He would have relished having money to spend.

“When he was here he got Ipswich into the play-offs twice, but with the club in debt and then chairman David Sheepshanks having to watch every penny his budget was getting smaller and smaller.”

Mills, who managed Stoke City and Colchester United and was assistant to Trevor Francis at Birmingham City, says that it would have needed a special manager to have brought success back to the club before Evans bought the club in December 2007.

He feels that his beloved Ipswich is in good hands under the control of multi millionaire Evans, and that the owner gave former manager Magilton a fair crack.

“Jim was not Evans’ appointment,” added Mills, who captained England in the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain and considers they have a good chance of doing well in South Africa this summer.

“Evans inherited Jim and he was not his choice.

“Many owners would have come in and brought in their own man, but he gave Jim a good go.

“And when I was in the boardroom recently there were the same faces that were on the board before the takeover.

“The new owner has given everyone a fair chance.”