PAUL Jewell needs to return to his ‘Mr Nasty’ persona to have any chance of saving his job.

That is the advice of his loyal skipper, Carlos Edwards, who believes his manager has undergone a personality change in his 21 months at Portman Road – and not for the better.

Edwards said: “I think he is too genuine and too nice for his own good at times and I think we, as players, take advantage of that sometimes and don’t perform in the way we should.

“I told him that he needs to get back to the horrible man he was when he came. If he starts doing that, he is going to tick off a few players.

“But that is when you are going to see who wants to be at the club and who doesn’t.

“He has changed loads – he is too nice for his own good and that has led to his job being in jeopardy. The type of person he is, I don’t think he is the type to be horrible. I don’t think he wants to be branded as that type of individual.”

Edwards, who privately spoke with Jewell yesterday to give him his support, admitted the manager’s post-match confessions of self-doubt on Saturday “were the last thing we wanted to hear”.

But he has called on his team-mates not to let the problems become a reason for another poor showing.

Speaking of Jewell’s behaviour over the last few days, Edwards said: “He was down (after Hull defeat on Saturday) and you could see by the tone of his voice and his body language – he was under a lot of strain.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t go to sleep till 5am on Sunday morning, I then came here (the training ground) and was watching television to see if there was any news to keep up on what could have been his last days.

“Luckily, he is still here and that is a bonus.”