With or without Keane it’s a bleak looking future for Town

With or without manager Roy Keane at the helm, it looks like being a barren time ahead for the under powered Tractor Boys who take on Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Leicester City in a Championship fixture at Portman Road tonight (kick-off 5.20pm).

A seventh consecutive league defeat could trigger the departure of Keane leading to a bedding-in period for a new manager that could take a couple of years at least to blossom.

If club owner Marcus Evans stays loyal to Keane and sees him coming out of this depressing situation a better manager it will also signal more months if not years of re-building.

Keane has admitted that his current squad is just not good enough to make an impact on the promotion race and that a major overhaul is required. This will take time.

“There needs to be a massive re-think at this football club with massive changes needed,” he said.

“Hopefully I’ll get the chance to do that.

“I haven’t had a conversation with the owner or chief executive yet about receiving finance to strengthen up in January, but this is when the work needs to start.

“It might be dependent on one or two players going out, but it has to be done as we need more experience.

“Our squad is simply not strong enough, and we need to find a way of scoring more goals – or we’ll get nowhere.”

Whoever is in charge when the transfer window opens on January 1 might have to generate their own income with Evans already putting around �6million in each year to keep the non-football side of the club running.

And if he has to pay up Keane’s contract and the coaches who will no doubt leave with him – as well as recruiting a new manager’s chosen back room staff – he is likely to be even more reluctant to make money available to bolster the player budget.

With few Town players worth too much in the transfer market it adds to the chances of Connor Wickham and/or Gareth McAuley and David Norris leaving Portman Road within the next five weeks bringing potential more gloom.