Let's hope Stewarts legal action doesn't affect his performances on the pitch, surely he would be better putting his efforts into making his 3 year contract here succeed, rather than wasting time, money & effort in chasing compensation....... But then I guess his agents got the arse at loosing his cut of the signing on fee...... Say no more, I've become so cynical lately?!?!?!

I dont think any fan can accuse Mr Evans of being 'frugal' ..... His £80m has saved our club from the depths of the lower Leagues.
I'd be great to see some of the Cresswell fee used to strengthen the squad, especially the CM area, we're all crying out for a Play-making Midfielder, even a season long loan of Williams would be satisfying.
I don't really understand why Stewart is pursuing compensation over his Leeds Utd move collapsing, surely it'll just bring unneeded 'off field' problems. No sooner had it collapsed, he had us & lost nothing I'm assuming.
Can't see MM nor TC being to impressed by this, if it's true of course.

Presumably Stewart's wage package is inferior at Town to what he had been offered at Leeds, hence the legal action.

....... put your efforts into being a success with this Club Stewart - and move on - obviously there was reason for Leeds not progressing the contract, which one would guess wasn't signed.

Success, and furthering one's career, is of secondary importance where many of today's players are concerned.

All important is the thing beginning with ....... M. Unfortunately.

I don't think people need to be too concerned about Stewart's legal action affecting his performances with town. I mean it'll be his agent doing all that side of things and he'll just await whatever result comes.

Stewart should be grareful, leeds players are having to wash their own kit and take pack lunches to save money, thats from local bbc not daily sport!

Evans has a lot of critics at this club, unfairly. Thankfully we have a man in charge who trusts our manager to run the club as he sees fit. We are very lucky to have both. Long may it continue.

Sure your right Moscow, he was seen as a star in the making hence the agreed wage? Now a few ordinary performances in a struggling Leeds team, on and off the field, his value dropped. Well done Mick for jumping in. Lets hope he can show why he was rated highly.

In the in the interests of balance:

1. Evans does seem to be a very good boss for football managers, based on the comments from Paul Jewell and Mick McCarthy

2. His financial support has enabled the club to continue to function at the Championship level, which may not have been the case without him or someone like him

3. Nevertheless, it should always be borne in mind that the financial support he has provided is in the form of loans, and not equity.

As such, promotion to the Premier League may well result in the additional television income being used to repay that debt. And, of course, whilst it is always pointed out that no interest is paid to external lenders, it continues to be accrued on the Evans loans. Therefore, interest may well end up being paid on the debt.


All in all, Evans clearly isn't the worst owner of a football club that has ever seen, but neither is he the philanthropic, benevolent benefactor that we would all so dearly love to see (or, indeed, be ourselves!)

Personally I'm very glad we have Marcus. And not someone who is in a Hong Kong jail for fraud, or who replaces the head of recruitment with a random family friend on a work experience placement, or who is terrified of purple and the number 17.

Whizzkidd: are you saying that Evan's involvement with the club is motivated by sound, measured business sense? Well, hooray for that! Football is being ruined by plutocrats who want to play with the sport because of their vanity, pouring stupid money in where it doesn't belong and upsetting the balance. If we do get back to the top flight and Evans gets his money back–yes, with interest–then good for him.

It has still not been explained why Playford Road was handed over to one of his offshore companies, as the money involved would be such a small part of the overall debt.

Neither has he provided us with £80m as a fair chunk of that was the debt he bough for a knock down price.

There is also the matter of not stumping up the money needed for Cat 1 status, instead leaving it eliant upon fund raising. Curiously the announcement seems to have been forgotten.

Personally I think it may not have been such a bad thing to have gone bust and re-started again rather than being this kind of 'zombie' club stuck in the Championship and not going anywhere, nor likely to either.

Just a footnote to Whizzkid's post above. ME has already acquired pretty much all of the equity in the club. In essence he owns it lock stock and barrel. The money injected to cover operational losses may well be constructed as loans but such loans come from ME and if the club repays these loans effectively ME, as owner of the club, will be repaying himself. Converting the loans to equity serves no real purpose in these circumstances. Similarly any interest payable will be paid by ME to himself. As fans we need not worry about the corporate accounting used by the ME Group.

Harry10, Grow up mate. You'd prefer us to have gone bust. If you truly believe that then you are not a fan in any way shape or form. I suspect you got a bit carried away behind your keyboard.
So ME is running us prudently and is possibly attempting to get some money back in the future. What an utter scumbag. I'm not suggesting he's perfect but who is? How do you suggest we run the club then? Who would be able to run it in the way you want?

Have to agree with you Axeldalai_lama, that was a stupid comment. First of all Playford Road is a debt, with category 1 status it will be a bigger debt. Moving it was a good business move.

Fund raising is done by lots of clubs from the championship right down to under 8's football. There are a lot of logistics involved with youth football from hiring coaches to a club secretary arranging fixtures, it all costs money. Clubs will always look to local business owners to sponsor the youth teams. I have seen a lot of youth football and never seen a kit being sponsored by wonga before.

As for the debt, if you could get something worth £80 for £36 would you turn it down? Basics of business consolidation is never pay the asking price, buy it at a good price and use the savings to invest back into the system to make it profitable again.

Harry10 - Playford Road wan't handed over. It is the land next to it.

And the reason for that, was to help us to conform to FFP, nothing sinister but too many people seem to want to use anything to the guy who saved this club from another administration

Let's sign angel correa, cracking attacking mid player

......... lots of financial experts on here, who know everything about loans, debts, assets etc; etc; - fact is most know very little, if anything, of what they spout.

Marcus Evans is not involved in this Club for the 'love of it' - that's the bottom line.

In the absence of other options - thats what we have - and thats Football Club ownership 2014.
Whether we like it, or not, sadly or otherwise.

Yeah, some good points. What I'm saying is that I don't think Marcus Evans is at either end of the spectrum of owners…..clearly he is much better than many of the loons we see at other clubs - not trying to merge us with Naaaaaarwich to form "East Anglia United", forcing us to play in cerise cos he thinks it will help sell shirts in Tonga or making Mrs Evans's nail technician Head of The Academy.

But, the point about loans versus equity IS relevant. Of course, when he took over the club he had to buy equity in order to become the owner. As is said above, with an 85% holding he is in absolute control of the club with the PLC effectively powerless.

But he bought the debt outstanding at the time of the takeover at less than the par value. Nevertheless, he has accumulated interest on the full par value since. In other words, interest is accruing on an amount that ME did not actually lend. Completely legal, of course, indeed common practice, but it does give us an insight as to his motives.

Secondly, the outstanding amount will be repaid from ITFC's television revenue (assuming we ever see promotion). Therefore, the greater the amount to be repaid, the less available for new players/academy development/stadium improvement. Whereas, if he had injected call for some of the further loans as equity instead more money would be left for the greater good of ITFC. And I would be urging every town fan to genuflect before someone who would be a true Ipswich hero.

The point I'm trying to make is a balanced one: that Evans isn't the worst owner in the footballing world but neither should we confuse him with a philanthropist. As others have said, he is an intelligent and highly successful businessman who regards his investment in Ipswich as nothing more than an investment upon which he would expect a future return.

The relationship between Ipswich and Marcus Evans might well turn out to be highly mutually beneficial, and I for one am glad David Sheepshanks persuaded him to get involved. But at the rate the debt is growing, any promotion to the Premier league may well see all of the additional television money go towards repaying the debt and we should therefore expect to "do a Blackpool" rather than "a Sunderland".

Whizzkid
Good to see a balanced appraisal, however I still think you are being negative with regards to the outcome if we make it to the premiership.
As you say he is a savvy businessman, why would he kill the golden goose if we made it. I think he is much more likely to start paying back a little whilst keeping us healthy and in with a chance. Either that or sell us on to another owner for a fee which gets him his money back or perhaps a small profit.
Even if he were to pay himself what he is owed and we do a Blackpool, that would be a brilliant outcome, all things considered. He would pay off his/ the clubs debts and we'd be in the same position as now, but debt free and with parachute payments. Who wouldn't bite someone's hand off now if they were offered that?

The problem is McCarthy, not Evans. Yes he is a good man manager/recruiter, but he is hopelessly out of date tactically. We will be promoted then relegated and threatened with relegation to DIV 1 before he goes I think. Sad- because thats possibly another 5 years wasted playing sh£t football...

"Harry10 - Playford Road wan't handed over. It is the land next to it. "

What !

Playford Road was transferred to a Marcus Evans company based in Guernsey. it had nothing to do with FFP. No money was given to the club, merely the sale price (£1.32m) was taken off the debt.

"lots of financial experts on here, who know everything about loans, debts, assets etc; etc; - fact is most know very little, if anything,"

My figures are taken from the club accounts - why not check before you 'spout off'.

As to the idea of the debt being repaid by PL TV money taht is ludicrous. The debt was £82m as of June 2013. I would suggest it will be way above £90m by the earliest date we could be promoted. Even if we spend nothing on transfer fees, PL wages and running costs will leave little more thatn £50m at best. And we are going to stay up on that basis to get another £50m.

As to going bust I stand by that, as the time under Evans has seen us slide dreadfully. attendances down as well as income. Debt rising. And where is this investment in the youth ? How many have come through since he has been here ? The extra £500,000 needed would not be subject to FFP rules so why is it not in place ?

If we had have gone bust, then I am sure there are enough genuine Town fans with the money and expertise who would have come forward to rebuilt ... a club to be proud of again, not what we have now. A club in permanent limbo.

Harry if we get promoted the debt is not going to be repaid in one hit. Its catch 22. The investment is needed to bring in player's to get us promoted. That means the debt has to rise. Simple. The debt was in place when ME got here, yes it has risen but that is because the club makes no money and MEs deep pockets keep it a float. There is little he can do. Attendeds ia falling across the league as the big clubs become footballing superbrands. That is the PLs doing, not MEs and PL football will see attendenences increase. We are also still climbing out of 6 years worth of recession. That hits everyones pocket, going to the football is a cost people will cut back on. I take your point about cat 1 but be it 80 mil or 50 mil Evans is still in hock for a lot of dough, can you blame him for trying to find alt revenue and investment schemes? The fact that he is doing that suggests we are not suffering from the inertia you suggest but are in fact trying to innovate to plot a path to the PL. Me wants his money back. He has to deliver PL football to get it as the deal was structured that way. The quickest route to tgetting it out is to sustain PL football (easier said thab done) so why would his intention be amything else? You would have us be the new Wimbledon? No thanks. If that happens there is a glass ceiling. Fans dont have derp enough pockets to deal with the expense of running a club. That forces sustainable running in as much as the books must be balanced and given the club already loses a fortune that means cutting back on playing expenses. The choice is simple be in hock to the bank, or be in hock to Evans. The bank can pull the rug out anytime, they did it once before and they would again. We could be Leeds, Sheff U, Pompey, Cov, or even god forbid, Accrington Stanley. Thankfully we are not. WE ARE IPSWICH. COYB

Running the club prudently had always been an ITFC way until the 'heady' days of the Premier League' The Premier league is always lauded as the holy grail of world football, however it has seen off and ruined more clubs than it has made. It's ruined English football in the guise of our national team......Bring back Division's 1 to 4 is what I say and bugger the money only oriented Premier League!!!!

Too right Algarve Fan. I'm proud to support a proper championship side and though promotion might be ok to bring in a few quid I'd hope we stick to our guns this time and don't get sucked into signing mercenaries like most PL clubs do. Sooner there is a European Super League the better especially if run by that prat Scudamore and his talk if brands etc. Then the rest if us can get back to watching teams with mainly British players on a far more level playing field.....