Town needed one more sale during the January transfer window to avoid going into temporary administration. However, Birmingham's bid for Jamie Clapham was the only one received before the window closed on January 31st.

While another player on the way out would have dented Joe Royle's hopes of making the play-offs it would have prevented the club having to bring in Deloitte and Touche as temporary administrators.

The Town board will remain in control of the club with Deloitte and Touche working in close conjunction with the club's management. Nick Dargan and Nick Edwards are Town's administrators, having previously worked in a similar position at Leicester City.

Dargan was present at Monday afternoon's press conference and seemed confident that a satisfactory outcome could be achieved during the period of administration.

He felt that it was too early for him to outline the situation the club are in: "I think I'll need a period of time to actually assess the financial position, but what I would say is that we've had great cooperation from from the existing management team.

"What is is slightly different in the circumstances here at Ipswich Town is that we will be working with the existing management. It won't be a sale of the business and assets of the old company.

"It's clear that the purposes for which the administration has been granted is to enter into a formal voluntary arrangement with its creditors and return the company back to the existing management team who, quite frankly, have taken many of the steps that you have to take to return the club to viability."

Dargan added that he felt he would have a better idea of the situation in the next seven to 14 days during which time he would be having conversations with Town's creditors, many of them the day-to-day suppliers to the club.

Town chairman David Sheepshanks was once again keen to point out that the problems the club is currently facing are not down to the rebuilding of the North and South Stands. The work on the stands and the Academy was covered by the £25 million, 25-year bond. When the bond was set-up the club based the figures on concervative Division One figures.

The Blues' problems are more to do with shorter term cashflow and player contracts above and beyond income in the First Division. The collapse of the transfer market has meant the club is stuck with these players until the contracts are up, contracts deliberately negotiated to last several years in order to negate the effects of the Bosman Ruling.

Former chairman John Kerr said that supporters could give the club a helping hand and called for fans not currently attending matches at Portman Road to make the ground "a sell-out from now until May."

A Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is an agreement which will bind all the club's creditors who will be sent notice of a meeting where the terms will be formally laid out.

If the club's proposed CVA is given the thumbs up by the majority of 75% of creditors, according to value, then the CVA will be approved.

It is likely that the CVA will see the club pay their creditors back over a lengthy period of time. It is rare that creditors refuse the agreement, the likely alternative being liquidation of the club, a situation which would mean they would be unable to recoup any of their losses.

However, Town's situation could be improved dramatically by one development - promotion back to the Premiership in May.

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