Town have finally settled their long-running legal wrangle with former manager Jim Magilton. The 41-year-old was sacked by the Blues in April 2009 and subsequently issued a High Court writ against the club to try to recover £352,083.33 in lost earnings from his contract which was up at the end of June last year.

The case was due to be heard in the High Court this week but the League Managers’ Association (LMA) says the matter has now been settled: “[After his dismissal] Magilton tried to resolve matters relating to his departure amicably and sensibly with the club, but the club failed to agree to pay him the sums clearly due under the terms of his contract.

"The LMA, with its solicitors RJW, therefore filed court papers for recovery of the sums due.

“It came as a shock to Mr Magilton, and all concerned, that the club’s response to the proceedings was to then try and find grounds to justify not paying him.

“The claim was due to be heard in court this week, but in a last minute climbdown, the club has unreservedly withdrawn the defence and agreed to pay Mr Magilton the sums due to him and all of his legal costs.”

Acting on behalf of the Northern Irishman, Paul Daniels of RJW solicitors said: “The club made various allegations against Mr Magilton, which we advised were completely without substance and that he had an unanswerable case.

“High Court proceedings were regrettably progressed, and despite reasonable offers to compromise the matter, the club still continued to raise yet more issues that were not relevant to the case.

“We are disappointed that the club took so long to sort this matter out but we are delighted that our client has won his case and been completely vindicated".

Magilton himself says he is sad that matters progressed as they did at a club where he played for eight years and spent three seasons as manager: "It was disappointing and upsetting that a club I had served so loyally for so many years, as a player, club captain and then manager chose to try and deny me the compensation agreed in my contract, when we sadly parted company in 2009.

“I tried to obtain a sensible settlement, and even made an offer for less than the sum now agreed, but they still would not agree to my proposals.

“Instead, they continued to raise more unfounded issues, which they either then abandoned or have now withdrawn.

“It has been a long, tiring and unnecessary dispute, but I am delighted that I have, with the support of the League Managers Association and its outstanding legal team, RJW solicitors and Paul Gilroy QC, entirely cleared my name and put the record straight.

“I still have fond feelings for Ipswich Town, a club where I made many friends and I wish the club all the best for the future.”

The club have issued a statement: "Ipswich Town Football Club can confirm that it has reached a mutually agreeable settlement with one of our previous managers, Jim Magilton, regarding an outstanding matter.

"The dispute and outcome of the settlement are a confidential matter between ourselves and one of our previous employees and as such we will be making no further comment on the matter."

Photo: Action Images

SuperTommySmith added 20:44 - Mar 22 Money Tight Evans, gosh.
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andoverblue added 20:51 - Mar 22 What a waste of money would love to know what the legal costs were for both parties
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jas0999 added 20:52 - Mar 22 Oh dear - with Roy Keane to pay off please can we forget about paying for Bullard or indeed anyone else. The cost of sacking managers and their assistants will surely top £1M+. Legal disputes with councils - no wonder the club need to increase season ticket prices!! Sadly, I fear sales and indeed revenue will be down. Can't see how ME can justify pumping further millions into the team.If 21 players leave, what type of team will we field next season?

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jas0999 added 20:54 - Mar 22 andoverblue - at least the same as the original pay-off I would have thought!! More probably. Yet more daft mis-management by ITFC.
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WREXHAM_BLUE added 20:59 - Mar 22 All very regrettable and frankly scandalous assuming Jim's version of events are true and I don't doubt them for a minute. All the best Jim.
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broomfield123 added 21:01 - Mar 22 Forget any decent players coming in then. No wonder we can only afford players from luton. Anyone know a rich arab who drives a tractor
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coco_the_clown added 21:03 - Mar 22 Christ! and sodding useless 'Keano' et al to pay off, and IBC, and all the other clagg Clegg came out with, AND we need a 20 goal+ a season striker, a right back, Bullard, & 'one or two' others.... is this going to happen? Nope. Might give my season ticket renewel a miss for the first time .... take up golf on a Saturday, or, erm, er... why does it have to be so bloody difficult? Can Clegg or Mystery Marcus cook? Maybe they should write a couple of best selling cookery books. Got any spare mushies Wobble?

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Radlett_blue added 21:07 - Mar 22 Prevaricate, contest, contest, run up expenses....last minute climbdown. Very ordinary behaviour.
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bluearmy4life added 21:08 - Mar 22 Fair play Jim. Real great servant to are club shame it did'nt quite work out as manager. But at least he can hold his head high we were very close to making the play-offs when Jim was in charge most successful manager so far since big fat joe! Things don't sound good behind the scenes at town very worrying indeed. PJ Needs investment in the team next season if we are to finally move forward as a club. I can't see it personally. With season ticket prices going up and no doubt food, beer etc going up in and around the ground there is no doubt we will loose season ticket sales.

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MaySixth added 21:11 - Mar 22 Magilton. Good player, dreadful manager.
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Mark added 21:16 - Mar 22 Whatever the rights and wrong of it, this is not good publicity for the club and only serves to widen the gap between the ownership of ITFC and the fans (most of whom have affection for Magilton due to his playing days here). I just hope Jewell gets the same financial backing as Keane, as the way Roy wasted money dwarfs any ground rent or pay-off to Magilton. Let's make player investments, young players on long contracts whose value will grow rather than expensive signings on big wages who we have to write off after a few months.

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carsey added 21:17 - Mar 22 Since my beloved club were aquired by ME it has become unrecognisable - I know football is a business these days but the Cobbolds will be turning in their graves over this sort of thing. Whatever anyone thought of Jim he was a good player, captain and manager during some difficult times. He deserved much better than to be treated like this by people who really don't give a sh*t about Ipswich Town - they just see an opportunity to make money if they can get us promoted.

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I_8_NARWICH added 21:21 - Mar 22 just proves how backwards and twisted this club have gone since Evans and Clegg have been here, treating a long serving player/manager in this way is disgusting, yes he wasnt the best manager but that doesnt mean you dont pay him, give him his money and move on.
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jas0999 added 21:35 - Mar 22 Mark - I agree. On a day when ITFC try to justify an increase in season tickets, it has become clear that part of this is due to mis-management. By all accounts Jim would have negotiated his pay-off, but oh no we now incur additional fees PLUS pay him the full amount. This news will I suspect cost ITFC even further season ticket sales as people realise ME is unlikely to be in a position to sign major players. ITFC has become a disgrace. I was not a big fan of Jim as manager - yet if he is contracted to receive x amount of money - Clegg et al should have paid him! Just Roy to pay off now.

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OnlyOneSuperJim added 21:36 - Mar 22 Shame on you Evans & Clegg - Jim is an ITFC Legend, The way the club handles matters is a disgrace but hardly surprising.
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cooper4england added 21:43 - Mar 22 Paul Daniels.... Now thats magic. Hope ME has plenty in his bunkobooth!
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tractorblue99 added 21:50 - Mar 22 How much is evans worth again? Because he is going to need twice as much as this the way we're going. Play offs next season? Not at this rate!!!
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xrayspecs added 22:10 - Mar 22 It does not portray the club in a good light. If true, no dignity, no class, a real step backwards imho. Not the Ipswich way. Evans - unless you have strong grounds to contest the JM version of events, then shame on you.
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Garv added 22:11 - Mar 22 Very poor by the club, how you can treat a legend of the club that way is beyond me! Have to disagree with pathetic comments such as MaySixth's saying he was a dreadful manager. If Jim Magilton was a dreadful manager I hate to think how Roy Keane could be described. Magilton in his last season got us, what, 2/3 points of the play offs? Keane got us where? 15th? Keane tore the club apart (literally in terms of silly training ground restrictions), changed the whole ethos of the club, the style, the type of players, sacked legends of the club who had served us so well such as Klug, wasted ridiculous amounts of money...need I go on? Magilton was a familiar face, knew the club and how it gets success, and he nearly got it himself, bought McAuley and Norris, widely regareded as our two best players (bar Bullard obviously who is not our player), and even pulled off the loan of Gio. In his last game he got us a convincing win against Norwich, and in what should have been Keane's last game in my opinion, he gave us embarassment at Carrow road losing 4-1! There is a 'dreadful manager'. Things didn't end well with Jim, Clegg/ Evans' fault you have to assume.

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Moscow_Blue added 22:30 - Mar 22 Employment law is pretty clear and responsible employers must treat their employees fairly when they are dismissed. Obviously, we don't know the detailed wording of employment contracts, but how would you feel if you were dismissed having done your utmost and then given no redundancy money?
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Lightningboy added 22:37 - Mar 22 Good for you Jim...in hindsight,i'm sure Evans/Clegg would've been (and we would've been) much better off if they'd kept Jim on in the first place instead of replacing him with the useless clown. Just missing out on the play-offs & turning Portman Road into a fortress doesn't seem too bad now,does it?! Hope you get yourself a decent job somewhere Jim & I for one hope you're back here in the hotseat again one day.

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Blue041273 added 22:37 - Mar 22 If they sack him they have to pay what's due under the contract. I am deeply disturbed that ITFC have seemingly tried to renege on the terms of the contract. This is not the Ipswich way. The new regime may think that they can conduct business in a London City sort of way. Thankfully they have been shown that right comes before money. Unfortunately we all have to share the shame of this debacle.

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Lightningboy added 22:40 - Mar 22 Oh and Maysixth...you must have a very selective memory?..remember 3 seasons ago when we lost 1 game at home all season under Jim (to our bogey team Watford)..that to me does not make a "dreadful manager",as you put it.
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StowTractorBoy added 22:41 - Mar 22 I hope this is the end of all the bad news and that we can start to look up again. I respect the opinions on here about the way Jim has been treated but not for one moment do I think £350K will prevent us spending next season. Whatever you may think of Evans he saved this Club from oblivion and continues to pump money into a Club that has not paid dividends for him. With a new Manager I believe the cause does look brighter now and I also believe Mr Evans will support the new Manager with more funds. Not a good day for ITFC but we must keep supporting our team and you never know what may happen next season.

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woody65 added 23:09 - Mar 22 i am disgusted at the treatment of jim magilton,there was nothing wrong with him as a manager,some of you so called fans helped to hound him out and you same people cheered when they brought in keane,who has dismantled this club so as we cant recognise it,klug, backroom staff,all those people that were ipswich through and through, as i said on his appointment you reap what you sow! paul jewell you have one hell of a job, good luck. and jim you will prove to be a good manager!!!

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