Good luck David, you are a great club man, i for one, have imense respect for you

Hear hear to Moggas comment.

Farewell Mr Sheepshanks and, I'm sorry to say, good riddance. It was your gross incompetence that took Town into administration, a stain on a club with great history and tradition. Then in desperation you foisted the ticket tout and his witless colleague on us, having first nearly let in another chancer because you didn't do your homework. Your legacy is a sorry one.

I too would like to add my respect and thanks to David Sheepshanks for his work and his desire for Town to do well. I feel that Clegg could learn alot from him!

Such a stain, smallpiece that the FA and various other football departments have been keen on getting him on board!
Looks like M.E. for pumping a fortune into Town and allowing the Managers to manage is also being slated by you. Perhaps you would like Kerr back in charge?

I would also wish him well for the future and thank him for his contribution. I guess there will be people that slate him, however check out how many prior posts they have, that usually says it all.

He gambled the future of the club we love, and lost.
Now we will be forever a rich mans play thing.
Goodbye to the Eton Spiv, a master of self promoting spin.

He was personally responsible for the club's demise in the summer of 2001 when, with Burley, he became a small child in a sweet shop and spent all his pocket money on rubbish. He should have fallen on his sword at the same time that he ditched Burley. A typical upper-class snob with no understanding of football or business. Good riddance, finally.

Sorry to say it, but I'm with Basil, Beer and Daley on this one. No doubting his enthusiasm for the club, like any other fan, but was only put on the board in '87 as a sop to those demanding change after Patrick Cobbold's "f*** the fans" outburst. Yes, he oversaw some great times but, like his predecessors, seemed to let managers manage for better or worse and took little responsibility for the outcome. When a sensible guiding hand was needed in 2001, we had none, just a blame-game for stupid transfer deals when it all went pear-shaped. Administration and ME or similar ending up in control was the inevitable consequence. DS should be perfectly at home in a full-time role with the blazerati at the FA, he's probably related to some of them.

Well said Mogga

I am afraid Basil, Beer and Daley and Portman51 have absolutly no idea about the causes and what happened to the Club.

No one did more to avoid it and no one took it worse then DS

Some people have short memories or more likely they are just plain ignorant.

There is no form of snobbery worse than the inverse snobbery displayed by Smallpiece, Beerhelps and Daley. What does it matter where he went to school or whether he was 'posher' than the average fan?

This is a man that took the club from a position of little or no hope and dragged it back towards the glory days. Fine, we didn't get there and it ended in tears, but by God we came close.

Think back to a time when we had been relegated from the Premiership. The Cobbold era had effectively come to an end and John Kerr was in charge. We had no money and very little hope. Sheepshanks turned that around. His shrewd guidance and five year plan was mirrored by other clubs who saw how well the club was.

His error was backing his manager in the transfer market (something which fans not only expected but demanded). This was at a time when there was no reason to expect relegation given a fifth place finish in the Premiership. The subsequent financial impact of relegation was compounded by the collapse of ITV digital and in a further twist of fate, Sheepshank's previously sensible policy of securing players on ling contracts (ensuring none of the younger players were able to leave without a decent transfer fee being secured) back-fired, with high wages and long contracts becoming a burden.

Whilst there is little question that this was a dark era for the club it didn't come about because of incompetence or ignorance, rather it was happenstance and perhaps naivety in believing we could maintain our Premiership status (and frankly I'd much rather have a Chairman who has belief than one who plans to fail).

He then managed to stabilise the ship and get the club back on an even keel. The appointment of Joe Royle was almost a master-stroke, with promotion back to the Premiership almost achieved on a shoestring (Royle's transfer expenditure during his reign averaged around £5k per game compared to Roy Keane's £70k).

Finally he secured new investment which again was something demanded by many fans (probably the ones that now moan about it).

To suggest he has been a "stain" on our club is ludicrous. Frankly in a time when money talked, he brought us success which we had no right to and no prospect of prior to his appointment as Chairman. Given the context in which he operated I would go as far as saying he was our most successful Chairman. Yes the Cobbolds brought us our most successful times on the pitch, but football was a very different game and far less dominated by money. John Cobbold took a hands-off approach to running the club and certainly from the later 60s to early 80s the club was effectively run by Bobby Robson who was as much a Chief Exec as he was team Manager.

What those slating him also need to remember is that more than anything Sheepshanks is a fan. Anyone that has made the effort to actually engage with him will know this and understand just how much the club dominated his every fibre.

Thanks David for bringing forward momentum to the club at a time when its prospects were poor to say the least. Thanks for the play-off memories and the Premiership seasons. Thanks for the European trips. Good luck in your future endeavours - our club will be much, much poorer for your absence.

Oh how we miss him.

Mr Borge's sanctimonious obsequiousness is nauseating. Perhaps this drawling contribution was keyed by Mr Sheepshanks himself as a farewell piece.

According to the piece, Town had no hope when Mr Sheepshanks took over. It has none now.

His error was backing the manager blah blah. His only job at the time was to review contracts and make sure they did not become a burden. He failed. And so did the other Rendlesham Boy.

When Town came fifth, it was a gloriously freakish outcome. Eleven unknowns bursting on to the scene, surprising more illustrious names and winning. Even the town bookie was caught out. Any prudent manager would have viewed this result as an exception and planned accordingly ie for a worst case of relegation. Town's history up to then was one of outrageous over-achievement followed by a swift reversion to normality. Mr Sheepshanks should have seen this. But his arrogance allied to his stupidity allowed him to think he was one of the big boys. A short road then to administration, a permanent stain on a great history.

And his final failure: passing the mortally wounded club to the present regime. He could and should have done better. He made no effort. He was ready to accept the first person who came knocking.

He was lazy and incompetent and in a proper business organisation, he would have been out on his ear a long time ago before he could do the damage he has done.

Borge is deluded. Sheepshanks was all piss and wind and sold the soul of this club. Quick to jump on the work Burley did then blamed him when it was he who oversaw ridiculous finanacial decisions. The bloke has more front than Felixstowe and it is laughbale that he had the audacity to be running successful business seminars when he personally presided of ITFC's financial demise form 2001 onwards concluding with the Evans sale.

Basil, at least my 'drawling' is based largely on fact (albeit with some subjectivity). On what grounds is Sheepshanks 'stupid' and 'lazy'?

'Arrogant' I will give you - when I met him to discuss how he wanted to be introduced at a conference it took him a full minute to decide he wanted to be introduced as "Ipswich Town Chairman and Champion of all things Suffolk.....

He certainly wasn't willing to accept the first person that came knocking. I seem to remember a series of would be suitors who much to the annoyance of many fans were dismissed before they got anywhere near the front door.

And how do we have 'no hope'???! Even after a 5-1 thrashing by our six fingered friends I can still see significant signs of optimism for next year.

Finally, if we had no hope when he took over and no hope now then we aren't any worse off so how can his legacy be legacy be negative??

Oh it's funny how peoples memories fall just short of stretching back to the most successful period since the Robson era, infact us finishing 5th in the prem ranks alongside our best achievements, alot of this is owed to the patience and faith shown by David in burley. Sheepshanks invested money as he trusted burley, nobody could have predicted what happened next especially the collapse of the tv deal. It was a sensible move by Sheepshanks to enter voluntary administration when he did before the points penalty came in and although it hurt us fans at the time it was in hindsight the best thing for us to do, I think this is proved by looking at most other clubs who have been relegated from the prem, most suffered further relegation with many still never fully recovered.

Sheepshanks' time as chairman probably evened itself out, but I always think back to the fact that he sanctioned the £5.5 million signing of a keeper who in my opinion was not that good. Madness. Fair enough if he had spent that money on a top striker, but an average keeper.