TWTD has learnt that Gavin Williams was not the player who added Pele's signature to a Town shirt, as widely reported earlier today.
The shirt in question belongs to Liz Edwards, chairman of the London Branch of the Supporters Club, and was obtained by her as part of her sponsorship of Jaime Peters last season. There were a few missing signatures, so, at the end of season dinner, Liz took the shirt along to try to get it as complete as possible.
When going through the signatures later that night, and matching them to the squad, Liz spotted a few errant entries - Pele, Van Basten and George Best! Liz and husband Tim had a bit of a giggle about it, about boys being boys and wondered which players were responsible. However, Gavin Williams was not even at the dinner, so he couldn't have been the culprit.
News got back to Town that this had happened, and, as a gesture of goodwill, sales and marketing director Andrew Goulborn arranged for a replacement shirt, containing only Town players' signatures. This was handed over to Liz at the barbecue last Monday night by Simon Milton.
Unfortunately, it seems that someone overheard a conversation about it at the barbecue, put two and two together and managed to make at least six.
Tim told TWTD that the shirt had become a matter of private amusement before hitting the national press earlier today: "It has been a pretty good joke between us and the club over the last couple of months and there has been no ill-will of any sort at any time, and Liz did not even ask for a replacement shirt herself (step forward Steve Doe and Andrew Goulborn for special thanks here).
"We think we now know who one of the culprits might have been and, when we see him, we'll tell him we're sorry he got in trouble for something that really just isn't a big deal.
"The best thing is that we still have the errant shirt, and it is destined now to be a rather more cherished bit of cloth than might otherwise have been the case.
"To prove that there are no hard feelings, and to show that this is the truth behind the various rumours, I expect that Liz will wear it at the Rushden and Diamonds game on Saturday, just to prove the point."
Get the fastest and most comprehensive Ipswich Town news service at ipswichtown.footballlatest.co.uk.