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Milne: Owner Evans as Committed as Ever - Ipswich Town News

Blues managing director Ian Milne says owner Marcus Evans “remains as committed as ever” to Town and has no thoughts of selling the club or looking for external investment.

"Marcus remains as committed as ever with the Premier League remaining the target, he’s not thinking of selling,” Milne said.

"He wants to get in the Premier League, he’s still very much up for that challenge, he wants to go for it.

"We appreciate that with the teams that have come down it’s going to make it harder to get up but on the other hand we came pretty close [to the play-offs] this time.”

Would he look to bring in external investment? "Like most of his businesses, he won’t want to share it with anybody else and it sometimes can make things more complicated for the manager.

"A manager doesn’t want to have to go through a whole load of owners to get their permission because that’s when things screw up.”

He says that even with the Blues having brought in a fee of £8 million plus top-ups for Tyrone Mings last summer - although not all of the initial figure was paid up front - Town will still make a loss during the financial year to the end of June.

"Overall the club will make a loss,” he added. "They all think Marcus is not putting money in but even with the Tyrone fee money still had to be put in and a lot of money it was as well.”

Where does that money go? "Wages, 3G pitches. Certainly Marcus doesn’t feel he’s put any of it in his pocket.

"It’s gone on wages, the Ryan Frasers of this world aren’t cheap wages-wise. It’s gone in those sorts of areas.

"We got stages of the fee and then part of it was also appearance money and of course he hasn’t had many of those, poor chap. I know Tyrone is currently in Philadelphia doing some rehab.”

Milne says Evans and manager Mick McCarthy work closely on transfers and contracts and it’s often the latter who decides where to draw a line.

"Some people think Marcus won’t pay that and all the rest of it, but to be fair to him he takes the advice of Mick, and Mick will not overpay.

"I’ve seen it many a time, ‘He’s not worth it’ or if someone is extending their contract or having a new contract but their demands are too high, he’ll say ‘He’s not worth it, we’ll find somebody else’.

"So they know the value and I think this has made us a much more financially stable club, which I hope the fans understand.

"That’s the first thing we want, a financially stable club, that the owner’s not going to use it as a two or three-year toy and then turn it over to somebody else or just leave it.

"Marcus is coming up towards 10 years now and he has consistently put money into it, and more importantly he really enjoys it.

"Those who have seen him, he will hide behind the seats when things go wrong and leap for joy when things go right. And will moan and laugh the same as all the rest of us when things happen. He enjoys it very much as a fan.”

Will Evans become a more public figure than he has been during his time with the Blues up to now?

"He picks and chooses, we occasionally persuade him to do things. He will do it in his way.

"We come up with novel ways to get out there and he knows when is best to do things, which tends to be at the start or the end of the season so he can give a summary, and at other times it can look like interfering.

"The timing of this recent [interview in the programme] we thought about a lot in detail and we thought it was the right thing to do at that time.”

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