| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? 10:18 - Jul 3 with 5216 views | MidlandBlue25 |
We are a world away to what we were under Marcus Evans. But did anyone truly realise how bad we were run at the time? I knew we were poorly run but it's not since the new ownership have come in have I realised the extent.
In what, 14 years at the club we heard Marcus Evans' voice once, and that was a club media interview with planned answers. |  | | |  |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:22 - Jul 3 with 4414 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
Yes. And some of us were saying it repeatedly from very early on, (and getting shot down for it).
But, forget Evans now, he's gone, that being said I won't be happy until his share is diluted so far that his box is on the station platform at Colchester.
But yes, let the f^cking charlatan go. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:22 - Jul 3 with 4403 views | FrimleyBlue |
The first time I knew it was really badly run was when I found out that the u18s had to use blue paint for lines as we had run out of white. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:23 - Jul 3 with 4395 views | davblue |
It was pretty obvious, I remember saying it before it totally went to the dirt that we were very poorly run and got shut down with he’s keeping the club afloat.
The only place we were heading under Evans was league 2 eventually. He might have saved us but as an owner of the club he was about as bad as you good get without being a crackpot owner. |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:24 - Jul 3 with 4373 views | Trequartista |
Looking at other clubs, it could have been a lot worse. He had integrity and at no point did I feel the existence of the club was in danger.
That's the best I can say about it. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:25 - Jul 3 with 4344 views | MidlandBlue25 |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:24 - Jul 3 by Trequartista |
Looking at other clubs, it could have been a lot worse. He had integrity and at no point did I feel the existence of the club was in danger.
That's the best I can say about it. |
Yeah the only credit I'll give Marcus Evans is that he did pay the bills. A lot of owners don't even do that | | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:36 - Jul 3 with 4225 views | chicoazul |
Can’t remember anyone mentioning it. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:42 - Jul 3 with 4174 views | southnorfolkblue |
For me the thing that stands out with the benefit of hindsight is that he failed to appoint a decent CEO. I wonder where we would have gone under his ownership if Ashton had been CEO around the time Keane was appointed and the purse strings had been loosened | |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:44 - Jul 3 with 4127 views | textbackup |
Yes… but when being vocal about it the sleepy folk of Suffolk often brushed it off as a laugh.
And praised him for putting a few quid it so we’d just survive.
If he was still here, we’d be a mid table l1 team. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:53 - Jul 3 with 4044 views | RobTheMonk |
"Here's our wonderful new sponsor... MAGICAL VEGAS" |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:03 - Jul 3 with 3968 views | MattinLondon |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:25 - Jul 3 by MidlandBlue25 |
Yeah the only credit I'll give Marcus Evans is that he did pay the bills. A lot of owners don't even do that |
Keeping the club solvent is the least that I expect from an owner. The fact that some owners don’t even to that is irrelevant. He did write off a lot of debt but even that was built up due to his incompetence.
I did give him the benefit of the doubt for a while - something which I’m embarrassed about. |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:04 - Jul 3 with 3965 views | Ryorry |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:24 - Jul 3 by Trequartista |
Looking at other clubs, it could have been a lot worse. He had integrity and at no point did I feel the existence of the club was in danger.
That's the best I can say about it. |
Not sure about "integrity" given OlympicTixGate ...
The best thing he did for us was to sell us on to Gamechanger - seems to have done proper due diligence there, & I'll always be grateful to him for that. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:14 - Jul 3 with 3860 views | Blueschev |
I thought it became clear soon after Clegg was appointed that we had had a severe lack of football knowledge and experience among those running the club. The way Magilton was sacked, the hiring of Keane, the comically poor way our transfer business was handled that summer, Keane not being sacked after our disastrous start to the season. It was all pretty shambolic. |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:19 - Jul 3 with 3819 views | Guthrum |
While we weren't run well under Evans, the point should not be overstated.
There was no asset stripping or dubious financial extractions. He kept us ticking over at a low level, rather than the outright cutting off of funds. He interfered very little in the playing side. All of these things - and worse - have been seen at other places. Plus it forgets the substantial sums (for the level and time) spent in the first few years.
Plus what we're comparing the Evans era with is exceptionally generous financing, savvy club leadership well endowed with PR skills and the good fortune to have landed arguably the best young manager working in England today. Rather below average with something close to the optimum. Value mild cheddar with Epoisses. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:41 - Jul 3 with 3638 views | Stewart27 |
Yes I completely realised.
The problem is that the death was so slow that some people didn’t. People sleepwalked into a place where standards were so incredibly low that signing players like Ollie Hawkins was even slightly celebrated. It was like people had been hypnotised by the odious, faceless, weird control freak charlatan.
He ran our club into the ground - literally. You take on a responsibility when you buy a football club.
But it’s ok because he kept us afloat. | | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:45 - Jul 3 with 3614 views | HighgateBlue |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:19 - Jul 3 by Guthrum |
While we weren't run well under Evans, the point should not be overstated.
There was no asset stripping or dubious financial extractions. He kept us ticking over at a low level, rather than the outright cutting off of funds. He interfered very little in the playing side. All of these things - and worse - have been seen at other places. Plus it forgets the substantial sums (for the level and time) spent in the first few years.
Plus what we're comparing the Evans era with is exceptionally generous financing, savvy club leadership well endowed with PR skills and the good fortune to have landed arguably the best young manager working in England today. Rather below average with something close to the optimum. Value mild cheddar with Epoisses. |
Absolutely.
The previous regime had put us in administration. The Club literally went bust. We had to sell homegrown talent and Club legends at cut price fees just to survive.
Then Evans comes along. Nobody has ever put more of their own money into our club. He could have insisted on much of it back. He did not, and yet he is vilified.
I would add that the consensus amongst fans was positive for each and every manager appointment under Evans (despite the fact that many ended up performing very badly), which is far from the case as a matter of course at most other clubs.
We absolutely weren't run well under Evans, that's clear. And at present, pretty much every element of the club is much much improved, not just on the pitch. But if Keane had turned out to be Kieran McKenna, things would have been very different. The most significant thing ME did wrong was not to have better luck with managers whilst he was still substantially funding the Club. |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:59 - Jul 3 with 3536 views | RegencyBlue |
Yes!
There were several of us who were pointing it out but too many people didn’t want to hear it. For me it was pretty obvious just by looking at what was happening on and off the pitch. In addition there was a Turnstile Blues article, which I can’t find now, where they spoke to anonymous insiders about how things were being run. It wasn’t pretty! [Post edited 3 Jul 2024 12:04]
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:01 - Jul 3 with 3496 views | Ryorry |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:45 - Jul 3 by HighgateBlue |
Absolutely.
The previous regime had put us in administration. The Club literally went bust. We had to sell homegrown talent and Club legends at cut price fees just to survive.
Then Evans comes along. Nobody has ever put more of their own money into our club. He could have insisted on much of it back. He did not, and yet he is vilified.
I would add that the consensus amongst fans was positive for each and every manager appointment under Evans (despite the fact that many ended up performing very badly), which is far from the case as a matter of course at most other clubs.
We absolutely weren't run well under Evans, that's clear. And at present, pretty much every element of the club is much much improved, not just on the pitch. But if Keane had turned out to be Kieran McKenna, things would have been very different. The most significant thing ME did wrong was not to have better luck with managers whilst he was still substantially funding the Club. |
"The most significant thing ME did wrong was not to have better luck with managers whilst he was still substantially funding the Club."
That wasn't down to "luck", that was ME's complete cluelessness about football, & his arrogance in not realising that he was clueless - he expected to buy a lottery ticket & win at his first attempt without any skill or knowledge being involved.
*Edited for grammar [Post edited 3 Jul 2024 12:04]
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:02 - Jul 3 with 3473 views | MattinLondon |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:19 - Jul 3 by Guthrum |
While we weren't run well under Evans, the point should not be overstated.
There was no asset stripping or dubious financial extractions. He kept us ticking over at a low level, rather than the outright cutting off of funds. He interfered very little in the playing side. All of these things - and worse - have been seen at other places. Plus it forgets the substantial sums (for the level and time) spent in the first few years.
Plus what we're comparing the Evans era with is exceptionally generous financing, savvy club leadership well endowed with PR skills and the good fortune to have landed arguably the best young manager working in England today. Rather below average with something close to the optimum. Value mild cheddar with Epoisses. |
I disagree. I would argue that sheer incompetence is just as bad as interfering in team selection or dodgy financial deals. True he wasn’t asset stripping and doing anything blatant but he was killing the club very slowly by running it down. He surrounded the club with people who had no football experience and had little idea how that world operates. Sheer incompetence.
It wasn’t bad luck that saw Evans employ dreadful managers it was awful selection and that bad judgment typified the culture of the club under him. [Post edited 3 Jul 2024 12:04]
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:04 - Jul 3 with 3455 views | itfckenty |
yeah I knew it in the first year of him being here, my dad worked as a coach there and ended up at the Women's manager and it was the reason he resigned, loads of coaches e.c.t all left as they started scrapping funds for the academy and just cutting back on literally everything. rotting from the inside. |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:20 - Jul 3 with 3251 views | wkj |
I think most of us saw it, but didn't want to acknowledge it. The tipping point for me was the Lincoln cup defeat.
Im not a big Mick fan, but I can't deny he done much better with the resources he had and kept us out of the poo, the ultimate bandage over cracks. However, it was clear that Evans was in over his head much earlier.
Many of us kept saying he needed a football mind in a senior leadership position, especially if he wanted to be anon - well, look at it now... Ashton is in the senior leadership position with Schwartz making the odd cameo here and there, but otherwise able to be anon with the fans. Had Evans had an astute person like Ashton, we'd never have spaffed near as much on crap players or managers. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:27 - Jul 3 with 3186 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 10:22 - Jul 3 by Cheltenham_Blue |
Yes. And some of us were saying it repeatedly from very early on, (and getting shot down for it).
But, forget Evans now, he's gone, that being said I won't be happy until his share is diluted so far that his box is on the station platform at Colchester.
But yes, let the f^cking charlatan go. |
^THIS (as approved by Gav). Alarm bells rang early on with some of the noises coming out of the club around how staff were treated. But going stary-eyed over Keane, who was clearly a bad fit for us, was the first danger sign that things weren’t going to go well. |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:33 - Jul 3 with 3113 views | muhrensleftfoot |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:14 - Jul 3 by Blueschev |
I thought it became clear soon after Clegg was appointed that we had had a severe lack of football knowledge and experience among those running the club. The way Magilton was sacked, the hiring of Keane, the comically poor way our transfer business was handled that summer, Keane not being sacked after our disastrous start to the season. It was all pretty shambolic. |
You seem to have forgotten that Clegg got the turnstiles painted! Short memories... |  | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:36 - Jul 3 with 3079 views | WubbleU |
Yes many of us did and had plenty of arguments about it especially towards the end of the McCarthy era. McCarthy should have been sacked long before things got as toxic as they did, instead he was left holding the whole sh**show together and being crucified for being himself and doing the best job he could as Mr Pragmatic.
Those that made a thing of the North stand roof and the turnstiles have been proved spot on about it being symbolic of the wider issues. | | | |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:37 - Jul 3 with 3074 views | Mullet |
Yep - having gone from giving ME a fair hearing over FFP to realising he was appallingly out of his depth.
Still some refuse to acknowledge it though |  |
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| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 12:42 - Jul 3 with 3017 views | hoppy |
| Did anyone realise how bad we were run? on 11:04 - Jul 3 by Ryorry |
Not sure about "integrity" given OlympicTixGate ...
The best thing he did for us was to sell us on to Gamechanger - seems to have done proper due diligence there, & I'll always be grateful to him for that. |
That is the one thing that I think gives him some credit.. he didn't just sell to the first interested party, but making sure that when he did sell, it was to the right people - and I think the last 2.5 years would be enough evidence that he got that one right! |  |
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