I think there’s no doubt that he didn’t buy Town for altruistic reasons : it was probably 80% investment opportunity, 20% vanity project. I suspect he thought installing Keane and giving him a decent budget would see us in the Premier League before the 2012 Olympic Games, with the exposure generated by having a top flight club in the MEG stable doing wonders for his hospitality packages, not to mention turning in a tidy profit via TV money. Having failed in that, he seemed ‘content’ to lose circa 6m per season under Jewell & then McCarthy in the hope that one of them could produce a promotion team. Once Mick was gone, to my mind he then decided enough was enough & the club must become self-sustainable, even if that meant league one. As long as 10k plus attend home games, with the salary cap thrown in, Town will need no extra investment to maintain a competitive ish side in tier 3. If we went up, TV & match day income isn’t that much better but the wage bill would go through the roof : meaning more lost millions every season. I thus believe that he has settled for league one & given Lambert a long contract so he can effectively wash his hands and let him & Taylor get on with running it. I think Evans is now on a long term strategy to recoup his losses by hoping that 6-7 really good prospects emerge that can fetch multi million fees. They’ll be sold with all the money going to MEG, & once the best part of £100m has been raised, he’ll look for a buyer. In summary, unless Town get lucky & have a crop come through all at the same time that can stay together for a few seasons, we aren’t going up. And unless an unexpected saviour comes along, Evans isn’t going anywhere until there’s been a successful fire sale. |  |
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