Town have finally settled their long-running legal wrangle with former manager Jim Magilton. The 41-year-old was sacked by the Blues in April 2009 and subsequently issued a High Court writ against the club to try to recover £352,083.33 in lost earnings from his contract which was up at the end of June last year.

The case was due to be heard in the High Court this week but the League Managers’ Association (LMA) says the matter has now been settled: “[After his dismissal] Magilton tried to resolve matters relating to his departure amicably and sensibly with the club, but the club failed to agree to pay him the sums clearly due under the terms of his contract.

"The LMA, with its solicitors RJW, therefore filed court papers for recovery of the sums due.

“It came as a shock to Mr Magilton, and all concerned, that the club’s response to the proceedings was to then try and find grounds to justify not paying him.

“The claim was due to be heard in court this week, but in a last minute climbdown, the club has unreservedly withdrawn the defence and agreed to pay Mr Magilton the sums due to him and all of his legal costs.”

Acting on behalf of the Northern Irishman, Paul Daniels of RJW solicitors said: “The club made various allegations against Mr Magilton, which we advised were completely without substance and that he had an unanswerable case.

“High Court proceedings were regrettably progressed, and despite reasonable offers to compromise the matter, the club still continued to raise yet more issues that were not relevant to the case.

“We are disappointed that the club took so long to sort this matter out but we are delighted that our client has won his case and been completely vindicated".

Magilton himself says he is sad that matters progressed as they did at a club where he played for eight years and spent three seasons as manager: "It was disappointing and upsetting that a club I had served so loyally for so many years, as a player, club captain and then manager chose to try and deny me the compensation agreed in my contract, when we sadly parted company in 2009.

“I tried to obtain a sensible settlement, and even made an offer for less than the sum now agreed, but they still would not agree to my proposals.

“Instead, they continued to raise more unfounded issues, which they either then abandoned or have now withdrawn.

“It has been a long, tiring and unnecessary dispute, but I am delighted that I have, with the support of the League Managers Association and its outstanding legal team, RJW solicitors and Paul Gilroy QC, entirely cleared my name and put the record straight.

“I still have fond feelings for Ipswich Town, a club where I made many friends and I wish the club all the best for the future.”

The club have issued a statement: "Ipswich Town Football Club can confirm that it has reached a mutually agreeable settlement with one of our previous managers, Jim Magilton, regarding an outstanding matter.

"The dispute and outcome of the settlement are a confidential matter between ourselves and one of our previous employees and as such we will be making no further comment on the matter."

Photo: Action Images

Tractorog added 11:48 - Mar 23 Whilst Jim went on to prove he is not perhaps the best man manager on the planet, the behavious of Clegg and Evans is hardly impressive in this matter. All very Keystone Cops.
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StowTractorBoy added 12:04 - Mar 23 Tell me this then Raedwald who else was in the frame to rescue us. The Club was spiralling out of financial control and I saw or heard no other bidders. Agree results and performances have not lived up to expectations and his business ethic may not be perfect but without his backing I dread to think where we would be.
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Garv added 12:17 - Mar 23 Obviously Evans did technically 'save us' with his millions but that cannot stop people criticising him when he pulls stunts like this! He deserves a rollocking from the fans in my opinion. Don't feel sorry for the poor rich man who is giving us his millions. He is doing it because he wants to, its an investment and you would assume that he enjoys doing it, hence he watches most games. That doesn't excuse him from completely mistreating an ex manager and club legend in Magilton.

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TractorRoyNo1 added 12:38 - Mar 23 let's not get to emotional about it, 350k is many years wages for most of the people who had to put up with the last year of his management
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thebooks added 12:47 - Mar 23 Poor from the club. To not pay off a loyal servant and then indulge in legal brinkmanship is shoddy behaviour, regardless of how good a manager JM was or wasn't. Doesn't indicate we're skint, just that the regime is hard nosed. But football isn't a normal business: no-one is particularly bothered when a high paid executive is booted out of a company, but when you sack someone who scored a hat trick in one of our club's greatest matches, people get annoyed. Rubbish PR, but unsurprising.

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itfc4eva added 13:30 - Mar 23 oh dear i dread to think how much compensation keane got when he got sacked.
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stiffshorts added 17:19 - Mar 23 A total and utter disgrace by Evans and his henchmen. Today I stand ashamed to be a follower of this once proud club. Evans and his ilk display all the "qualities" instilled in UK management by their rampant Capitalist masters. I sincerely hope "Magic" does well in future and hope he put this behind him. As for Evans & his sycophantic followers, I hope they learn from this debacle and clean their act up (their greed won't let them though). They've now got one season left to get us promoted. If not, I and I'm sure many others, will not be returning for more and the blame for the demise will lay at only one door!!

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Hiltzkooler added 20:32 - Mar 23 some utter utter tosh on here....no-one else was going to invest in Town to the degree that Evans has....review the pages from the end of the Magilton era...the vast majority were calling for his head...yes he was a loyal servant...yes he had a contract, but for goodness sake, look up dismissal under Employment law...poor performance is a serious misconduct issue, that ultimately becomes Gross Misconduct that is the grounds for dismissal. A compromise deal would be the way out for both paries in the normal world should dismissal through a disciplinary process not be fully demonstrated. There are always two sides to a story. However I agree it is not good press and therefore Evans and his legal team have fallen a bit shortin this respect specifically. But he is, so far to date, like it or not a benefactor of Ipswich Town...he isn't exactly turning a profit so far....not quite the mercenary portrayed on here.

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