blues1 - sadly wrong - if only you knew the truth.

....... no worries - the sensible followers / supporters of this Club will do the sensible thing .......... until some kind of normality returns (if ever it does).

"I think that Evans and Clegg aren't stupid and won't work beyond their means which would get us into trouble."

So how come we are now over £70m in debt (it was £32m when he took over) ? There is NO area that we are better than 5 years ago, in fact almost all areas are far, far worse - squad, manager, attendances, income , season ticket sales youth set up

Of course Evans won't walk away whilst he is charging us interest on a £30m debt that he bought for £6m. But with the wage bill being cut even further down to £6m could someone tell me how they think we can compete with clubs comeing down from the PL with £16m parachute payments. And whether this drop in wages is the reason why players don't sign, and why we are sat 2nd from the bottom.

We are not only drifting but sinking ............. very fast

Why does Clegg and Evans thinks Jewellio will pull this club round ???? He failed at Sheffield wed. and Derby !!!! it is alright Clegg saying we got Higginbottom in on loan to say that we are doing something,, but there was no need for Jewellio to get rid of Delaney, so soon,, he could have held on to him till Jan. at least,, I am sure that would have been the cheaper option too , if they are trying to save money..

Personally the 'feeling' I get after the Roy Keane plan went wrong is one of an owner looking after ITFC as a business rather than trying to get us promoted as the shrewdness in new players wages suggests, IF and it's a big IF Marcus Evans still has serious plans off getting us promoted it's probably through default through the 'financial withering' of teams by FFP rules over a number of years.
How much Simon Clegg gets to play his 'own hand' when it comes to transfers and wages is really unclear, it's all very well saying that he works for the owner but isn't it similar or the same roll a managing director is to a company? I'm sure ME does set out a budget but I'm sure to what degree Clegg has his own mind in certain situations.
As mentioned Clegg and ME are letting the support down with such poor public relations, we do need to hear more from our owner and his intentions/vision and particularly where our club is going in these most negative of times - 5 years spells 5 years of a really poor period in our clubs footballing history.

HARRY10 - not far of the mark at all with that post.

karen brady not a football person? she's been in footbal for 20 years (and was only 23 when she got involved!)

actually karen brady is exactly the type of ceo we could do with. although in my view clegg has become a scapegoat for a lot of wider frustrations about the club

Harry10

ME owns the club. He is not charging US interest. He's charging himself. OK the money he has invested may be shown in the books as loans but they can only be loans to himself. The only way he can get his money back is by selling the equity in the club. If as you say the total debt is £70m there are not going to be many buyers for his shares. Thus the original investment premise remains the same. He will only get a return on his investment if we get to the Premier League. While everything else you say may be true it is clear that ME can only walk away if he accepts a loss.

RevAdrian - You are the man!

Blue041273, you are way, way of the mark. Marcus Evans is not lending hinself anything. Ipswich Town Football Club Company Ltd is a seperate legal entity. It is being charged interest on (amongst ither things) a £30m loan that cost £6m. If no interest is actually paid from the company to the lender MEI then MEI can write this annual non payment off against tax elsewhere. Much as what WONGA do in the sense that it hands over a small amount and soon sees it balloon up. Ours is now over £70m.

The higher the debt, the higher the amount of interest that can be offset against tax - and it is costing him nothing. There is no way he wants to walk away. This was pretty much the plan from the start, other thah he has also syphoned of around £11m from the sale of Walters and Wickham.

I would suggest you check on how much of this £70m is loans and how much is actually interest and interest upon interest. That is why we are where we are, why the wage bill is being cut year on year and why Marcus Evans has no interest in promotion.

You need to open your eyes to what is really going on

HARRY10 - thank heavens someone knows the 'score'.

Don't expect many to understand your post though.

Harry10/H32

Apologies for the delay in responding

It is you are way off the mark. While ITFC is indeed a separate legal entity it is pretty much wholly owned by ME or another company within the Marcus Evans Group of Companies which are all beneficially owned by ME. Thus ITFC is just part of the ME empire of businesses which are ultimately owned by a parent company which in turn is owned by ME. All the cash ploughed into ITFC comes from elsewhere within the ME Group of Companies and for accounting purposes is reflected in the ITFC accounts as loans. ITFC is only allowed to trade if it has sufficient resources to meet all its financial obligations. ITFC currently operates at a loss and losses (which include any interest payments on loans) must be covered by additional capital funding (either from additional inward investment or by additional finance via loans). ME through his Group companies provides this finance. However the losses in one group company (ie ITFC) may be offset against profits from other companies in the Group for tax purposes and thus tax efficiencies may accrue to MEI though the relatively poor financial performance of ITFC. But the critical point is that any inward financial support to ITFC is merely an adjustment within companies in the ME Group of companies. The actual financial position of ITFC as a separate operating business is pretty grim at the moment but perversely can actually be viewed as a good thing as it means ME can't walk away without sustaining a massive financial hit to his Group of Companies.

This is not the same situation as before ME when ITFC was in hock to the Banks and Finance Houses. ME did not just take over the debt, he took over the business as well. ITFC is now in hock to MEI but as ITFC is part of MEI it's financial support is relatively secure and it doesn't matter what the level of debt in the accounts is currently. We could have gone the way of Portsmouth but for ME and still could but while the possibility of retrieving the financial situation through promotion to the Premiership remains MEI is unlikely to pull the plug just yet.

In the meantime the day to day operation of ITFC is now regulated by FFP rules which mean that the club must balance expenditure against income. Income in the Championship is getting harder to grow, particularly for ITFC where poor results and performances has meant poorer revenue from ticket sales. Of course interest on loans due to ME (or his Group Companies) impact negatively on the club within these new regulations which mean that enhanced revenue streams and cost cuts become even more important.