I thought that since ME has taken over our debt has got worse. Can someone correct me, because if that is stabilising the club then I would hate to see a mess.

Ok maybe there is something in it, but although we're not in a great financial position (who is these days amongst the clubs?) ME has brought stability in that he gives managers time, seems to interfere little and gives some spending power (and has promised MM such).
I would have thought a club with Town's superb history, proximity to SE and only being 1 division away from PL would be an attractive proposition for some foreign 'shark'... no thanks, better with ME I'd say.

The 2012 Olympic games were obviously always key in ME's business plan when buying town and Clegg was always going to be influential in making this successful. Buying ITFC at the time he did clearly improved his brand identity during the run up to the games and i truly believe ME firstly with the appointment of Clegg and then with Keane thought this would result in premiership football before the Olympics started thus increasing brand awareness for his company and value in Ipswich Town. A total win for his business.
Keane wasted money,managers failed and now Clegg has been relieved of his duties.
Of course there will now be speculation if ME wants to continue with his investment in Ipswich Town but if he is a genuine backer rather than a hard nosed businessman just trying to use ITFC to make short term gains then we will all find out soon enough.
His illusive demeanour concerns me and the fact tha Clegg has now gone makes me feel for the worst. Hardly what the club needs facing relegation.
Be strong for us MM and TC because at the moment you are all we need to believe in to keep us up.

When Mr Evans first came to the club with all his millions i thought Ipswich Town were going to be huge and get up in the top league and play the likes of Man utd and Liverpool again.
He gave Roy Keane money to sign top players to add to some of the better players that we already had like Rhodes .Wichham .Garvin to name a few and what Mr Keane do he sold all these great players and replaced them with doughnuts and because of this man Town have being struggling since.
After the Keane saga along came Paul Jewell to try and sort out the mess and again Mr Evans gave him money to buy players and as much as he tried the job was to much for him and his worst downfall was bringing in to many loans and when we hit the bottom place in the league he had to go.
Then Mr Evans pulled out a master stroke and signed big Mick MaCarthy a top proven manager who was an ex international manager and had all ready got two other clubs promoted to tho premier league before and gave the job of getting Town off the bottom of the league and keep them up and so far Mick is doing just that.
At the end of the season Mick be given his money like the the manager before him and Mr keane who ruined the club to sign his own players.
Then you will see the loans go back and see some quality players come to the club.
No way will Mr evans sell the club when he has got a manager like big Mick in charge of things a manager who should be running a premier side not Town.
Mr Evans deep down knows his money is safe and he know Mick will get us up in the premier league and then he will start to claw some of his money back and even make money.
Mark my words like Mr Milne said Ipswich Town is not for sale.
Long live Mr Evans the man who saved our great club and we should all be grateful to this man.

no h32, im not slagging anyone off, not even you. just pointing out as many others have on here that you only ever seem to appear on here on a story that you can put a negative post to. my point to others was simply that having a go at these guys who only just into their new osts, particularly those picking on the fact that symonds is overweight is simply unnecessary and offensive. and has no bearing on the job they have to do. actually agree with some of the points youve made in your post as it happens. just be nice to see you post positively a bit more.

brandonsblues. yes, youre correct, the debt has got much larger. the difference is, that all the debt is to the owner. we owe nobody outside the club money(banks etc), so therefore the club is much more stable since me took over. tho the large debt remains.

If Mr Evans left this club he would leave the club now over £70 m in debt and you p[eople who support him should realize how he has done nothing but send us deeper and deeper in debt I wonder where the money from Wickham and Walters has gone not in reducing the debt .

Ipswich are now paying salaries for Marcus Evans employees.

Pompey serve as a perfect reminder of how important financial stability is in the modern game. Too many fans post on here complaining about the club's reluctance to splash cash about in big transfers and high wages, but that's not a sustainable way of doing things. Evans does a great job of sitting in the background and providing support when it is needed, trying to secure the long-term future of the club rather than exploiting it as a means to make money or service debt (as is the case with many of the modern owners). Perhaps he can be criticised for not making the best managerial appointments in the past but with Mick at the helm, I believe we have a manager capable of building a squad and leading the club forward.
As far as loans go, of course they're not ideal but they're being made to plug holes and try to stop the ship from sinking. Let's just hope that happens and the club stays up then let Mick have a clearout and squad rebuild over the summer. COYB!

Washbrook/truthhurts. Attendances in the past have not been nearly as good at times as they are now. Looking at the Bobby Ferguson era (the early 1980s) the football was not that good, especially in comparison to the heady days of Bobby Robson, but we were in the top division of the time and yet we struggled to get 12,000 for a lot of games; 20,000 was completely beyond us. Move forward a couple of seasons to John Duncan and the equivalent of the Championship (Division 2 it was then) and there were a number of games for which we could not persuade even 10,000 to come out to play.There never seemed to be any obvious reason why they declined from the peak of the late 1970s, or indeed why they picked up again, and stayed as high as they have, since the turn of the century. It certainly was not directly correlated with league position.

It is clear that these two people are: 1. "his Master's voice", and 2. interims, pending the "final solution" whatever that is (sale of club or new genuine footballing MD).

I agree with other posts here that the comments made by the new Director undoubtedly do not rule out the club being sold. ME will always make business decisions, first and foremost.

I do not agree that there are not investors out there who can see how to turn Championship clubs into profit making enterprises; even if the track record to date (Cardiff, Crystal Palace, Notts Forest, Sheff Wed, etc.) is chequered.

The fact that it is stated ME himself is taking a more "hands on" role, suggests to me that he is certainly NOT satisfied with his investment return at ITFC. It remians to be seen whether his patience runs out, or we are relegated, or he receives an offer he cannnot refuse.

Barring those, and with MM & TC improving the footballing side, my guess is he is prepared to give it one more season.

Firstly , I love the comments on hear 'we need a Footballing man running our club' OK ..., Like .., er .... Precious few about - what do they mean , an ex Pro !!! No thanks ( Terry Venables)
Secondly , Roy Keane did as much to move this club back into the mire as anyone
Yes it was an ME gamble on success but he set the rot in place in this team/playing arena - Rotten , loathed by most and the worst manager of people ever - we have never really recovered
Question to the floor is this - What do you look for in an owner
The Cobbolds - bottle of claret after a win , two after a loss with the manager ( Love it but not in todays world)
A fan and local businessman who got us up but then spent badly in developing and buying dud players ?( Liked DS but couldnt sustain us in the prem)
A 'multi millionaire ' who adds the club as part of his 'Business Empire' and appoints an experienced Sporting related CEO as he is 'Publicity shy
Or maybe we want a Billiionaire from Qatar/UAE/US/Brazil/india/Russia who hasnt a clue about English Football let alone Suffolk or the club and wnats a hobby for his son ?
Football has moved on so much from 5 years ago let alone 10 - 20 years ago
Which clubs do people look at with admiration and respect -
IMO Here is one for you .... READING .......Discuss

Sheepy may have had his faults but at least he was passionate about the club, understood the whole ethos on which were founded and above all was THE figurehead. What we have now is a faceless owner who is treating us like yet another franchise. We have now become a tax deductable vehicle within his business empire. We have gone through the stage of plenty and now we are going through the stage of famine. What we desperatley needed was a strategic plan underpinned with steady funding when he arrived and what we have got is a period of one extreme to the other.

The Evans years can only be described as an abject failure both on the field and the bewildering decisions made off the field have only compounded this. And for all those who say that Evans saved our club all I can say is er No he didn't!

JWM - What was the financial position of the club pre ME ? As a club - off the field - where were we heading ?

JWM

I certainly have no problem with Sheepshanks, let me make that perfectly clear. But, however, are you saying administration and selling of our best youngsters for peanuts was better than now? Come on.

At least now we can actually buy other team's younger and/or best players and are in a position to refuse bids (to a certain extent) on our current squad

How many loanees did we have when Sheepy was in charge?

Re ; Transfers and loanees - Clubs carry alot more loan players now than ever since the Transfer Window came in .
It is always difficult to compare one period to another , in any business. sport etc
Times were very different 10 even 5 years ago in Football
Abramovich changed the football landscape and we have seen a Glut of new style owners for good or bad - I would argue mostly bad
Our great club which we all follow passionately is no different
We eventually found 'success' back in the prem in 2000 but at what cost ?
That is the bigger picture - The obsession with 'winning promotion and then finshing Top 6 set us on a downward spiral ....... we couldnt handle it
None of us gave a hoot about an 'owner' when Burley took us up and into Europe
'Foreign Owners , Agents and Global Sky TV Rights ' have taken football into a whole new stratosphere now
If we want to play in the Big League we are , IMO heading the right way - and have the best manager and assistant we have had for a long long time - He will bring us success just give him time

BlueHerts

I agree with what you say to an extent but the big trouble has been that we have signed 73 players in 4 seasons! You cant expect to have any success when you go on like that! We have been crying out for stability within the team now for over 3 or 4 years which was simply unheard of before Evans arrived. This has never been our way of doing things and it has all come about due to Evans cack handed approach of trying to get us up at the earliest opportunity. We are all paying the price now for the lack of a coherent strategy and to get to the current situation where we only "own" 6 or 7 of the current first team is nothing short of scandalous! If this is what "modern" football is all about then you can keep it!

JWM - I think we both agree on many points and at end of it all just want to see a vision , some sort of plan - which has probably been lacking for afew years - Sheepy had his 5 year plan unfortunately it seemed to end there .
That is why i respect what likes of Reading have done - yes they have been up n down but they have pretty much stuck with it and of all the 'Prem'clubs I look at them as a club we could be like .. Not a big city club , but battling at right end of our league at least !!
Interesting to look over the last 4 years what our best team ( picking any players) would be !!! that could take a while - loanees count !!

Walberswick - ITFC and its employees are all part of the ME EMPIRE and hence 'his employees' check out their website - we are under 'Passion' I think ( as we are not a very good example of a well run business!!) It will all change under MM and TC !!

JWM

I agree with certain points you make, but dont be quite so blickered. We had our fair share of loans pre-ME too. Remember the inspirational Tony Dinning for example!?

That said we are getting too many in more recent times, i agree. But that is largely due to changes in the transfer windows to an extent. In Sheepshanks's day we culd buy and sell throughout the season (until his latter years)

I'm merely stating everything isn't as black and white as some people are making out...

Blueherts and Truthhurts

It's good to have a civilised and sensible debate without it resorting to the usual insults at the end! The best thing that ME has done so far is to appoint MM & TC but having said that these appointments should have been made in the Summer. If the worst does happen and we get relegated it will be all change again and can anyone honestly see ME sticking around if the 'unthinkable' happens?

Get a grip people we are not up for sale but everybody has their price and if someone came and offered him the price he would want I am sure he would sell. That is the same for every footbsll club in world. Lets face it if some one came up to you and offered you double what your house is worth you would snap their hands off taking it.

but if someone offered to buy the debt I bet ME would snap their hand off. Rio Cleggs departure is cost cutting and would be seen by a purchaser as an ideal situation - bringing in there own CEO without having to fire one first. The only asset the club has is its players and debt - not an ideal investment - need to get shot of the landlord IBC and then we'd be talking

blues1 - it's called realism - and being realistic in terms of seeing it as it really is. It's NOT being Negative.

In fairness,in recent times you haven't had to look far to see negativity staring you in the face with what's gone on at this Club - therefore not terribly easy for realistic people to be Positive about too much.

We have what (most of us anyway) see as being a sound Management Team now - but there is still MUCH that is very uncertain about this Club and what direction we are heading in.
I feel that uncertainty in as much that you never know what is coming out of the woodwork next - almost on a daily basis.
If this is the face of 'modern day football' then, as others have previously mentioned, is it really what many people want for there hard earned investment.

Stability is what we want - are we there ?? - or indeed heading in that direction ?? - who knows ??