I think, you can throw as many figures at it as you want, but at the end of the day, we have to be thankful for Marcus for keeping us afloat, whether we like it or not. Another spell in Administration would lead us down the Pompey route, and no-one in their right mind wants that! We have to believe that, at last, Marcus has found a manager who is straight talking and will tell him in no uncertain terms what we need to do to win promotion, and I believe Marcus will listen and help him financially to achieve what everybody wants. It is vitally important that all fans get behind the blues in our last 3 home games and cheers us on to get the points necessary to avert a disaster this season!

@FENBOYBLUE. A loss is a loss mate, yes you can avoid having to pay corporation tax by not SHOWING a profit, ie. breaking even; and if you're in the fortunate position where you are making lots of profit, it makes good business sense to have a few other companies to share the load around (like owning the training ground and charging the club rent for it) known as giving from the right hand and taking from the left hand. HOWEVER, if your business is making a £17mil loss (year after year), the fact you don't have to pay corporation tax is the least of your worries. I'm quite certain ME would much rather be paying owed taxes on a profitable business than bankrolling one haemorrhaging money.

A profitable business is a good business, it pays wages, employs people and it's saleable/worth something. The question is really, how long does ME keep pumping money into it. It's like a clapped out car, yes you can keep taking it in for repairs, but comes the time when you say, stuff this, and you go find something that's less hassle and does the job without the grief and let down.

I don't know ME, or know much about all his business ventures, however, I run my own business and believe me if something or someone is not paying it's way or earning money, there's no point having it, but if that someone or something is fixable and has potential then you can make the decision to give it a go. But bare in mind ME has owned the club for some years, he's tried new managers, he's put his business acumen/people into the club and its operation, but still it's making a loss and not particulary progressed - and as an asset I'd question what it's worth to him and his group… or anyone!

My overall thought is ME didn't buy us last week, he's had time to learn, invest and generally build the club up to achieve his vision of presumably gracing the dizzy heights and financial glories of the Premier Leauge — we're a long way off that. The appointment of MM is Evan's last throw of the dice I feel. The new management has already seen and given us a drastic change in results, spirit and optimism, the ship is definatly steadied. I doubt anyone forsaw the situation of about 12+ clubs all within 5-7 points of the drop come April, but that's the situation we're in and I hope we get out of it. If we survive the drop (we will) ME needs to hope his appointment of Big Mick is the right one, as if we don't progress next season (and I don't mean promotion, but just having a team and staff that can actually challenge and make the club an attractive proposition both on and off the field) I can't see why ME would want to stick about, unless he can't afford to leave???

Business is measured in success, profit and value, right now (like most other clubs to be fair) we're not showing much of any, and haven't for sometime. Goes to show, money can't buy you everything and I for one really hope at somepoint in the near future we're not reading about finiancial loss to the tune of nearly £20mil again and we're on here discussing will we make the play-offs, exciting results and the prospect of top flight football.

But no Fenboyblue… I don't think it's about not paying tax 

Mick Mills Tash,you are the 2nd person to raise point about selling for building land.I mentioned this at the time pointing out it is on outskirts of north Ipswich and therefor prime development land'
Lets not kid ourselves Marcus is a businessman first and foremost with no affiliation to the town,recall he looked at taking over Southampton before settling on us.
At the time of share issue(Own a bit of ITFC)club owed £30m but think this had increased by time MM purchased club but think he got a good deal
Obviously hasn't worked out as he had hoped,as getting into the prem would have repaid his investment.
ITFC barmy army-Have no doubt he would leave debts or factor these into sale price should he decide to sell?walk away;but dont think he would do this short term especially as club is paying out over £3m annually in interest,most presumably to ME

It is quite disturbing that the training ground was sold off nearly a year ago (or even further back) with no one being told. Surely as shareholders in the company that runs the club, ITFC Plc should have been informed. And why to Marcus Evans (Guernsey) ?

What else has been sold (what else do we actually have ?), that we have not been told about ?

Why are our debts "owed almost wholly to companies owned by Marcus Evans" .........owed to 'companies' ? Who are these companies ? I thought the debts were owed solely to MEI.

Something somewhere is very, very wrong and I have an awful feeling that is is not going to end well and we might be another Brighton, spending a decade or so trying to put our club back together again.

"The accounts also show that the club's training ground was sold to Marcus Evans (Guernsey) for £1.32 million with Town now paying an annual rent of £40,000."

Is this not yer classic asset stripping? The only bloody capital asset this Club actually had

So we made a loss of a gnat's whatsit off £16 million. How would this leave us next year with the FFP being in force?

I thought the whole idea of tightening the purse strings this year was to be able to meet the FFP rules, e.g. operate within our means.

From Skysports:
''Ipswich's wages-to-turnover ratio is one of the highest in the Championship at 119% - an increase of 17% on the previous year.''

So as the turnover went down last year I suppose thats undertandable to an extent, but who is getting these huge wages?

Also not so sure about this training ground be sold to ME, is there something sinister in that or just a way of getting money into the club.
Overall have to say it is a worrying figure and the people in the club need to think of ways of balancing the books better (getting more people in with better ticket prices would help)

"The accounts also show that the club's training ground was sold to Marcus Evans (Guernsey) for £1.32 million with Town now paying an annual rent of £40,000"

Given land prices that looks quite cheap and very strange this is the first we have heard of it. Another asset no longer owned by the Club!

Perhaps some people will now hit the reality and really begin to understand we are in the real world and all this bull about we must go out and sign him, him and him is really pie in the sky stuff. The debt is masive and will limit us in the transfer market. It also show we have a he'll of a long way to go to reach the fair play levels also.
Some really need to wake up and smell the coffee

Really interesting review of Town's place coimpared to other Championship clubs here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/the-championship-card

Kinda shows how competitive the Championship is getting...

I would love to see what Mick would do I he had the kind of money at his disposal as Keane did... he's done really well with the club and without spending very much