Town owner Marcus Evans has given his backing to manager Mick McCarthy and outlined the five-point, “sustainable and consistent” long-term strategy he believes will provide the Blues with “the best chance of promotion out of the Championship” in a lengthy column for today’s match programme.

Evans says he has every confidence that McCarthy will get the Blues back on track, despite the disappointing first half of the season.

“No one is more frustrated about that than Mick and the players and no one is working harder than Mick, his staff and the players to turn it around,” Evans writes. “Mick is vastly experienced and I’m confident he can get us progressing again.”

He adds: “Plans for the club to move forwards are always at the front of my mind.

""This has been a tough season so far, and, no excuses, we haven’t lived up to our potential with results and on occasions performances being below the standards of the last two seasons.

“That said, I am not the only one who has seen bright points and I believe if we follow the strategy outlined in this article then we will not be that far away from competing, once again, at the upper end of this league.”

The Blues owner, who is entering the 10th year since his takeover, says Town are competing on a “non-level playing field” with eight Championship clubs with parachute payments following stints in the Premier League and others having the benefit of very substantial - if often temporary - funding from their owners.

“My view, based on the finances available to us compared to those with parachute budgets and the small group with, often short-term, huge owner investment, is for your club to maintain a sustainable and consistent strategy, which I firmly believe provides a foundation each season for a promotion challenge,” Evans continues.

His five points are a “significant financial commitment to the Academy”, providing a sustainable and competitive squad salary budget, making funds available annually to buy younger players who can be developed, a stable management team and producing a side which will play “attractive and exciting football”.

You can read Evans’s column, in which he goes into each of these points in greater detail, in full on the club site here.

Photo: TWTD

howdonblue added 08:12 - Dec 30 Utter BxxxxX
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BillBlue added 08:22 - Dec 30 We know this particular person has not got a clue about football but this is telling us he is either a con merchant, a LIAR or both!
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northernblues added 08:23 - Dec 30 If cellino isnt a proper and fit owner then neither is evans, at least cellino and leeds now have a good manager!
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H1960 added 08:39 - Dec 30 What a load of crap after reading that depressing garbage I can only conclude that any hope for the future of our once great club is lost McCarthy and Evans are so far up each others arses you can't see the soles of their feet
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grumpyoldman added 08:42 - Dec 30 The column fills me with dread, Evans believes MM is doing a good job. He mentions MM giving a chance to Andre, Miles and Josh, a game here and there is not a chance it's a fill in for his favourites. Saying we pay good wages so we can attract experienced players does not mean we get better players, good example Douglas, Brentford didn't offer him a new contract, we sign an experienced player towards the end of his career, has it benefited the team? Paying good wages to experienced players is only short term one season at most. Varney & Best have really added nothing to the team, but at least they are experienced, both panic signings. If Evans looks at MMs past history he would see MM has never been known for teams playing attractive football. Oh well a bit longer for me to wait before returning to PR, because getting rid of MM is the only way I will return I don't care about any offer the club comes up with I unlike some do not swallow the BS coming out from the club.

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geminimustang added 08:43 - Dec 30 If you'll accept the parachute payments and short term high funds available to other teams give an unfair advantage and then accept,Knudsen,Williams,Smith,Bishop,Coke,Digby,Hyam are all out injured.Then accept that Dozzell isn't ready for a full 90 minutes contribution to a game,please explain how MM should be thrown under the bus?Expansive football?ITFC don't have the players for that as the start of the season showed.ME is a good guy,a great,successful Businessman.My view,is MM needs funds and ITFC could well do with another investor on board with ME looking for somebody willing to put money into the Club.A guy willing to lose that money.I accept there's not many of them about!

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smellmycheese added 08:43 - Dec 30 No wonder he hides in his box and we don't see him. All makes perfect sense now. Not going to invest a penny. Will continually sell any talent we have to cover his losses, which are getting larger , meaning more sales and quicker sales. The two Ms about to become the most hated double act in our history, I do not see this panning out well at all.
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vanmunt added 08:52 - Dec 30 How depressing, happy new year everyone its going to be a stinker with regards to Ipswich Town. Boycott is the only recourse, doesn't look like I am going to Portman Road for a while.
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RegencyBlue added 08:57 - Dec 30 So basically a long winded way of saying more of the same! That's me done after this season, no way am I renewing to watch this man continue his destruction of our once great club.
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ABINGTONBLUEBOY added 08:59 - Dec 30 I will continue to support the team during this difficult time, but can not support the Manager or Owners tactics. This is my strategy for attending Ipswich Town games. it will remain in place until there is a change of match tactics and serious investment in playing staff. 1. I will not renew my Silver membership. 2. I will sit in a lower priced seat. 3. I will not purchase any club item from on line, the shop, the refreshment bar. 4. I will not purchase a match day programme. 5. I will not purchase a ticket any earlier than 1 day before the match. 6. I will not enter the stadium early. 7. I will not take my seat until the latest possible. This will be my peaceful protest. There are far more than 10% of fans who are disgruntled, perhaps there's more than one way of protesting.

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Mick_Mills_Tache added 08:59 - Dec 30 Several points in his 5 point plan do not make sense or just don't fit with McCarthy... Firstly, McCarthy will NEVER play attractive and attacking football, he never has done. It's always been about solid defences. Which leads me onto my second point; developing youth from our academy is brilliant news....but where do they go from there? I only ask as Mick will not play them ahead of his "different class" senior players..he's already proved that with Emmanuel and Kenlock who were both given their chances due to injuries and both showed their 'senior' counterparts up quite considerably! Finally, the sustainable and consistent budget approach just will not work, especially, at the level that you're doing it, Evans. What do we do? Give the manager a million pounds to spend a season? Do you spend that on five £200k players or go and buy a £1m player? It'll take years to build a good enough squad to challenge for promotion. And that's even if you can keep the first few players that you signed who've got fed up of not challenging or have been poached by clubs with a bit more ambition! Not to mention in the meantime you'll have more and more clubs going up and coming down again with bigger and bigger parachute payments to contest with. Think it's time we accepted it, folks, we will never play in the Premiership with Evans at the helm. Get used to mid table mediocrity - if you aren't already after 15 years.

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H1960 added 09:02 - Dec 30 I love ITFC the club i have supported for the last 45 years but hate everything else about it at the moment
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grumpyoldman added 09:04 - Dec 30 Geminimustang when trying to support MM how can you include in your injured list, Digby & Coke who have never been first team regulars, Knudsen who has only missed the occasional game and is replaced by a better player Emmanuel, Williams who was injured when we signed him and when he was fit not given a chance. A matter of opinion but do Hyam or Smith really improve the team! Agree Dozzell is not quite ready but could be given time of the bench. Playing attractive football is a philosophy that is an anathema to MM, who should really get a job in Health & Safety as he is risk averse.

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Kuqicoo added 09:23 - Dec 30 All spin and I don't believe a word of what the Club or Evans says anymore. The bad football hasn't been occasional over the last few seasons. Its been pretty regular. Luckily we had a goalscorer who masked things. And more exciting football? I'll believe that when I see it as our manager uses the most negative tactics possible with no plan B. And plays people out of position. Is he suddenly going to change? I think the club needs to open its eyes at the fans who are leaving in droves, and the generation of youngsters being bored to tears by the apathy and dire football. We are treading water..and even that is proving difficult. I'm starting to not care. That makes me incredibly sad.

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Mick_Mills_Tache added 09:23 - Dec 30 Geminimustang - Knudsen isn't even the best left back we have. Digby and Coke have never really been anywhere near the first team. Smith is about the same level as Berra is. Williams was injured when we signed him, was declared fit and then couldn't even get in the team ahead of Douglas?! Hyam, although great that he is an Ipswich lad, isn't really first team quality and Bishop hasn't been anywhere near the form that he was in two years ago. McCarthy had Knudsen, Bishop and Williams (the only three you mentioned that are actually first team players..) fit at the same time for a considerable time and only Knudsen was playing regularly! What does that tell you?! As for Evans is a good guy and a great, successful businessman - is he really a good guy when Brazil are wanting to try and extradite him to charge him for illegal activities?! Not the first time either that he's been investigated for the legality of his business; was it the the rugby World Cup last time?

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d0nk added 09:30 - Dec 30 Do what you want evans you absolute c#nt, I wont be going to watch that pile of crap until muck is gone. Its a total embarrasement from top to bottom. Never have I been so ashamed of my club. So tell me this, what happens if we are comfortably beaten by another average championship team today???keep plodding on with your head up your backside??
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NormEmerges added 09:30 - Dec 30 Only geminimustang seems to have looked at this in a measured way - indeed most of these comments look as though the writer has not bothered to actually read Marcus Evans' article. It seems to me a measured and sensible view and the kind of plan a properly run business should have. You may not like that ITFC hasn't got the muscle to compete for expensive resources but accept it, and then realise that the approach stated is the only one that guarantees the future of our club. I don't want an approach that says splash the cash, fail and go back into administration - that way almost certainly leads to the lower leagues. I agree that MM has not helped his position by not giving up and coming players more time in the team, but I believe that their time will come and even MM will have to be more expansive. I think we are two or three years from a reasonable punt at promotion and I'm prepared to wait, enjoy the occasional good performance and provide wholehearted support to the team.

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Blandford added 09:40 - Dec 30 I'm sorry but parachute payments and FFP are cop-outs used by owners who either cannot or won't financially back the club to the extent needed to compete at Championship level. IF owners had a genuine grievance with the way FPP has been administered by football authorities then they would have sued the FA, and anyone else they could, by now.
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delias_cheesy_flaps added 09:40 - Dec 30 Evans you're a pr!ck if you think this spiel will wash with the fans, utter drivel, oh well the downward spiral is set to continue by the sounds of it!
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Daleyitfc added 09:48 - Dec 30 and there you have it : essentially a Corporate propaganda sheet that ignores the reality of what is happening ; written by whoever's turn it is at the Marcus Evans Group to be 'Marcus Evans'.
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Mark added 09:48 - Dec 30 I wish we had a strategy for promotion rather than "the best chance of promotion" as that sounds like even the club does not believe it can happen.
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delias_cheesy_flaps added 09:49 - Dec 30 Geminimustang & Normemerges are you for real? You must be MM and ME alter-ego's on TWTD, that's the only conclusion for anyone offering some kind of defence for the utter drivel we've been fed over the past 2 years.
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westernblue added 09:50 - Dec 30 If as some others are saying this is really more muted support from ME, then he also could usefully give some serious thought to what Championship clubs operating at the lesser end of the financial scale are doing. Two weeks after seeing the most dismal of dismal performances, at Bristol City, I went back to Ashton Gate with a friend who supports Preston. That PNE won 2-1 is not my point, but rather how they played - a pacy midfield breaking quickly, supported by the full backs, and with strikers playing off one another always available in the box. Even Bristol City looked far better that day than against Town. Essentially, and I guess that they must have been set up to do that, Town had simply stifled the life out of the earlier game. No doubt Bristol fans had gone home relieved with the win, but everyone there who enjoys football knew that the day had been wasted. Town's low quality of football has been consistent (even setting-in some months before we stumbled into the play-offs). After so long, Mick is very lucky still to be in post.

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micky_1560 added 09:52 - Dec 30 So the investment each year is to remain at £5m, purchase the odd £1m player and pay high wages for over the hill players on loan or get the odd loan gem such as Lawrence. The only thing we can do with this budget. As someone else mentioned, this would take years to build a team, with some of these players moving on in any case. We are a championship club running on a league 1 budget, and still punching above our weight! This will be the same for years to come. Players are to be brought through via the academy, great, but one mistake and they are cast aside again, even after playing well. I'm sure Sir Bobby's youngsters made mistakes, but it is all part of learning and keeping them in the side promotes belief, drop them after one game, and you break their confidence. I understand the budget, but not the style of football. I'm sure with the right blend of £1m purchases and youngsters, we could gradually formulate a 'footballing' team playing attractive attacking football, but not with the current manager. (Leeds are finally seeing their young players come through after many years in our situation). I firmly believe our current manager does 'shackle' the players for each game and now they have had enough and they have lost the enjoyment of playing! At least play players to theirs strengths, play them where they enjoy playing and they will play better. I think what frustrates us as supporters is that the side shows no sign of collective progression since our 1 off season and lucky 7th. No sign of the team playing together, understanding each other's play and certainly no pace or movement off the ball. Football is not 'rocket science', but our current manager seems to think so! It would be gutting to see us relegated, hopefully we won't, but if it encouraged us to build a passing attractive side for the future, at least ITFC would become enjoyable again instead of festering away year on year... Happy New Year to all.

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lordpukka added 09:59 - Dec 30 Well, I have heard from inside the club that Evans has to fund the club to the tune of £1m a month, which explains why the money raised from sales has not been invested in players. Much of what he says is right, that we have to cut our cloth accordingly and we are going to be financially poorer than probably a dozen teams in the division. And that would be fine if we had better players coming through the academy, and a boss who was more progressive and was part of that vision. MM is not a manager to build for the long term, as good as he is with some money, he isn't great at bringing players through. We are a selling club, and realistically, Championship is where we probably belong, so going up would only benefit ME as he'd be able to pocket the money from the old Barclays debt. But perhaps a hungrier manager with more to prove might be a good idea?

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