Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Lambert: Evans Should Tell the Fans What’s Going On
Sunday, 4th Aug 2019 12:00

Boss Paul Lambert has urged Marcus Evans to “tell the fans what’s going on” in relation to the club’s incoming transfer situation, something he says he expects the Town owner to do.

Lambert, Evans and general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill spoke briefly in the stand after yesterday’s win at Burton, with all parties looking pleased following the result and with no sign of any acrimony. Evans and Lambert also met on Friday when the owner was at Playford Road.

“Me and Marcus get on really well, I said to you yesterday, we get on really well,” Lambert said when asked about their post-match chat.

“He’ll say his bit, I say my bit and somewhere we’ll hopefully meet in the middle.

“He’s as frustrated as everybody else that we can’t get players or money’s too high or we can’t get anybody in. He’s frustrated, he’s the owner of the club, it’s his club but, as I said yesterday, the support at the football club is phenomenal, that’s an incredible plus, it’s a brilliant club, it really is, a really brilliant club, the supporters make the club.”

Did they discuss the transfer situation when they spoke on Friday? “It is what it is, you asked me that yesterday. He’s frustrated, I’m frustrated, I don’t like it, maybe he doesn’t like it, it is what it is, we can’t go and buy anybody, simple as, we just can’t do it.

“He’s one owner who has put a helluva lot of money into it and if he’s not got the money to do it, fine, totally fine, but tell the fans what’s going on, which I’m pretty sure he will do.

“Tell the fans because that support there deserves to be kept in the loop about what’s going on, it’s too big a support, it’s too good a support and I think if that happens and everybody’s transparent it’s not a problem.

“But you get frustrated because if we lose James Wilson we have to put a midfielder [Cole Skuse] back to centre-half.

“I’ve got to mix and match when we don’t have players and for the size of the club I don’t think it’s not good. It’s not healthy for a club of this size not having a squad that can sustain maybe 60 games.”

Lambert says there has been no progress on bringing anyone in, while there is no interest in any of his players.

“None, as I stand right now there’s absolutely nothing going out, there’s nothing coming in as it stands right now,” he added.


Photo: TWTD



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



JaySwitch added 13:26 - Aug 4
This is exactly what ME needs
1

JimInGreensboro added 13:30 - Aug 4
Business rule #1: if you put your bottom line above your product line, you will fail.
3

herfie added 13:34 - Aug 4
Bart's obviously held his tongue, acted with dignity but, having moved away from PR for the immediate future, has decided to speak. Not just for himself, but on behalf of the others who remain, ‘suffered' under the disastrous PH era, but feel less inclined to speak out. But invariably in football the truth - or something like it!- eventually outs.

Bart's interview serves to confirm what is now common knowledge. A risk taken by ME that failed spectacularly, wreaking untold damage to the club, it's players and staff and us supporters. Unless PL receives some modest financial backing - now - to have an equally modest chance of repairing the collateral damage, then are left with just words and good intentions. ME has to jump 3 immediate hurdles: communicate with us, be honest with us, be truthful with us. We deserve nothing less.

8

Sixto6 added 13:38 - Aug 4
If the rumours about Evans wanting to sell the club are true.....And I believe they are ! surely the best way to sell the club is if it's successful ? So how about giving Lambert one of those bonus payments from transfer sell ons ? he will no doubt invest it wisely and be able to push for promotion, making the club more saleable asset !
9

Cakeman added 13:44 - Aug 4
Well said Paul Lambert.
In my own mind I am sure Marcus Evans would sell up if he could so he could get back the many millions he has invested and lost. However what is there to sell? The large debt? Unless I am mistaken the club only owns the buildings and not the land they are built on. Not sure who owns our training ground though?
2

shouldistayorcounago added 13:51 - Aug 4
Cakeman - I'm pretty sure Evans owns the training ground as well but I might be mistaken
3

midastouch added 13:51 - Aug 4
Wooly74 I have a bad feeling your information might be sound. Hopefully I'm wrong but my gut thinks it might be true. Fortunately my gut isn't always right but sometimes I've ignored it greatly to my cost. Lambert is pretty much calling Evans out here and so the two might well be linked. Better for Evans just to come out and be honest with the fans if he does want out. He's never admitted that to us in public yet although most of suspect that he really wants out. I've said for a long time he lost interest long ago when his speculation for Premier League promotion failed much earlier into his tenure.

The club debt issue is obviously very concerning. If he tries to wriggle out of that looking for loopholes in the wording / contract then that's a scary prospect. If he did resort to such a tactic and left Ipswich on its knees then he would be a hate figure for Ipswich forever more. If he wants out he should do the honourable thing and walk away signing off the debt as happened at Sunderland fairly recently. Any trying to renege on the club's debt will cause a lot of acrimony. If he walked away and took care of his agreed responsibilities then of course that's his prerogative and would be best for all concerned. Even that would cause us a headache unless we can find another buyer or consortium that can fill the void and there doesn't seem to be a queue of potential buyers lining up to take over! And we might even jump out of the frying pan into the fire if we get an owner who throws a bit of money at it for 1 season and then just walks away. We've seen that happen at other Championship clubs and it never ends well. Only really Derby seem determined to keep throwing money at it for as long as it takes and that could still end in tears as yet. There were rumours at the end of last season they were starting to really feel the pinch after lots of seasons of over speculating. Trying to get a good balance between ambition and financial prudence is walking a real tightrope outside the Premier League with player wage demands having spiralled out of control for a long time now.

If Evans did just want out (and thus would sell to any bidder) that would contradict what he said in his interview. Worth reminding ourselves what he said last time on record (on some of the key points) in case this all turns ugly. If however he's as good as his word on some of these key points we don't need panic as much as we might fear but if Wooly74's source is sound then we should expect some major headaches going forwards.
https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town-owner-marcus-evans-gives-first-big-int

Hopefully he's got enough emotional attachment and sense of responsibility (after all this all happened under his watch, he appointed all the managers such as Keane and Jewell and arguably sacked the best one we had of all of them in Jim Magilton) not to leave us in a huge hole but businessmen are usually very cut-throat when it comes to investing large sums of money so as ever ultimately (going forwards) actions will speak louder than words. We're going to need to pay close attention to what happens going forwards. If things turn ugly it threatens to quickly overshadow and undo all the good work taking place on the field. After all we've got off to a winning start away from home which is never a bad thing. So that's the good news! But remember the old saying, "do you want the good news first or the bad?" Well 3 points away at Burton is the good news. But now I'm bracing myself for the bad news should Evans drop a bomb on us in response to Lambert's public airing. I sense something is about to come to a head.
6

FenboyBlue added 13:58 - Aug 4
Whether Lambo carries on speaking out or not, Evans needs to communicate something to the fans. He needs to accept the strategies of the 10+ years he was running the club in the Championship didn't work and to repeat the same strategies a league down will probably end up the same way. Build a team and don't sell it, keep it!
1

BlueandTruesince82 added 14:02 - Aug 4
Put in the context of Evans will do his usual pre season state of the union in the programme for the 1st home game of season and add that to the other comments and thankfully this story is rather less ominous than the headline suggests
0

itfchorry added 14:07 - Aug 4
Evans has quite rightly been called out on this-

He just can't get it right - He will have plenty to
answer for when Andre joins that lot up the road which
sadly shows his lack of intention to this great club.
3

blues1 added 14:09 - Aug 4
Kropotkin123. I totally agree with you and others that he should come out and tell us the truth of the situation as it stands. And that for many of us, that would be good enough. The trouble is tho, as has happened when hes spoken before, the likes of dolphinblue, bluearmy81, jas0999, and a few others will simply say hes lieing. So the guy cant win. But yes, he needs to do it anyway



0

Ipswichbusiness added 14:22 - Aug 4
I am not one of the “Evans out” brigade. I understand that Mr Evans has important and time consuming commitments elsewhere.

Nonetheless he is the owner and Chairman of this club. We need some LEADERSHIP from him. He cannot just slough it off onto lieutenants, he has to be more visible and explain what the plan is and how we are going to get there.
0

bluesince76 added 14:27 - Aug 4
Well done Paul Lambert this should have been done in the early MC carthy years.
3

londontractorboy57 added 14:27 - Aug 4
blues1 If he did make a statement the Numbskulls on here wouldn't believe what he said.
-4

Saxonblue74 added 14:36 - Aug 4
Wooly74, makes no sense to cash in on any talent we have if what you're saying is true. Who is going to buy a football club in huge debt and with little left by way of assets?
2

midastouch added 14:39 - Aug 4
Marcus Evans quote: "With Paul as our manager, we have the right man to take us forward. I will provide all the support I can to him..."
This was said before the season ticket renewals when he apologised for our relegation. What since?
And Lambert clearly doesn't feel Evans is living up to his promise of giving him "... all the support I can..."
8

Carberry added 14:43 - Aug 4
Further evidence our club is heading deeper into the mire when the manager openly criticises the owner.. You would have to be blind to see what Evans's attitude toward to club is now, his mismanagement, neglect and lack of ambition has been evident for a while. However I have a different view of Lambert to the majority, he constantly plays the 'great club', 'great fans' cards to protect his backside, he's always telling us about his wonderful talent as a player and coach but the truth is he's historically a losing manager coaching in League 1. Let's not fall for his BS too.
-3

BlueandTruesince82 added 14:47 - Aug 4
Wooly.... yes, may well be the case.

I've said for years that could happen..... for all the get out of our club talk there are not going to be many takers for a provincial club that looses money hand over fist....


We don't have the potential of Sunderland size wise so its not the potential money spinner it was when Evans bought.

We all know he had an in and out plan that was to sell up once we were promoted but I can't see any rich Oil barons or Oligarchs looking for an unfashionable 3rd tier club to restore to its glory days
0

midastouch added 14:50 - Aug 4
@ Carberry, I can see your argument, I think Lambert is good at the PR talk and playing to the gallery, he's also clever at managing expectations. However, I don't know his precise historical record of League One (in terms of overall winning and losing percentage) but I do know he won League One with Norwich at the first time of asking so he certainly has that going for him on his CV. Or did you mean League One in the old sense (so as in the Premier League now)?
0

Bluearmy_81 added 14:57 - Aug 4
Would only be spin and platitudes anyway, he has form for 'telling em what they want to hear.' Actions speak louder than words, it's not hard Evans just back the manager ffs
5

Carberry added 14:58 - Aug 4
Midas, I meant his managerial career, particularly recently.
0

Wooly74 added 15:08 - Aug 4
Dozzell Bobblehat, the source is very real...
0

Churchman added 15:10 - Aug 4
I would just like to see Evans gone. It's death by a thousand cuts at the moment. If the club had to reform and start again, so be it. Portsmouth (and others) had to do it and are now clearly recovering. With the potential fan base we have, we could do the same if it came to it.
4

tractorboybig added 15:12 - Aug 4
if lambert walks does it really make any difference?
-9

Davidwb20 added 15:19 - Aug 4
Firstly thank you PL for caring about the club and recognising the incredible fan base that exists! As I have said on numerous occasions you are the best thing to happen to ITFC since Magilton and we all know what happened there! You have been called out ME, time for a bit of honesty and integrity please. This situation worries me regarding the future of ITFC. In a lot of ways ME you have created your own downfall with so many bad decisions around appointing Managers and giving them transfer budgets to blow all barring MM who in my opinion had an over inflated opinion of himself about how brilliant he was as a Manager (unfortunately no people skills though) So please do the decent thing for all of us fans and tell the truth, after all there is a reason why PL is asking you to be honest.
5


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024