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Lambert: Bury and Bolton Situations Not Healthy For the Game
Friday, 30th Aug 2019 11:19

Boss Paul Lambert says the financial struggles of Bury and Bolton Wanderers aren’t healthy for the English game and has praised Blues owner Marcus Evans for the way he subsidises the Blues.

Bury were expelled from the EFL on Tuesday, while Bolton, who Town beat 5-0 at the University of Bolton Stadium last Saturday, had their survival confirmed on Wednesday when their takeover by Football Ventures was finally completed.

“I said it last week, it’s not good for the English game with two clubs in a professional league finding themselves in trouble,” Lambert said.

“Bolton is obviously a different scenario but Bury have basically been put out of the league and have got to start again. It’s not healthy for the game.”

Do the situations at Bury and Bolton put Marcus Evans’s Town ownership into greater perspective, with Evans subsidising the club’s annual loss, which in the year to June 2018 was £5.2 million, a figure in line with most previous seasons?

“I think if you’re an owner you can never win, you can never keep everybody happy,” Lambert reflected. “If you spend £100 million people want you to spend £200 million, then they want you to spend £300 million.

“When that doesn’t happen and a club starts to fall and goes into these situations people say, ‘The owner’s not doing anything’. People forget.

“And that’s the great thing about Marcus, he’s kept the club going when you see a lot of clubs going to the wall.

“He’s only one investor, he’s only one owner, so it’s all his money. He’s spent a helluva lot of money in the years gone by and the football club’s got an owner who does subsidise it really well, and has spent a helluva lot of money on it and Ipswich has still got a football club.

“It would be absolutely horrendous, imagine this place without a football club. We’ve one team in the town, it would be catastrophic, it really would, so you can’t knock him for doing that.”


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bingboast added 11:32 - Aug 30
Marcus Evans, "you cant knock him for doing that" you can bet there will be commentts on here that deny that, will shout their mouths off, still with short memories of when we were on the brink, which was responsable for the end of our Premiership. Well Done ME & PL. coybs
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Bluearmy_81 added 11:42 - Aug 30
Yep we've got a club. Start from that yardstick and everything Evans has done is wonderful and worthy of praise.
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Bluearmy_81 added 11:44 - Aug 30
If he's losing that much a year why doesn't he drop the price and sell?! Does he like losing money? There are buyers at the right price, cc there always are.
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rabbit added 12:01 - Aug 30
I would suggest bluearmy_81 the very simple answer is he just loves ITFC and is working to get the business viable and self sustaining in perpetuity.
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Bluearmy_81 added 12:06 - Aug 30
Comedy gold that rabbit, thanks!! 😂😂
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Bluearmy_81 added 12:07 - Aug 30
Well done ME?!!! How?! Why?!! 😂The aim is to go up not down 😂
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rabbit added 12:25 - Aug 30
Ok bluearmy_81 you have my opinion as to why I think he won't sell, kindly let everyone on here have your insight into why you think he is spending so much money annually.
Also please tell us how much the business is up for sale for because you obviously know otherwise you would not be able to say he could sell if he dropped the price.
Looking forward to seeing your answer because as we know you deal in, as a psychologist, facts and evidence.
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SouperJim added 12:36 - Aug 30
Fans will argue about this forever, has Evans saved ITFC from a terrible fate, or has he spent around £70M to see us go backwards. The answer is probably both. Things could be better, but they could be worse. Lots of poor decisions, lots of money poorly spent, but at least he's not a total basket case or a scumbag trying to profit from our demise.

Be careful what you wish for!
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shouldistayorcounago added 12:48 - Aug 30
I think the biggest problem with this debate between those of us that aren't keen on Evans, and those of us who are is that it gets a bit extreme on both sides. My stance is this;

Yes, we should be glad to have a financially responsible owner who understands the parameters in which he has to work within in order to keep us afloat.

Yes, we should be pleased with the level of investment made in the club in the time Evan's has been with us.

On the other hand;

Evans took over a club which was making steady, if not exciting, progress year-on-year with Magilton. Evans came in to great fanfare of 'we will be a Premier League side within 2 years'.

Unfortunately, the money he invested was in a shoddy manager with a terrible attitude, who he allowed to throw stupid money at pretty shocking players. Tama Priskin, Lee Martin stand out, but even some of the ones who went on to play in the Prem couldn't give a monkeys when they were with us.

After Keane left, again, we got a man who wasn't fit for the job, and we had more players who just didn't care, on stupid wages - Michael Chopra, Jimmy Bullard, Ivan Campo.

Then Mick comes in and did what Mick does, assembled a decent team on a shoestring, with lots of old warhorses and an abundance of loans. Once that relationship broke down, we took a punt on an exciting but relatively unproven manager who was again given stupid money for players not fit for the task.

The result is, we have a manager who has had to work within a small budget in a league below where we were when we started.

This isn't even to mention all of the talents various managers have driven out of the side and have gone on to prove themselves more than capable.

Evans may have invested in the club, but he's never invested smartly. Evans may have made decisions, but they've never been wise ones. Evans may understand finance, but he's never understood football. We are where we are because of poor decision making and although it could be a lot worse had he been a reckless spender, it could have been a lot better had been a reasoned owner with footballing knowledge and awareness.
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raycrawfordswig added 12:49 - Aug 30
Don't like Evans but what he has spent has saved us.Think he was and has been very badly advised by various people supposedly in the know.Feel sorry for Bury fans could so easily have been us in that position.
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Bluearmy_81 added 13:02 - Aug 30
Rab, I don't know what the price is but its obviously too high as there are no buyers 😂 That's pretty obvious. Whys he still here? He doesn't love itfc to the tune of 5m a year, that's complete rubbish. Of course he's offsetting tax using itfc losses, not sure how much though.
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rabbit added 13:07 - Aug 30
All perfectly reasonable sensible points of view from Souperjim, shouldistay and raycrawford for what its worth my opinion at the time was that it was all very exciting getting RK in, how wrong could I have been.
As we know now the bad signings were by and large due to the fact so many players that were approached wouldn't play for him.
Then onto Paul J, again I thought an exciting prospect but again as we all now know the team was so fractured by RK it all went wrong.
On to MM my least favourite appointment but again I was proved wrong because he brought back stability but in the end it was just so desperately boring and we were in grave need of a change.
Most called for an up and coming manager and we got one, oh dear!!
The inevitable after all these issues has happened and ME has stayed when he could easily have gone.
Choices in football are all about opinions and smart choices we can only hope and support.
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rabbit added 13:17 - Aug 30
Oh I do feel sorry for you bluearmy_81 you are so naive, how can you possibly come on and say the price is too high when you don't know, he might be prepared to sell it for £1 and guarantee funding for the next year, which if he didn't care would make more sense.
You have also used the old cherry about tax offset so many times before, you claim to love ITFC, so surely you have investigated this aspect and worked it out by now. Personally I would love to know and my accountant would also.
If you make this ridiculous claim time and time again without bothering to find out there is nothing credible to your argument.
Remember you deal in evidence, so now produce some.
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SamsDad added 13:22 - Aug 30
As Rabbit says excellent posts by Jim, Ray & Counago.

Is anyone happy with where we are now? No

Does anyone have the right to tell ME how to spend his money? Some people seem to think yes,but most realise no

Is ME making a mint out of tax relief? No of course he isn't, you have to lose it in the first place, so you can only reduce losses, you cannot magic money up out of thin air

Do all the posters on here want ITFC to do well? I'd like to think yes, but I do wonder.....
6

Bluearmy_81 added 14:18 - Aug 30
Rabbit, it's you who is niave if you think he isn't offsetting tax in other areas of the group against ITFC losses, it would be utterly ridiculous for an accountant not to under the circumstances, it would be like pouring money down the drain!! 😂
-2

itfcasual added 14:52 - Aug 30
Just what part of £100M invested is that you aren't getting?

The problem in football is that footballers get paid too much. Full stop. Their earnings are frankly ridiculous and completely out of the step with the value that they create.

For all his lack of omniscience we are very lucky and should be thankful to have a benefactor like Marcus Evans.

Did he make the right appointment in Roy Keane? No. No he didn't. Roy Keane is a cast iron **nt. He deliberately ended another player's career with a vicious and premeditated tackle. There is nothing else you need to know about the man.

Should Evans have appointed him? No he shouldn't, not a man with such obvious and glaring character flaws.

Did Keane have a substantial footballing pedigree? Yes, but he's a **nt.

Was Paul Jewell an exciting appointment? No.

Was he a reasonable to make? Yes, but quite dull.

Did MM have the sort of track record that would make him an appropriate hire for an aspirational Championship football club? Of course.

Did he get past his sell by date? by quite some considerable margin, but he had a contract and loyalty has always been important at ITFC.

Evans has made some bad hires, but, apart form RK, who I wouldn't have let within 100 miles of PR, they were all reasonable appointments to make at the time they were made. But, the reality is that only 3 teams a year get promoted to the PL and all of the teams in the Championship want to be those teams. So the only real possible complaint against Evens is that his magic wand wasn't strong enough for ITFC to be in the top 3 at end of any given season.

On the other hand Bolton Wanderers splurged loads of money yoyoing up and down from the PL to the Championship until eventually they maxed out all their credit cards, and now they're f****d. Is anyone seriously saying that is what Evans shold have done instead?

It may not be thrilling, exciting or sexy but having a football club that IS financially stable means that we live to fight another day. ITFC will, hopefully, be here for the long rune, and the chances are other clubs run be chancers won't be.

So, thank you Marcus, you're a gentleman and I for one would happily buy you a beer, and I wouldn't even get a receipt.

3

Bluearmy_81 added 15:33 - Aug 30
Why don't you go the whole hog, gobble gobble!! 😂
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itfcasual added 15:38 - Aug 30
Becaiuse, perhaps unlike you, I'm not a homosexual
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Bluearmy_81 added 15:50 - Aug 30
Lighten up its Friday 😂
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itfcasual added 15:57 - Aug 30
:)
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rabbit added 16:07 - Aug 30
Come on bluearmy_81 answer the points put to you, I know a fair bit about taxation etc so I'm not in the least naive, why haven't you even bothered to investigate it? If you remember last time you used the "common knowledge" get out, reference ME's interest charges to the business you were wrong, evidence is what is required.
Two points put to you; you dodge one with gibberish and pay no attention to the other, it may be easy to pass off your lack of knowledge to the adolescence on your facebook page as the psychologist you claim to be, but not on here with generally more mature posters.
I believe the real answer to your facebook page is Stokholm Syndrome.
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Bluearmy_81 added 16:10 - Aug 30
Seriously though, his magic wand wasn't strong enough to get us in the top 3?! (Do you mean 2?!) He's chronically underfunded us for years, never reinvested big sales funds and spent minus 6m net last summer. That's why we are where we are. You lot actually boggle my mind. 🤯
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rabbit added 16:59 - Aug 30
What is this minus spend you keep banging on about bluearmy_81 there was probably only two teams in the championship who didn't A.Villa being the obvious one.
Shef Utd minus £5mil NCFC minus £35mil even Derby County had a minus spend of nearly£1mil
So seriously though address the points made, why has ME not sold the business and continues to lose circa £5mil per year? and exactly what are the tax benefits given to his Companies that lend the money to ITFC who I believe are not generally based in this Country?
0

itfcasual added 19:06 - Aug 30
How do you make a million pounds from football?

Start with a billion.

(or get paid 500k to warm the bench at ManU as a player...)

Football financing is not sustainable, it's a pyramid scheme that is starting to collapse. Unless the top clubs who attract the mega millions decide to share out the loot more fairly down the pyramid then we will see at lot more Bury's and Bolton's. There isn't an endless supply of Marcus Evan's willing to bankroll the debt of unprofitable clubs and certainly none that I've ever heard of, apart from Marcus Evans who:

1. want to prop a loss making business with their own cash never expecting to see any of it again and
2. support Ipswich Town

If anyone happens to know of any other suitable interested parties looking to become ITFCs sugar daddy feel free to share the knowledge. If you don't know of anyone else willing to take up the hot seat then perhaps give some consideration to giving your support to the guy currently in it.

Three teams get promoted, 1, 2, 3.
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Bluearmy_81 added 21:12 - Aug 30
He's been a fcukin disaster mate, even my dog can see that. Stop bigging him up ffs
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