Takeover talk has dominated the TWTD Forum and Town social media over the last few days but with little in the way of firm information yet having come to light. TWTD examines the gossip and conjecture.

Rumours of a potential takeover of Town had been quietly circulating for around a week before a Whatsapp message outlining the scenario went viral over the weekend.

The gist of the rumoured situation is that a US-based consortium is keen to buy the Blues from owner Marcus Evans.

A price of £40 million has been mentioned, which seems high for a club in Town’s situation in League One, and we understand £30 million is a more realistic figure.

The rumours suggest the group’s overall plan is to buy the club, inject cash to get it into a better position before selling it on again at a profit.

Current Bristol City chief executive Mark Ashton is variously claimed to be leading or playing some part in facilitating the takeover. Ashton’s alleged involvement in any way is unconfirmed and he is continuing his job at Bristol City, commenting on new manager Nigel Pearson’s appointment earlier in the week.

Ashton has worked at a number of clubs over the years. Prior to joining the Robins in January 2016, he was at Oxford United for 18 months from 2014 and with Watford between 2004 and 2008, having previously been a director at West Brom for 14 years.

Bristol City’s 2019 pre-season tour of the US has also been the subject of speculation among Robins fans, Ashton and owner Steve Lansdown having met with owners of USL clubs among others while on the trip.

On Tuesday night it was spotted that Brett Johnson, who recently became the owner of USL League One side FC Tucson, having been a founder of USL Championship club Phoenix Rising where ex-Blues full-back Frank Yallop was formerly president of soccer/head coach, is following Town’s official Twitter account and later liked a tweet showing the Blues’ goal at Hull.

In addition to Town, the 51-year-old follows Bristol City, as well as a number of other British clubs, including Salford City, Newcastle United, Swansea City and QPR.

Johnson is the founder of Fortuitous Partners and is also the leading figure in a USL Championship franchise which is set to launch in Rhode Island in 2023 and recently joined the board of Danish side Helsingør.

In July last year a company called Gamechanger 20 Ltd was registered at Companies House with Johnson among the directors, along with Mike O’Leary, who was part of the takeover at Oxford in 2014 which was led by Ashton.

Also among the directors is Berke Bakay, principal owner, governor and co-chairman of Phoenix Rising, who made his money from Kona Grill, a restaurant chain.

Speaking in January, Los Angeles-based Johnson said his organisation was “fairly close to making an investment in England”.

TWTD understands that there is certainly something in the claims of current interest in the club although with the personnel involved unconfirmed, while Town are yet to comment on the rumours.

Evans, who took control at Town in 2007, has said in the past that if an acceptable offer came in, he would be prepared to sell.

A number of parties have shown interest over the years, several in the recent past, but up to now with none having made much progress.

Photo: Matchday Images

dirtydingusmagee added 17:10 - Feb 25 the silence is deafening, ,what was the big ''face to face about today '' Lambert going ,staying,? Evans selling , not selling ? prob Lambert getting another extension to his contract more like , good news at ITFC is a bit thin on the ground ,dont get too excited .
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Bluefox added 17:10 - Feb 25 Regency Blue, if you look at the fate of Bolton, Wigan and Bury there is a lot still to lose. US investors would want to make money out of the club — in the medium term they would be aiming to take out more than the put in. Evans has put in money, but let the wrong people/manager spend it. Faceless US investors out for a profit don't seem a good bet to me.
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Saxonblue74 added 17:18 - Feb 25 I have noticed BA81 is a bit quiet recently too. Maybe he's getting stuck in behind the scenes with his facebook consortium trying to get a deal across the line?🤔
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Pencilpete added 17:23 - Feb 25 I hope there is substance to this. Evans may well be looking to cut his losses since hes already lost £100m and is losing £6-7m more every year £30m to cut and run might be tempting ....
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blues1 added 17:27 - Feb 25 Arc. I dont know why so many fans dont get it, that Evan's has already stated on more than one occasion, that when he sells, the debt will be written off. So whatever price he gets for the club, is all he'll get.
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jas0999 added 17:28 - Feb 25 The quicker we can get rid of Evans and Lambert the better.
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LuciBlue added 17:33 - Feb 25 Evans doesn't love the club enough and should sell to an investment group looking to turn a profit. Strange logic from some here.
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Saxonblue74 added 17:36 - Feb 25 Hold that thought Jas0999, despite the mess we're in the grass isn't always greener!
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Skip73 added 17:36 - Feb 25 Welcome to The Snickers Stadium in association with Pringles. Lol
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BromleyBloo added 17:36 - Feb 25 Everybody knows the only way to make any £ out of football, never mind substantial monies, is to be at least in the top half of the premiership/qualifying for European competition. If that's the business plan, sounds good to me, although to be honest after the last 13 years of total incompetence and decline, almost anything to the current regime sounds good........................!!!

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blues1 added 17:36 - Feb 25 RegencyBlue. It was never Evan's intention to cone in and sell for a profit. Else, hed have seen that wasnt gonna happen within 3 or 4 years of being here, and instead of putting in £7m a year for the next 9 years, would have sold before, and cut his losses.
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Gcon added 17:39 - Feb 25 We can but dream. Hard to imagine any new owner doing a worse job than Evans. Got to be a massive positive.
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Bazza8564 added 17:39 - Feb 25 Interesting that this has now broken. Rumor i heard started from inside the club (no i dont) back end of last week and this is why PL and ME are jogging along until it is done, saves ME paying him off. Would explain a lot. And those who have doubted the impact of the last two performances and the energy should think again. So New manager new money and the only way to sell it on again at a profit is to improve our league standing. Why would we ever object? Im interested on the performance of the club on the field not in the boardroom, I'd have pretty much bar Donald Trump here if we were in the Premier League and stable. Interesting timing on Thierry Henry's resignation today too......

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RegencyBlue added 17:47 - Feb 25 blues1 I make you wrong! https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jan/09/ipswichtown.championship
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algarvefan added 17:49 - Feb 25 I love these rumours, they grow and get more extreme with each passing moment on social media. I have one question, 'What good did a new owner and a cash injection do us in 2007?' Any businessman will want to see an improvement and a profit. My local team in the UK was Exeter City, I watched 2 so called businessmen asset strip that club and walk off with the money, as a few others have said, be careful what you wish for. As bad as you think Evans has been, there are much worse sharks out there in the pool. It would be nice to see a consortium with a genuine interest of passion for our club. I'm not getting excited yet, nowhere near it!

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mib added 17:49 - Feb 25 Bazza.8564, why spoil your post by mentioning that habitual liar, Trump
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jonnysuave added 17:53 - Feb 25 I find all this money talk rather vulgar. Football transcends money. It's football, in its purist sense, that we love. The memories and experience, good and bad, of following Ipswich Town FC that we should hold dearest.
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Dolphinblue added 17:58 - Feb 25 Buying to make a quick buck........long gone are the days of Cobold ownership or Sheepshanks......RIP FOOTBALL RIP ITFC if this is true...
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Cloddyseedbed added 18:01 - Feb 25 No smoke without fire.
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ArnieM added 18:04 - Feb 25 Evans has said more than once thst if and when the club is sold , he would write off the debt. That should be an end to it therefore .
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norfolkbluey added 18:06 - Feb 25 It happened at Leicester so why not at Ipswich? We can only hope because there is no more money coming from ME. To be fair he is having a terrible time during COVID with little money being made especially from his main revenue. I think it would be just what this club needs with new management and organisation.
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therein61 added 18:06 - Feb 25 Marcus is not(after the hammering his empire has taken in covid) going to take 30 million and walk away from whatever else he has put into the club that's silly as are these rumors, unless of course what is the site worth for development?
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MonkeyAlan added 18:08 - Feb 25 I'd be happy if they improved us. I'm not interested if is going to be more of what we have had in the last 13 years.
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BangaloreBlues added 18:10 - Feb 25 Anyone can start a rumour. Interesting this one has gained so much traction... but with zero evidence. I'm not believing a word of it until there's an official statement.
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westernblue added 18:20 - Feb 25 I have to admit that I don't know how the present ITFC indebtedness is precisely structured. But a large part of numerous US-led takeovers in British football has often involved a loading of indebtedness onto the target club through its holding company structuring. So it's not a win-win panacea by any means (quite apart from issues arising down the road if the club continues its footballing decline). It's never easy to compare like with like. But Swansea City has had a difficult time. Its supporters trust holdings were greatly reduced when the majority shareholders sold to US investors (admittedly the club's financial position could not at the time be compared with ours). But the Swans were relegated two years later amid much acrimony over the level of financial commitment the new owners seemed willing to make. That said, things are turning round there - they are well managed, but are still constantly having to sell their high value players. Again, our situation very different in these respects. If anything comes of this, as much information as possible in the public domain will be key to how excited or nervous fans should be.

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