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

ashp19 added 22:30 - Feb 25 Just to clarify I liked a tweet from the president of the United States but I have no intention of running.
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istanblue added 23:46 - Feb 25 Looks like Evans might finally be getting the message that he isn't wanted here anymore. #EvansOut
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Help added 07:31 - Feb 26 Be careful what you wish for
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Dissboyitfc added 07:46 - Feb 26 Whilst like everyone i want better, and like everyone(mostly) i dont believe Evans is going to take us anywhere good! But this selling to a consortium who want to make a quick buck could go terribly wrong! What happens to the youth setup, if that doesnt make money in the short term, that could be a casualty! There are those on here who will want to see Evans gone no matter what, i would love to see a better owner a passionate owner take over, all this money if true that this consortium could potentially throw at the club doesnt automatically mean they are any of the above or that it will lead to success, look at Derby! I believe that any success ITFC has had in the past or may have in the future was and in future tense will be based around passion and a love of ITFC, not solely money!

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Barty added 07:57 - Feb 26 Fingers crossed it happens then bye bye Evans & Lambert and good riddance
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Help added 08:34 - Feb 26 So do we think that moving from what was originally a faceless owner back in 2007 to a faceless consortium would be better. Admittedly ME has made some mistakes, probably from the outset sacking Jim for Roy, and did not learn, nor put into place the right people. However what makes us think this rumour wold be any better. Remember back in 2007 all of us fans in Portman Road waving money like we were Harry Enfield's character Loadsamoney. Oh how silly we look now. Unfortunately as much as I hate to say it up the road they looked at what made a club good. They looked to possibly the best organised league in the world Germany. Got a German manager and modelled their club on the best of both. PL has eluded to this many times, much to most fans disgust. But listen to him he is trying to point out there are better ways of running this club, look around. So think will it be better or if it goes wrong could it be a lot worse.

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trncbluearmy added 09:05 - Feb 26 If Evans was to do now what he should have done in the first place, leave the then current management team in place , or now build a competent team of experienced football people, some with Ipswich backgrounds, and then disappear into the background to pay the bills, provide a competitive wage structure and provide reasonable funds for new players he would get my support over a yank consortium who will refer to ITFC as a soccer franchise. Trouble is the man just does not learn his lessons and listens to the wrong people.

1

Cloddyseedbed added 09:21 - Feb 26 Like Help has alluded too, not far up the A140 is an extremely well run club. Delia and husband do not have nowhere near the wealth of Evans but have a very well run and respected club. Delia was once an Ipswich supporter and wanted to buy into the club. She was rejected. Look what she went on to. Huge sums of money do not guarantee success, the right people in place with the right experience do. We all want our club to progress and to be seen to be improving. Under Evans we are doing the opposite, he has not the love, knowledge,enthusiasm or funds available for our club to be our future. It has been a disaster for him and us.

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BcarefulwhatUWish4 added 09:34 - Feb 26 Didn't know Delia used to be an Ipswich supporter. Good that TWTD has put out an article about the rumours, but hard to guess whether any have a base at the moment.
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Michael101 added 09:52 - Feb 26 Lamberts comments about Randy leaner the other day then this got me thinking .but am I adding 2+2 and getting 5 .watch this space it's more exciting than the football.
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IpswichT62OldBoy added 10:06 - Feb 26 Delia Smith did the BBC FA Cup Final run up through the day , its a knockout etc, in 1978. Her Mother-in-Law was the Domestic Science teacher at our school in Diss the '70s.
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MonkeyAlan added 10:07 - Feb 26 I want Evans gone, or at least put someone in charge who is a football person, and melt in the background, let a good set up run the club, pay the bills and finance the club properly. Doesn't need to cost millions, just let football people do their job. Then ld be happy if he stayed. Because l don't trust these Yank consortiums. I still think with the right people around him Evans would be the better option. He just needs to let go of the reigns to the people who have more knowledge in footballing matters.

0

Barty added 10:16 - Feb 26 Whatever - surely things can get any worse than they are now
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HKitfc added 12:22 - Feb 26 I don't understand why everyone is worried about a faceless consortium. Evans lost interest years ago, the club is in downfall. He is well aware that this is hugely loss making, and he clearly feels he's put in enough. I'm sure if he thought throwing in £10m on new players would get us up the leagues then he would do it, but he doesn't have that confidence. He's now in loss minimisation mode. The money he puts in is piled onto the debt, on the faint hope that perhaps we will get promoted and someone will pay off the debt. As a businessman it makes no difference how much money he has or hasn't put in - you don't say.. oh I've put in £40m I'm not walking away until I get that back. He says.. how much money am I going to make or lose in the next 5 years, Well if I'm down £40, and I'm going to spend another £7m a year for the next 5 years, I'll cut my losses now. As for a consortium coming into to make a profit. Theres nothing wrong with that. It happens in most business. Different investment firms come into a company at different stages. The fact that ITFC doesn't own any its ground, or any star players, means an investor can't come in and asset strip because there are no assets to strip . The only way it makes sense as an investment is if they know they can come in and get the club for a low enough price to enable player and manager acquisitions to move the team up. Sure it can go wrong... but it has already gone wrong... under Evans the club is on a slow bleed to non-league football.

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wewerefamous added 12:52 - Feb 26 HKitfc - perfectly said, couldn't agree more.
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RobsonWark added 20:49 - Feb 26 Why would a pension fund want to invest in ITFC? Let's just hope they don't asset strip the club and then sell the club for £1. They could easily sell of our young players and the rest of the so called pros and sell the training ground to a housing property developer. Although this takeover sounds exciting this could in fact be the death of Ipswich Town. Look what Philip Green did to BHS!!

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