Bluearmy81 - and at the time Evans came in, you were the voice of opposition were you?

"The man genuinely did his best"...

And his best was nowhere near good enough!

Any debts he had to write off to push through the sale were of his own making, due to his overinflated ego, his catastrophic, perennial, soundbite of a 5 year plan and his abysmal running of the club into the ground.

I have no sympathy for the man but I'd like to thank him for one thing... selling up and getting out!

Onwards and upwards!

COYB

>Paulc

What an inane comment!

Paulc... when Evans came in, did ANY of us know how poorly the club would be run from that moment on?

NO!

I don't think anyone would have decried him taking over at the time... with hindsight, it was probably the worst moment in the club's history but, without a crystal ball, none of us could have possibly known.

How anyone can try to defend a guy, who took us from where we were to where we are now, simply does not compute.

He hasn't written if off, his effectively bought a 5% share in Gamechanger with it. He'll end making money with his 5% share. He saved us from administation and then proceeded to run the club into the ground. I thank him for saving us but that's about it!

He did not SAVE us

Bluearmy - people aren't " gushing " they are just being reasonable . Yes his tenure was a complete disaster and I don't think anyone is unhappy about the takeover but he has still done the club a massive favour by cancelling this debt , and as for Ghosts comment of " so he's cancelled a debt of 96 million, so what " that is just staggering. Its fine to criticise and there is no argument on some points of Evans tenure but credit where its due .

I suspect people may have misunderstood the write off etc.

We should understand that the huge debt & accumulated losses were NOT as a result of Marcus Evans investing £100m of cash into the club - it was by him assuming the £40m debt (for a knockdown price) from Aviva & Barclays & then charging notional interest at c.10% compound every year - which was charged to the P&L - by the end it was probably running at c.£10m in interest accumulated per year - all owed to himself - this is not money he invested, just money Aviva & Barclays we're owed that he paid them £8m to have reassigned to be owed to him instead (so he could return a healthy profit one day on promotion after racking up the interest owed each year on year) A clever “private equity” approach had the dream of promotion come true, as he could have “repaid” the accumulated interest to himself & made a fortune on his initial £8m outlay for the debt. His shares would also have rocketed in value! in the first couple of years

He was charging the club huge interest on the old Aviva & Barclays debt (which he bought them out of for a rumoured £8m) - so in theory the 10% interest charged by him on the whole £40m debt he took on from Aviva & Barclays would have covered his initial outlay in the first couple of years (it didn't work out as planned!)

When we didn't get an early promotion payday - he battened down the hatches & sold off the best players (Mings/Webster/Wickham etc etc) to keep his cash investments to a minimum (see Alan Lee's interview )

It's all very complicated - but I think many supporters have misunderstood the financials & misinterpreted two things:-

1) his ever increasing charging of compound interest on the £40m debt he bought from Aviva/Barclays

& this has been confused with:-

2) real cash investment into equity of the club or even a cash loan (the two are NOT the same - as the losses each year were largely due to the interest charges - not further cash loans or investment)

I hope this goes some way to explaining why the £96m write off is not money he has paid in & lost.

True the players were worse but not the style of football. where were all the others willing to buy up the town I wonder , why was Evans chosen? 10 mins to go 1-0 up
boot (the only) ball into Portman Road ........

Sheepshanks and the board at the time bear a lot of the responsibility for our current plight by selling Town out to a smarmy, disingenuous, egotistical spiv (my opinion) with no agenda but to turn his initial investment outlay to take control of the club (paid about 20p in the £, according to some sources, to AVIVA & Barclays) into a massive profit upon promotion back to The Premiership.

The failure to make a quick profit on his investment meant selling off player assets to cover some of the operating costs, whilst still charging interest, year on year, on the debt he purchased on the cheap, building it up to before unseen levels.

Evans obviously wasn't shrewd enough to make this little money-making racket work, as he seemed to handle every critical decision badly and obviously had no clue what it takes to run a successful football club. He took a punt and was found lacking in all areas, hence the inevitable slide into oblivion and the worst 14 year period in the club's history.

So those of you who still defend our "benefactor" due to his "saving" the club need to wake up and smell the coffee.

He was not a philanthropist, he did not plough money into the club out of the goodness of his heart because he "loved" it... he was just a multi-millionaire doing what most of them do... trying to make even more money at our expense.

I'm not saying the current owners don't have the same agenda... of course, they have to make money on their investment to appease their shareholders but, they have been very upfront on their goals, seem to be putting their money where their mouth is by backing the manager in his hunt for better players, restructuring the club as a whole to provide a solid base for success going forward and examining every decision in detail to make sure they point the club in the right direction.

If it fails, then we'll all pay the price, yet again, for showing renewed optimism in men with money and the gift of the gab, however, our current owners seem to be very different from Marcus Evans in the way they want to operate. They are showing signs of actually doing what they have said they will do and that inspires me to think there is a light at the end of a dark, fourteen year old tunnel.

They'll need time for this process to start to work but I have a lot of faith that this time around, we have the right people in the right positions to create forward momentum and start to build something that we, as fans, can get right behind and be proud of.

I really hope the ghost of Marcus Evans gets put to rest and our club can get back to winning ways very soon.

Onwards and upwards.

COYB

Paul c did you not listen to brian knights on radio Suffolk ?? He was very much against Evans buying itfc . Pity people did not take any notice of him.

KernewekBlue if he didn't buy us, what would've happened to our club?

If it hadn't been for Evans financial input there is a more than even chance we wouldd no longer have a Club to support.
He left to much to people he employed, and trusted to run the Club for him - they are the people who let the Club down, and it included people on the payroll at ALL levels.
It all became too cosy for all.
As for the idiotic comments on here from people who know no better than to do such - best treated with deserved disdain as applicable.

Would wish him no harm but the support he is getting is remarkable. He was a disaster for our club. Totally incompetent. Only regret is he still owns 5%.

Plenty of experts on here who criticise Evans, but note that people ‘in the know' don't do so ... !!!
That should tell a brain cell something - but the critics didn't have the Money to become the Owner of the Football Club in the first place, OR to pay off the Debt.
That should tell a brain cell something too .... !!!

No sympathy from me. Evans wasted all that money because of his arrogance and his need to control everything. If he had appointed a proper CEO to run the club (along with a good infrastructure) on his behalf things would likely have been very different. Glad this clown is no longer running things here.

Thegeniusofmuhren, if I was a practicing psychic with a crystal ball, I could tell you for sure. Unfortunately, no-one has that capability.

All I know is, we are where we are because of the ineptitude of Marcus Evans.

I take it you think that our club would have folded if it weren't for The Messiah?

Well, he was not The Messiah, he was a very naughty boy!

You have obviously swallowed the pasty-faced, smarmy, smiling blatherings he trotted out every pre-season hook, line and sinker.

There were options, according to reports, of other buyers waiting in the wings to purchase the club, given the right opportunity (I am not privy who they were).

Evans, being a businessman, identified an opportunity to turn a quick buck for a smaller amount of outlay by buying the debts owed to AVIVA & Barclays at a much reduced rate (20% of the true value has been reported).

He mismanaged his investment and our club in that gamble and dragged us down with him to the lowest low we've had the misfortune to witness in the club's long and proud history.

There weren't holes in his hands and holes in his feet but there were certainly holes in his 5 year plan (which lasted 14 years unrealised) and his knowledge of how to run a successful football club!

Hence, we are where we are... led to rot and ruin in League One, having had a dismal squad who served up utter tripe on the pitch. The managers having to shed our prized assets for what amounted to a handful of peanuts, limit their spending on incoming quality players in favour of bargain basement has-beens and journeymen, damaging our club more and more each year to the point where relegation was a nailed on certainty.

Ex employees of Town obviously knew what was happening, as has come to light in recent revelations. Even McCarthy knew that when he departed, there was only one way this club would be heading... in an even steeper downward spiral.

Evans was the biggest disaster ever to blight our beloved club and I'm so glad his grim, pale shadow has filtered off into the background, hopefully, never to be seen again!

So tell me again, please, just what positive things you think Marcus Evans actually did for our club?

The geezer spouting off about growing brain cells needs to propagate a bunch of his own before he comments on things he obviously has no clue about.

"If it hadn't been for Evans financial input there is a more than even chance we wouldd no longer have a Club to support."

Based on what evidence?

"He left to much to people he employed, and trusted to run the Club for him - they are the people who let the Club down, and it included people on the payroll at ALL levels."

The buck always stops with the owner! He made the appointments of the people you mention. Evans took too much of a hands on role in the club regarding transfers in and out so don't shift the blame onto others... Evans was the real problem!

"It all became too cosy for all."

I doubt "cosy" is the word most of them would use... "desperate" or "untenable" is probably closer to the mark.

"As for the idiotic comments on here from people who know no better than to do such - best treated with deserved disdain as applicable."

The disdain should be reserved for any apologist who thinks Evans had any kind of positive effect on our club. Those who think he did should go and hang up their ITFC scarves in shame!

Evans was a complete shambles!

Period!!!

Kernewek, well said. The Evans gobblers need to hang their heads in shame. I think many of them just got a hard on about how much money he had (and didn't spend on town.)

Evans isn't a football genius. He made some poor choices. Why anyone would give that cnt Roy Keane the time of day let alone a multi million pound budget to run a football club beggars belief. Absolute cnt.

Evans failed to put in place a structure in the club to ensure continuity and player development across managerial tenures. He got that wrong. But not many clubs get that right. Those that do punch above their weight.

Benjamin Blooms explainer on how Barnsley are building year on year despite a revolving door for managers is well worth a watch on YouTube. It's a good model.

As to Marcus Evans he made mistakes but I have no doubt he wants the best for this club. That is an eye watering amount of money, without which we could be another Bury or Bolton.

Fingers crossed we can look back in 5 years time and remember how we stuck by the club when times were bad.

I imagine Marcus will recoup a chunk from his land retention/development and remaining stake in the club.
I bear him no ill will for backing himself to become an Ipswich legend. Not all stories end in glory, but I think it's emerged broadly honourable for all, and he a little wiser for the experience.

Firstly, let's get real...

Marcus Evans, first and foremost, wanted the best for Marcus Evans!

itfcasual (above) is right about one thing... £100million is an awful lot of money

However, Marcus Evans DID NOT spend £100million... he oversaw the rise of debt the club OWED HIM to £100million... there's a difference.

Writing off a paper gain in order to be able to sell the club was probably, given how badly he'd mismanaged it, the only way anyone would touch it with a barge pole!

He now has a stake in Gamechanger20 that will earn him a better return and so I suspect any net loss to him, personally, will be repaid by hook or by crook.

The one thing no-one can accuse Marcus Evans of is being an Ipswich Town Legend!

Unbelievable, there are still fans thanking Evans for taking ITFC to their lowest point ever and leaving behind a complete and utter shambles

The absolute least he could do is take his overdraft with him and it's about time all his logo's around the ground are removed.

Well said trncbluearmy.

Evans sunk his own money into the club and waived most of it. It's easy to be generous with someone else's money. I agree, he never had the right chief exec, made some poor managerial appointments( blame Redknapp) and when he listened to the fans got rid of his best appointment. It's a toss up between Keane, Jewell and Hurst who was the worst but I'd go with Keane as he spent far more than he brought in. He's a good guy and didn't deserve the abuse he got. To walk way from £100m for the benefit of the club shows he cared.