- listened to full show this morning, I would really recommend everyone listen to the entirety of this - absolutely scary to listen to, from the QPR ' fine ' etc * Ipswich 101.33 I would genuinely listen to all of it though, not Ipswich if possible to give a better overview - and if possible, take your Ipswich hat off and think from the outside. This league is ridiculous.
This guy is ridiculous. Ipswich fans want an owner who will put in money in return for sexual favours? He’s been smoking something. Without Marcus Evans Ipswich would be in League One or League Two? Well we are in League One.
Enjoyable and interesting podcast which I finished on the way to work. It certainly puts the stark challenges and inequality of the league into perspective. I do think Kieran's opinion on Marcus Evans (and his repeated 'be careful what you wish for') was a little disingenuous though. From a sheer numbers perspective, I understand how Evans can come across well. But he's subsiding the club not out of love or duty, because that money is added to our debt to him, which will now exceed £100m. Unfortunately for people like Kieran, who is removed from the clubs he covers apart his own, his opinions are drawn solely from club's bank statements and not the general feeling and atmosphere around a football club. The main issue with Evans is the sheer absence of leadership, direction, and footballing philosophy from the top of the club, which is steadily being resolved. The disconnect between club and supporters is slowly being repaired, mainly due to the inevitable relegation to League One. Investment into the club's facilities does not count towards FFP, not that you'd believe that due to Evans' repeated austerity measures. The club looks tired and stale, the pitch is a state, the catering facilities at the club are cut to the bone (you often see just one or two people serving behind the counter during matches where there's even a £12 ticket deal on). The sense of decline is only further reinforced by the lack of results on the pitch and the impending relegation. How he can have the gall to say our owner is 'probably the sixth best in the division' when we are in the state we are in just comes across as completely out of touch. I was laughing to myself hearing it.
Interesting points nuggets - the subjective vs objective. I think most of us are feeling good and there is a togetherness but if you look around the place it shows you that humans are emotional beings and not particularly logical ones. It begs the question, how long can that good will and energy last if we don't bounce straight back?
Furthermore, Kieran's argument about Mick not getting a big transfer budget completely ignored the rising wage bill under Mick. The approach under Mick, and one he preferred, was sacrificing his transfer budget for a bigger wage budget, which attracted some solid, experienced free signings and loan signings. I don't question the fact that Mick didn't have much to spend, because let's face it he didn't. But to suggest he built this squad on figures like £400k (which Kieran quotes for one season) while ignoring the money spent on attracting free agents is, again, disingenuous.
I think it may be a net rather than a gross figure also. But the bit I just couldn't get along with was painting Evans as some kind of saviour. We were having problems when he came in but the debt is now colossal and growing.
Well his figures take into account wages + transfer fees interms of season numbers under Mick - he doesn't specifically dive into wages for any club, but the ' cheque' Evans is writing out will factor that in.
Undoubtedly there's more of a togetherness around the place, and it's nice to hear good words coming from the club. I think most of the supporters seem to be a bit more united and optimistic for the future. But as you say, that rests on hitting the ground running next season. The results under Lambert have been pretty awful, looking at it rather bluntly, and I think the goodwill will dry up if we don't look like a promotion-achieving side next season, which a majority of supporters believe.
Well - if you have the point ( don't get me wrong I don't like Evans either ) if given the choice of Evans, and what he initially did invest back in 2007 - which he did put quite a lot of ££££ in - vs NO ONE investing - who else wants to buy us??!?!? - then clearly Evans has helped I T F C. Not saying many people will like that, but I don't think anyone can dispute this.
But he just mentions transfer fees in the podcast, I'm pretty sure he specifically calls it transfer fees. It defies belief that Mick spent £400,000 in a season, including wages, when you take into account a free signing on £8k a week would cost the club £424,000, minus any signing on fee / incentives. And we've signed several players every summer for a few years now.
Oh he explicitly states transfer fees, but pretty sure he mentions yearly losses and cheques that Evans writes out - which will factor in the wages. Not disputing Mick maybe did it differently with higher wages v transfer fees.
The figures he mentions at that point are just transfer fees. But I think you get a fairer comparison when you look at net figures over a period of time. Otherwise Town spent more than Spurs did in the summer. It’s all academic though, whichever way you slice it the strategy has been to try to not pay transfer fees and pay wages on freebies and loans. That this guy thinks aiming for 18th year after year is a good way to run a football club shows he would be better sticking to his spreadsheets.
