Today is the fifth anniversary of Marcus Evans taking control of Ipswich Town Football Club and I have to say that things certainly haven't turned out the way most of us Townies would have imagined. We started with a great feeling of optimism in the knowledge that Mr Evans had come in to save our club from financial oblivion and at the same actually having some financial muscle to compete in the transfer market. Jim Magilton was allowed to spend an eye watering amount of money in the region of £10 Million in order to take us to the promised land. 5 Years later, 3 managers later and after a huge amount of money being spent and wasted, can we honestly say that this beloved football club has moved forward? In my view Marcus Evans owning the club has been a good thing in as much as he has saved our football club from financial meltdown. The Good - Continuing to invest money into the club and guarenteeing the future of ITFC. The Bad - Poor decision making resulting in the appointment of the two worst managers in the history of our club ie Roy Keane & Paul Jewell The Reasonably Good - Keeping our CCC status when similar size clubs have sunk. The Ugly - The huge amount of money wasted on journeymen players and loanees at the same time allowing players contracts to run down without resale value! I look forward to the next 5 years with Marcus Evans at the helm and on the 5th Anniversary of his time in charge I am more hopeful than at any time that we have finally appointed the right manager to lead us to promotion. What are your highlights and lowlights of the Marcus Evans reign? p.s This is a strictly non-budgie thread
I won't waste any time reflecting on the past, it's done and dusted now and can't be changed. What I will say though is that I hope Marcus, and Clegg for that matter, have learnt something about the running of a football club over the last five years. I hope the extremes of spending and then tightening the belt are behind us and we see investment where and when it's needed and that our Cat two academy (something that is costing a fair amount of cash itself) helps us in bringing through a few quality players without the need for transfer fees etc. With Big Mick at the helm I have confidence he will build a solid championship team, and for now, that's all I want.
Cant think of any true positivity from the era. The ME era is one of either chuck money away without consideration (Keane/ Magilton era) or make the budget unworkable (Jewell) At least press reports are now suggesting he has learnt his error on this. He has been a terrible ambassador for the club as he dont speak and wont employ someone with football know how to steer the club correctly or positively. The idea of 'operation premiership' was probably one of the worst ideas ever. He cant appoint a decent manager and seems unable to tell when the time is right to get rid. If reports are to believed and according to my meagre knowledge of the financial workings of businesses he appears to be charging us horribly over the top when it comes to interest payments on our debt and I cant see other than saving us from meltdown 5 years back what positive signs I can see that he can take true credit from.
Actually I think the amount of time he gives managers is a huge plus point. I have no doubt that the time he gave our previous managers was a big part of why MM came here and I think we should be very glad we managed to persuade him to do so!
I too fear for the amount of debt that is being accrued in Marcus' favour. Whilst he is investing in Ipswich, he is also making money from us too. If he were to ever sell up it would no doubt be for a fee that would include the ever increasing debt owed to him. Whether or not he could get that fee with us as a championship side I don't know so I think it is in his best interest to get us to the premier league before he would consider that. Having said that, if we were in the prem the club would be making more money and his logo would be seen across the world, a good source of advertisement. Will we ever be able to fully repay him? Just as with everything, we shall have to wait and see what the future holds for ITFC.
SD Marcus will only sell when the time is right for him in other words when he has made a tidy profit or has at least broken even. The only thing I want to thank him for is saving this club from financial oblivion by buying the club and investing a considerable amount of money in it over the last 5 years. Yes it is open to debate on how most of his largesse has been wasted but he can't possibly be blamed for that! What we can blame him for is his highly questionable managerial appointments and again with the benefit of hindsight and all that! Without Evans we would be truly ****ed and anyone who wants rid of Evans basically wants to throw the baby out with bathwater!
It's nice that we have an owner who doesn't get too involved in making decisions a la Abramovich. The last two managers have been flops, but you can't foretell that at an interview or at the beginning of their tenure. He has stuck with the Ipswich way of giving managers a fair crack of the whip and I salute him for that. So far it has not proved disastrous keeping the manager in place and he has made the decision to get rid when it is plainly clear things aren't working. It's like he had to make the mistakes first before he could see what was right. In Mick we have somebody who can guide Marcus/Clegg in all things football so I think it's time to wipe the slate clean and look forward to a much brighter future (Clegg included)
On the subject of when he would sell I'm not sure if it would only be the case of selling after he has made a profit/broke even. Marcus is obviously a very astute businessman and I think not the sort who would have any qualms about selling or closing a business that wasn't making money rather than investing in a worthless venture. I just hope he sees ITFC more as a hobby/plaything for him to spend his hard earned cash on than an actual business that he wants to make profitable or he could get bored or disenchanted and sell up. Of course he would be pleased to be in the prem and have his slogan broadcast all over the world but I hope he's not only here to make money off us.
I have to say there have been very few highlights at all, it's been a very depressing 5 years, particularly when you consider where we were when he took over!! Biggest highlight for me was beating our local rivals, Jims last game in charge. Keane getting the sack was another highlight for me, well one of relief anyway!! Other than that I genuinely cannot think of many other positives!! There are far worse people to have running our club IMO than ME, he's been very naive with many decisions but they're not on the scale of many other chairmen, where you think that's just plain stupid. For example in hindsight throwing money at the club was wrong but at the time not many of us were complaining, then this summer tightening our belts seemed like a sensible idea but it was made at the wrong time. I think this has been a big factor in his time, he's made decisions which actually would be a good decision at another time but at that time took us backward. I do like the fact that he gives his managers time, doesn't get involved in on the pitch matters and has on the whole backed the club with money, this is very rare for owners who are majority shareholders!!! As for making his money back, I'm not sure anyone will make money by running a football club and I'd hope ME realises this, I think he does. I think he owns this football club to promote the ME brand and get himself into certain power circles!!
Wright - I agree with you to a point - its good that he gives managers time to turn things around rather than panic sackings but he doesnt seem to support them 100%. You feel he is just waiting to get rid. PTC - I agree that his poor footballing record seems more out of nievity rather than malice. Although I think he knows only to well what he is doing when it comes to our debt mountain unfortunately.
