He Speaks...

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Scowey

Scowey

Well-Known Member
Oct 18, 2015
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Marcus Evans has done another interview.. That makes it two in the last 9 months :emoticon-0104-surpr

https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/2019/january/interview-with-ipswich-owner-marcus-evans/

Nothing particularly enlightening and certainly nothing to get excited about, but he seems to be sticking to his philosophy which he is entitled to, of course.

He has at least accepted some of the shortcomings from last summer and sounds as though he is still committed to the club and doesn't seem interested in selling (yet)
 
All he’s accepted is that Paul Hurst is the scapegoat. Absolutely ridiculous.

His points about investment simply don’t stack up.
 
I was going to have a little bet with myself as to who was going to be the first person to respond..
 
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I am not that impressed by this interview, to be honest. The key quote which looks utterly ridiculous is the following, taken from his answer about our strategy going forwards.

The long term investment I have put in place has made us competitive in the past and the ongoing consistent investment to support the strategies of stable management, a strong Academy and competitive wages for experienced players I believe will make us competitive again.

Seriously? That's the strategy? Firstly, we've had three managers in nine months, so we haven't had a stable management. Is the academy really that strong in producing first team footballers? Today, Brentford sold an Academy defender for £12m. What academy player / graduate do we have that could fetch even half of that money? Dozzell at a push, but that's it. And 'competitive wages'? Is he having a joke there? Our very own manager has come out and bemoaned the current wage ceiling and structure as being poorly managed. We have one of the lowest wage bills in the division.

This quote also irritates me, regarding Evans' response to the very valid and proven criticism of his recent lack of investment:

I don’t agree with that at all. We are in the position we are in due to last summer’s unbalanced transfer dealings. This is not to knock the players we brought in as I believe all of them can settle into playing at this level however we needed more experience to help bring our new players through and if you look at the last five or six seasons before this year, we did just that with a similar level of budget and we averaged a league position of ninth or 10th so in fact we have eaten into the top half of the table which from a financial perspective would be reserved for those clubs with increased financial clout. So during the last six years, a strategy of stable management, developing youth mixed with bringing in experienced Championship players alongside some developing players and all within a sustainable budget did make us competitive.

Blaming the poor business in the summer is a valid factor in our struggles, but is not a particularly effective, catch-all excuse for being bottom of the table and conveniently disguises the wider sense of decline at the club. Has Evans forgotten we finished four points from relegation two years ago? And are we really a competitive club? We have had one play off season in Evans' thirteen years of ownership. We have systematically failed to be particularly successful or competitive in his time at the club. Under Mick, I appreciate he generally got us punching above our financial weight but we didn't really threaten the play off places and, even in 2014/15, we squeezed in on the last day of the season after Derby bottled it.

Credit to him for actually talking to the fans and sensing the need to communicate. He raises a few good points and it's nice to hear that he's apparently committed to the future of the club (although I honestly would prefer another owner), but as Scowey says, there isn't anything particularly new or revealing about this interview. If he genuinely believes we are bottom of the table because of one bad transfer window, then he's widely off the mark and out of touch.
 
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I just don’t get it. The cost of relegation to what he owns you’d think would be greater than the cost of investing in its growth and development. And u can still rinse a few quid out along the way if you really must.

But now? Now what has he got? Hes a multi millionaire (someone I met through work made a credible claim to be a childhood friend and said it was more like billionaire) and I’m not so I’m assuming he knows more than me about asset depreciation. But it’s just so weird.

PL:’och, aye, can we get a lick of paint over there to spruce the place up a wee bit?’
Paint guy: ‘sorry, they sold our decent paint and gave us cheap crap to work with. Then they sold our brushes.’
PL: ‘you too huh..?’
 
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Alhare said:
I just don’t get it. The cost of relegation to what he owns you’d think would be greater than the cost of investing in its growth and development. And u can still rinse a few quid out along the way if you really must.

But now? Now what has he got? Hes a multi millionaire (someone I met through work made a credible claim to be a childhood friend and said it was more like billionaire) and I’m not so I’m assuming he knows more than me about asset depreciation. But it’s just so weird.

PL:’och, aye, can we get a lick of paint over there to spruce the place up a wee bit?’
Paint guy: ‘sorry, they sold our decent paint and gave us cheap crap to work with. Then they sold our brushes.’
PL: ‘you too huh..?’
Click to expand...

I don’t even think it’s all down to investment. It’s also about leadership and having a knack for making the right call.

I think the reason he hasn’t bailed out yet is because he can get his money back with a couple of seasons in the top flight and it probably helps his global interests to own an English football club.

He is probably kidding himself if he thinks he can get us there though.
 
Some good points here, will chip in with my two cents. May be a little different but this is how I see Evans time here -

* When came we needed some form of buyer willing to invest / give us a chance. We were going nowhere.
* Did invest quite heavily under Magilton / Keane / Jewell - gave them some ££££ to play with.
* I think came to decision to change approach as spending was unsustainable - see Chansiri at Sheff Weds you get a window to perhaps gain promotion and we didn't. Shame.
* Made Mick's time difficult due to lack of spend / didn't help Hurst massively in relation to league and what's going on now re what Lambert can do.....

Will give Marcus this, he has spend some ££££ that people won't be aware he has spend that hasn't perhaps been made aware public ally. He tried his best to get us category 1, was happy to fund this, and we did everything to comply. The goalposts were changed so we failed by around 0.3% ( we made sure we went way and above the minimum standard, so incase the big clubs tried this rubbish were confident we'd get over the line ) so that was a stitch up job.

I will also give him the parachute ££££ in this division ( an absolute joke ) and appreciate we are always going to be behind various clubs interms of what we can sensibly offer wage wise with the budgets they have, and FFP existing now whereas 5-10 years ago we could have been more reckless and not been reprimanded.

However, if I put my Ipswich Town hat back on,,,,,,,,, the ' investment ' for Mick and on has been incredibly poor and is a big factor at why we've got to this point.

Marcus does want to sell. Infact he's desperate to, and has been trying for 3/4 years to get out. Unfortunately, with the debt, our attendances etc we're not a very attractive proposition from a buyers perspective.

Summary - this is going to rumble, Evans WILL in my view be here for a good amount of time to come. If we go down ( seems likely we will ) I think we could struggle, but again due to FFP in League 1 / 2 now coming in, 60% salary based on factors we essentially cannot fail to come back up to this league shortly. What we can do in the championship next time we're in it - I really don't know. Not a lot I doubt.

I really feel we're a club in no mans land going nowhere good anytime soon. Too many rich owners around throwing ££££ at it. Football is broken.
 
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Westlake33 said:
Some good points here, will chip in with my two cents. May be a little different but this is how I see Evans time here -

* When came we needed some form of buyer willing to invest / give us a chance. We were going nowhere.
* Did invest quite heavily under Magilton / Keane / Jewell - gave them some ££££ to play with.
* I think came to decision to change approach as spending was unsustainable - see Chansiri at Sheff Weds you get a window to perhaps gain promotion and we didn't. Shame.
* Made Mick's time difficult due to lack of spend / didn't help Hurst massively in relation to league and what's going on now re what Lambert can do.....

Will give Marcus this, he has spend some ££££ that people won't be aware he has spend that hasn't perhaps been made aware public ally. He tried his best to get us category 1, was happy to fund this, and we did everything to comply. The goalposts were changed so we failed by around 0.3% ( we made sure we went way and above the minimum standard, so incase the big clubs tried this rubbish were confident we'd get over the line ) so that was a stitch up job.

I will also give him the parachute ££££ in this division ( an absolute joke ) and appreciate we are always going to be behind various clubs interms of what we can sensibly offer wage wise with the budgets they have, and FFP existing now whereas 5-10 years ago we could have been more reckless and not been reprimanded.

However, if I put my Ipswich Town hat back on,,,,,,,,, the ' investment ' for Mick and on has been incredibly poor and is a big factor at why we've got to this point.

Marcus does want to sell. Infact he's desperate to, and has been trying for 3/4 years to get out. Unfortunately, with the debt, our attendances etc we're not a very attractive proposition from a buyers perspective.

Summary - this is going to rumble, Evans WILL in my view be here for a good amount of time to come. If we go down ( seems likely we will ) I think we could struggle, but again due to FFP in League 1 / 2 now coming in, 60% salary based on factors we essentially cannot fail to come back up to this league shortly. What we can do in the championship next time we're in it - I really don't know. Not a lot I doubt.

I really feel we're a club in no mans land going nowhere good anytime soon. Too many rich owners around throwing ££££ at it. Football is broken.
Click to expand...

It’s one thing to blow £20m on transfers each window. I get that. But it’s another to miss Cat One by 3% and not try again the following year. That’s not commitment. The reason we made it so hard for ourselves was being adamant for so many years that we didn’t need it. We should really have been in the first wave.

One example of bad decision making of many.

However I agree that he would love to get out but that means he is going to be keeping costs as low as possible and the whole PR thing going on is to stop the club getting stung on season tickets. He is only going to suffer bigger losses by this approach. I think he will cut his losses after a promotion unless we have a big bounce close to the top of the Championship.
 
The cat 1 hasn't been explained to people - we failed by 0.3% and the goalposts were changed. We were made quite clear NOT to apply again - I know this for categorical fact - if we applied again it would have been rejected, again. So that's not really a good example of anything seeing as what you've put isn't the truth. Not that I'm a fan of Evans, however I know what happened with Cat 1.

Still requires a purchaser though! Agree, it will have to be a bad deal for Evans ( not our problem ) but still requires someone to make an offer!
 
Westlake33 said:
The cat 1 hasn't been explained to people - we failed by 0.3% and the goalposts were changed. We were made quite clear NOT to apply again - I know this for categorical fact - if we applied again it would have been rejected, again. So that's not really a good example of anything seeing as what you've put isn't the truth. Not that I'm a fan of Evans, however I know what happened with Cat 1.

Still requires a purchaser though! Agree, it will have to be a bad deal for Evans ( not our problem ) but still requires someone to make an offer!
Click to expand...

Westy it that had really happened Evans would be suing the life out of them. It’s an excuse.
 
It did happen I know it for absolute fact.

Yes, because taking a case against several big club elite who bullied the situation would work - would it buggery.

Not everything is quite as would meet the eye in life. It's not always black and white the goings on here / or in any other walk of life. Unfortunately the goalposts were completely changed to suit the big clubs - no shock there then.
 
I don't get the "they moved the goal posts" statement.
In any business, if you are given a target, and you meet that target....you get the "reward". They can't change the target after the event has taken place...if they did, then the FA or Premier League are contractually obliged by law to either give us CAT1 or compensate us. If they did break the contract, then as Yorkie points out, should be sued.
 
Well, it's what happened. We did the paperwork, went way above what was required, double / tripled checked / payed for advisers. Infact, before it went for application, we even amended and did more areas ( that didn't need work ) INCASE there were problems.

Essentially, the big boys got involved and didn't want us, so we failed by a tiny tiny %%% - Evans and everyone were absolutely livid, and knew there was no point applying again unless top flight. If we get top flight status, we will get cat 1 - no issue there.

A legal case against the big clubs etc and everyone behind this - not going to happen. But I can assure you, we were absolutely stitched up a treat regarding category 1 - we SHOULD be category 1 now however have been prevented from being. A crying shame.
 
Working in the legal business, that doesn't sit right with me. Worse case is we should be compensated (maybe we already have, but it wasn't published).
It's a legally binding contract, with no grey areas.

FA/Prem - "If you fulfill all the criteria in XYZ, you can have Cat 1"
ITFC - "Here you go, all criteria met"
FA/Prem - "Sorry, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal et al don't want you in their elitist club now, and don't bother trying to sue us, because we make the rules up as we go along"

In the words of Judge Judy...baloney.

Either we have been compensated (in whatever form), or all the facts have not come out entirely.
Now, you may well "think" you know for a fact what happened, because someone may have told you, but there's no way in a million years you will know the full truth (most of it maybe, but not all)
 
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I can assure you this happened much to the annoyance of many representatives at ITFC - sadly. Football is unfortunately becoming all for the elite and what they say. Shame.
 
Audits are carried out by the ISO so there will be no grey areas and for the reasons stretchy sets out, there's no chance that it happened that way.

It's all symptomatic of the way the club is run, all the rotten eggs at the club and Evans' tendency to blame everyone and everything but himself.

The most likely explanation is that the people responsible have egg on their face and so created this conspiracy theory. They probably even believe it themselves.
 
Fair enough - I can appreciate how it looks and would have the same viewpoint if either of you but know for absolutely definite what has happened - not going to reveal how / who etc as I'm not like that but the best way I can end this is I got told Mick McCarthy would 100% be leaving the club quite a while before it came out. I won't go an further into this as I'm not that kind of person but of course feel free to form own opinion - lets just say in life and with ££££ involved not everything is correct / how it should be or black and white.

That aside regarding Evans - spend has been low the past eight years or so, and it does make you wonder generally where we are going as a club.

Do any of you see us having a spell in the Premier League in the next say, 10 years? I do not.
 
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