“It’s a good deal for Marcus Evans and it’s a good deal for Ipswich Town” – those were the words of a Supporters Trust representative in December 2007, when Evans’ takeover was first announced. 13 miserable years later, and we’re finally contemplating how good the deal is which has seen Evans cede control of the club to new owners. The one certain thing is that Ipswich Town are losing an owner who has presided over a regime of borderline-neglectful decline; who has embedded a culture in which cost-cutting is prized over collective responsibility or individual pride; and whose arrogant, disdainful approach to supporters has been consistently ramped-up, in reverse correlation with the club’s league status.
It would be tempting to present a funereal review of Evans’ tenure, but this fanzine has been mourning the club’s decline under Evans since 2012. If you seek his obituary, look around this website and our back issues. The news of Evans’ departure means that, finally, we can start to look forward to the future with something other than despair. Cautious optimism, in response to the prospect of the new regime, might not be the explosion of emotional fireworks that would be expected in response to an announcement that’s been so long-awaited, but it’s more than we’ve had for the last five years, at least – and that’s certainly something to be celebrated. Cautiously.
New chairman Mike O’Leary has given an interview to the club website (we waited ten years for the last guy to do that!) in which he hints at an understanding of the cultural change which is required in order to reverse the direction that all areas of the club have been heading in. You’d expect him to say the right things at this point, but saying anything at all is an improvement – particularly when O’Leary offers more transparency about the ownership structure than we ever heard from Evans.
More information about the deal will emerge in the future – we need to understand more about what exactly is meant by some of the debt to Evans having been written off, what liabilities the club is left with, and what settlements will be offered to shareholders of ITFC PLC. The experience of the last 13 years should tell us that these details are worthy of our scrutiny. But if that scrutiny is matched by accountability from the new owners, then we will be a long way further forward than we have been.
It’s sadly ironic that one of Marcus Evans’ stated conditions for the sale of the club was “an irrevocable commitment to…. a long-term business plan invest in the team, infrastructure, our fans’ experience, the Academic and the Club’s role in the wider community”. In the coming days, we’ll be describing what actions we’d like to see from the new owners in order to restore our connection with, and pride in, the football club. For a final reflection on the previous tenure, it’s telling that even at the end of his reign, when talking about the club and its community, Marcus Evans could only describe “investment” in financial terms. If only he’d realised that it takes so much more than that.
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