What’s The End Game For Owner Marcus Evans?

Tuesday, 24th October 2017

Dear Marcus Evans,

I am writing this open letter because I believe that supporters desperately need to know how committed you still are to Ipswich Town football club?

The reason I am asking, is that your global corporate marketing and information empire, means you are not short of a bob or two and yet the club that you supposedly support these days, cannot compete with even the smaller spending clubs in the Championship and this is all very frustrating.

Your very own website suggests that you employ 3000 professionals in 59 worldwide locations, and yet it seems beyond you to pull your finger out, when it comes to giving serious financial support to your current manager Mick McCarthy.

Your ‘voice’ at the club Ian Milne, is always very upbeat about how enthused you are about all things Ipswich Town and yet for the last few years now, your focus seems to have moved elsewhere.

I understand your need for privacy but as attendances drop with ever increasing rapidity, surely the alarm bells are ringing as fans start singing less than complimentary chants, about the manager, the board and of course your good self.

When you took over this wonderful football club, you were still very much more of a Howard Hughes than a Steven Parish and that is probably just as well. But in those days of course, you gave your manager some serious financial wiggle room.

Yes, you got your fingers burnt, as both Roy Keane and Paul Jewell bought big for very small rewards and it is quite easy to grasp why you are reluctant to go down that road again.

But you had an athletics man running the show in those days and with the greatest respect, Nigel Clegg was way out of his depth here, so some poor decisions were made both on and off the field.

Now then, if only manager Mick McCarthy had just half of the financial resources that THEY had at their disposal, I feel sure he would not be so profligate with it.

He is effectively running the club on a shoestring and with an owner who is one of the richest men in Britain!

According to one article written in 2016, you had even greater wealth than Sir Paul McCartney at around 750 million so I do not get why, after he has been five years in charge, you are not prepared to give McCarthy some serious spending power so that we can finally start to compete with our rivals?

We know about the 32 million pounds of debt you incurred when you bought the club and we know all about the 5 point plan for future success but what about you? We all know so very little about you?

You saved the club from bankruptcy and Mick saved the club from relegation, those are the facts. Yet, that was many years since so what I ask, does the future hold for us Tractor Boys and Tractor Girls?

Has this rather curious adventure become nothing more that a rich man’s play thing, or do you genuinely aspire to achieve something much greater for Ipswich Town football club, some time in the not too distant future?

Yours Sincerely,


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital