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Hi - Huddersfield Town supporter here - sorry to invade your board but can you advise us please ?

There are strong rumours that Marcus Evans is coming to be our new owner. Reading all the Ipswich supporters views you can't stand him - and yet as far as I can see he spent millions of his own money to try and help you (I know it failed) and even when he left he wrote off up to £100 million of his own money.

I know it didn't work out for you but why the hatred ? Did he interfere too much? Buy the wrong players/manager? Choose your tactics? etc etc

I'd appreciate any helpful answers - thanks. I see you're near the play-off positions - good luck !

Opinions vary a little, but here's mine.
I believe he came in as a business proposition, thinking you could spend money and get promoted to the prem and so make a profit.
He appointed 2 high profile managers in Roy Keane and Paul Jewell, gave them lots of money to spend and they both failed. After that ME was understandably much tighter with the cash.
He appointed poor people to manage the club, there was no board as such - it was ME in charge although he didn't interfere in the running as far as I know.
Others will disagree but I think he had the best interests of the club at heart. But his appointments let him down.
Mick McCarthy nearly got us promoted, ME failed to invest in January and we failed. After that, McCarthy kept us up on a shoestring playing mind-numbingly boring football.
If Evans has learnt that he needs to spend but spend wisely, he could be ok. I personally believe he was vilified for the failings of others - but those others were his appointments.
Good luck to Huddersfield - with or without ME.

He's a complete idiot inside and out. I'll elaborate if I remember to pop back on this thread tomorrow.

I cannot see why he'd want to get back in to football ownership after the complete hash he made of it the first time.

Thanks andym - you seem to present a very balanced view that doesn't appear to be shared by many other Ipswich supporters.

Thanks Ricco - I'd appreciate an explanation of your views.

He’s not an idiot, he’s a successful entrepreneur. However, his business practices do not translate to a successful ownership of a football franchise. He should probably cut his losses and get out of the football business in my opinion. I applaud his resilience, but he’s not gonna invest what is needed to make a football club successful.

Evans should fold up his tent and get the hell out of dodge regards ownership of a "football" club ever again. It's tough not to use profanities when speaking of the individual but bottom line this club is in the third league / mess it's at largely due to his time here. Very nearly ran us into the ground.

People, some at least, will argue he put in so much money to keep the club above water etc etc but odd thing is don't really recall hearing about it or relevant news items the times these supposed events were meant to be underway. Never provided managers (here) with nowhere near enough money in terms of spending funds and remained behind the scenes and elusive for just about the entire time save one or two sporadic announcements where some disingenuous sorry-as* apology or reasoning would come forth while or whenever the club was experiencing it's pinnacle of hardships.

I didn't really give a sh*t about his other business endeavors while here, the sole focus was this club and what was needed to make things work, and to keep it short he failed miserably and then some. Provided and hired some of the most inept and disastrous managerial tenures here in club history. The relief when news he were to depart and finally remove himself from position at Portman Road was a monumental step in the right direction. Ran up considerable debt while here, in fact it near tripled after he had come in at one stage or another but lo and behold by the time Game Changer had taken over the wrongs had righted themselves and he or we had somehow made up the arrears.

Just a pity it went on for 14 years or thereabout, really left a nauseant feeling by the end of it, felt by a great many of the fanbase. Why the hell the person would want to attempt again at another club set-up is something of a mystery. Maybe he's a masochist or idiot or got something to prove. Whatever the reason and should it go ahead, forewarned you are. Just so long as he's not involved with us, nothing more.

I feel he did keep the club afloat and deserves credit for that, but he wasn’t a football man so didn’t know enough about making a club successful- via smarty investment as others have said.

The club was left to rot a bit and yes he ensured we didn’t go into admin - but he also didn’t ‘water the garden’ to ensure we grew as a club in the right direction.
Lack of infrastructure run by football people hurt us.

wigster wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:52 am

Thanks andym - you seem to present a very balanced view that doesn't appear to be shared by many other Ipswich supporters.

Thanks Ricco - I'd appreciate an explanation of your views.

Andy gave a pretty fair assessment. I never had the hatred for him that others share. He just seemed to run our club like it was a part-time hobby. We weren’t very professional and didn’t have any structure in place there as well as any longer term plan. There was a point in the MCCarthy era where he should have invested to give us that extra push towards the PL. But he didn’t and it then became like treading water and then a slow descent. If Evans has learnt anything it might be to have a proper CEO and structure in place - and maybe that exists at Huddersfield already. Doing pretty well at the moment by the looks of the table. In the end, I think he held on with the clubs interests in mind, but it became painful. Still don’t understand why he wants to own another club as in the end he didn’t really show any ambition and it must have been painful for him, too. Don’t consider him a shyster and I think he’s a decent enough bloke, but he made some poor decisions.

tangfastic wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:15 am

wigster wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:52 am

Thanks andym - you seem to present a very balanced view that doesn't appear to be shared by many other Ipswich supporters.

Thanks Ricco - I'd appreciate an explanation of your views.

Andy gave a pretty fair assessment. I never had the hatred for him that others share. He just seemed to run our club like it was a part-time hobby. We weren’t very professional and didn’t have any structure in place there as well as any longer term plan. There was a point in the MCCarthy era where he should have invested to give us that extra push towards the PL. But he didn’t and it then became like treading water and then a slow descent. If Evans has learnt anything it might be to have a proper CEO and structure in place - and maybe that exists at Huddersfield already. Doing pretty well at the moment by the looks of the table. In the end, I think he held on with the clubs interests in mind, but it became painful. Still don’t understand why he wants to own another club as in the end he didn’t really show any ambition and it must have been painful for him, too. Don’t consider him a shyster and I think he’s a decent enough bloke, but he made some poor decisions.

Very well said.

wigster wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:58 pm

Hi - Huddersfield Town supporter here - sorry to invade your board but can you advise us please ?

There are strong rumours that Marcus Evans is coming to be our new owner. Reading all the Ipswich supporters views you can't stand him - and yet as far as I can see he spent millions of his own money to try and help you (I know it failed) and even when he left he wrote off up to £100 million of his own money.

I know it didn't work out for you but why the hatred ? Did he interfere too much? Buy the wrong players/manager? Choose your tactics? etc etc

I'd appreciate any helpful answers - thanks. I see you're near the play-off positions - good luck !

Andym and tangfastic have each assessed Evans correctly in my opinion.

MasseyFerguson wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:38 pm

wigster wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:58 pm

Hi - Huddersfield Town supporter here - sorry to invade your board but can you advise us please ?

There are strong rumours that Marcus Evans is coming to be our new owner. Reading all the Ipswich supporters views you can't stand him - and yet as far as I can see he spent millions of his own money to try and help you (I know it failed) and even when he left he wrote off up to £100 million of his own money.

I know it didn't work out for you but why the hatred ? Did he interfere too much? Buy the wrong players/manager? Choose your tactics? etc etc

I'd appreciate any helpful answers - thanks. I see you're near the play-off positions - good luck !

Andym and tangfastic have each assessed Evans correctly in my opinion.

Certainly second that opinion. The fact we still have a football club is thanks to Marcus, however the frustrations of years in the doldrums and further decline can also be laid at his door.

All in all while history might paint a rather gloomy picture of his tenure, especially when looking from the present set-up, at the time i was reasonably happy and certainly more pro ME than i was against him.

Many thanks for all your replies - they generally seem to paint a bit brighter picture of ME than anything we outsiders had heard.
If he does take us over I will at least have mixed feelings, rather than total pessimism.

We DO have a strong CEO but he was at Huddersfield when we blew literally tens and tens of millions in the transfer market on absolute garbage. When we were in the Premier league for 2 years recently we spent millions on players, mainly foreign, who wanted to play in the Premier league, not for Huddersfield Town. We, literally, made millionaires out of 4 or 5 players who didn't give a toss for our club and set themselves up for life before deserting us/being kicked out.

Thanks again for your comments, and good luck for the rest of the season.

wigster wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:27 pm

Many thanks for all your replies - they generally seem to paint a bit brighter picture of ME than anything we outsiders had heard.
If he does take us over I will at least have mixed feelings, rather than total pessimism.

We DO have a strong CEO but he was at Huddersfield when we blew literally tens and tens of millions in the transfer market on absolute garbage. When we were in the Premier league for 2 years recently we spent millions on players, mainly foreign, who wanted to play in the Premier league, not for Huddersfield Town. We, literally, made millionaires out of 4 or 5 players who didn't give a toss for our club and set themselves up for life before deserting us/being kicked out.

Thanks again for your comments, and good luck for the rest of the season.

Hopefully, if there is any foundation to these stories, Marcus has learned from his first venture into Football Club ownership and uses that experience to make better choices.

wigster wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:27 pm

Many thanks for all your replies - they generally seem to paint a bit brighter picture of ME than anything we outsiders had heard.
If he does take us over I will at least have mixed feelings, rather than total pessimism.

We DO have a strong CEO but he was at Huddersfield when we blew literally tens and tens of millions in the transfer market on absolute garbage. When we were in the Premier league for 2 years recently we spent millions on players, mainly foreign, who wanted to play in the Premier league, not for Huddersfield Town. We, literally, made millionaires out of 4 or 5 players who didn't give a toss for our club and set themselves up for life before deserting us/being kicked out.

Thanks again for your comments, and good luck for the rest of the season.

And if your really lucky, Evans might bring you the great manager with him as well to Smithy's Stadium Wigster,

He will have learned a great deal during his time with us that you will surely get the benefit of when he becomes your owner. We should be grateful to have had his money and support at a time when we looked pretty much doomed. Not many are sad to see him go but I see no reason why you shouldn't welcome him.

If after 1.5 - 2yrs Roy Keane walks thru the door ———>> start worrying.

marko69 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:21 pm

If after 1.5 - 2yrs Roy Keane walks thru the door ———>> start worrying.

Hey Marko, bentornato. The place just hasn't been the same without you. It must be the humour, surely ( )?

AzzurroMark wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:55 pm

marko69 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:21 pm

If after 1.5 - 2yrs Roy Keane walks thru the door ———>> start worrying.

Hey Marko, bentornato. The place just hasn't been the same without you. It must be the humour, surely ( )?

I'll echo that!