December 18, 2007. Self-made entrepreneur Marcus Evans completed the takeover of Ipswich Town Football Club. Now 10 years on, what legacy has Evans built at Ipswich? Whilst the fortunes of the Premier League are there for all to see - a guaranteed £170m over three years for each Premier League side in 2016-17 season, even if you finished rock bottom – the land lays very different in the lower leagues of the English football league pyramid. Prize money is much lower, but wage bills and outgoings can be just as high.
Evans purchased the club along with their £32 million debts with Norwich Union and Barclays Bank for a reported 20p in the pound and injected £12m in exchange for an issue of new shares. This resulted in him obtaining an overall majority stake of 87.5%.
In 2007, outgoing chairman David Sheepshanks said, “We believe Marcus Evans’ investment provides the best opportunity for this football club to move forward, return to the Premier League and stay there,” Evans, explained his decision to buy the club in an interview with this newspaper back in August 2015. He said: “Buying a football club is something I had been thinking about for a while. Ipswich was in an understandable financial state, while I had a closer affinity to Ipswich than any of the other clubs that I was looking at because I had a period of time that I’d lived fairly close to Ipswich, albeit a weekend cottage’’.
Sadly, Premier League promotion has evaded the Suffolk based side, they are the Championship’s longest-serving side, having spent 16 seasons’ in the league. They have managed to finish in the play-offs just once in the previous five years. This has not been for the lack of trying. Despite avoiding the limelight over the previous decade and allowing various managers and coaching staff to go about their business at the club, it is reported Evans has invested around £100m in trying to push Ipswich towards to Premier League holy land.
Despite the heavy investment, the club continues to make a £6.75m loss every year. Debt has risen from £32m to £89.26m and attendances at Portman Road are dwindling. Just 14,000 witnessed there 2-0 victory against Reading on Saturday afternoon. That’s a drop from an average attendance of 22,000 ten years ago and their lowest league attendance in twenty years.
Evans has been forced to tighten the purse strings in recent seasons and it’s widely considered that perhaps the bulk of investment given in the first five years of Evans tenure may have been wasted. Jim Magilton, Roy Keane and Paul Jewell all tried but failed to prosper in taking Ipswich to that next level despite investing profoundly in the squad. Therefore, despite criticism of stagnation by some parts of the Ipswich faithful, after three managers in five years, the appointment of Mick McCarthy in 2012 did bring some much-needed managerial stability to the club. In the uncertain terrain of football management, McCarthy boasts the title of the longest-serving manager in the league.
In January this year, Evans outlines a five-point strategy in a 2,000 word self-penned programme article. He stated he wanted to ‘’provide a significant ongoing financial commitment to the club’s academy, enabling a steady flow of players into the first-team. Provide a sustainable and competitive squad salary budget. Make annual investment funds available to purchase players in the early stages of their career and to assist in their development. Maintain a stable management and coaching team and develop a team to play attractive and exciting football’’
Spending in the Championship has spiked in recent years, with the likes of Middlesbrough spending £47m in the summer, yet Ipswich remain competitive in the league. They currently sit in 8thand two places of the play-offs. It seems they continue to compete with teams who out-weigh them financially. Evans has declared he is in the role for the long haul and confirmed they will look to bolster the side in January with all eyes on promotion.
If Evans’s decade in charge could be summed up in one word it would be ‘stable’. However, they say with no progression comes regression. Maybe now more than ever Ipswich need the Premier League and all the financial benefits that come with it. Without the same, you would expect a growing unrest within the Ipswich supporters and the cries for more investment to increase. Despite the millions invested, Evans' decade-long legacy could quickly turn sour. This season could prove a decisive one at Portman Road.
