Town have dismissed claims that owner Marcus Evans has put the club up for sale for £35 million.

Quizzed on the report, which appeared in The Sun this afternoon, a Blues spokesman told TWTD: “It’s rubbish.”

The story claims Evans has put the club up for sale at £35 million but is not prepared to write off the debt which stood at £95.5 million at the end of June 2018, according to the Financial Highlights document issued to shareholders yesterday.

That would be a surprise even if there were any truth in the story with the club having previously said on a number of occasions that Evans’s loans weren’t made with the expectation they would be paid back.

As has been the case with other clubs in similar positions, such as Bolton Wanderers in 2015, the loans which make up most of the debt would almost certainly be written off in order to facilitate a sale.

Speaking about his continued ownership of the club, which he took control of 11 years ago, when speaking to iFollow Ipswich in April, Evans outlined his position.

“If I didn’t feel we had a chance [of winning promotion], then, yes, it would be time for me to move on,” he admitted.

“But I’ve got no desire to sell, I think the plan that I’ve got in place has a chance of success and I want to be here to carry out that plan.

“But money is always going to make a difference and more money in this league would give us a better chance, particularly if it’s spent wisely and particularly if someone came along who could do a better job, had the personal and financial credentials to do a better job, I’d always do what’s right for the club.

“I suppose I’m in the fortunate personal position where I don’t have to recoup the investment I’ve made in the club.

“So, I suppose, yes, if the right person came along, offered the right prospect for the club, it would be wrong for me to stand in their way and I’d have to look at that very seriously.

“But I have to be honest with you, I’m not too sure why, but I haven’t seen too many Chinese or Russian oligarchs racing up the A12 in the last few years.”

Meanwhile, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has assessed the Financial Highlights document released yesterday in a series of tweets, which can be found here.

Maguire says what should be of greatest concern is the potential drop in media income if Town are relegated to League One.

Last season this totalled £7 million, almost half the club's income, but would drop to around £700,000 in the third tier.

Photo: ITFC

BlueNomad added 11:14 - Dec 6 Did the fans of Southampton, Norwich, Leeds, Sheffield x 2, N Forest, Leicester, Charlton etc start slaughtering their club when times got really tough and they went through the trapdoor or is it an Ipswich trait? How many of those doing so would continue to IF we went down and came back stronger than we have been for years? (That isn't a prediction of what would happen btw)

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Lightningboy added 12:03 - Dec 6 Ironic that things on the pitch were going quite well until Evans turned up and opened his cheque book 10 years ago. Money doesn't always guarantee success - it's about the right people in the right place & we haven't had that since around 2006-7.
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Southamptonblue added 12:50 - Dec 6 Let's be clear - if Evans hadn't bought the club when he did there may well not be a club today and we should be grateful to him for that. However, what's since become obvious is that he was never the right long-term owner.
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FreddySteady added 13:07 - Dec 6 Headline banner on Sky Sports saying Evan's willing to sell...
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FabianMalyon added 15:27 - Dec 6 I hear Ed Sheeran has a few £££..
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BecclesBlue500 added 19:38 - Dec 6 Sky Sports News reporting that “Marcus Evans is willing to sell the club”...”Evans has received no suitable offers....” ??????? (Thursday 7.30pm)
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