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charlies dad

Ipswich Town and Norwich Union

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Todays Evening News tells us of the uneasy arrangement between these two August parties. A 25 year - £25 Million loan to undertake some ground rebuilding at portman road. Apparently, the likelihood is that the debt, now standing at £28 Million, will never be repaid. Fiona Baker, head of Morley Fund Management, a subsidiary of Norwich Union said ''the investment decisions we make on behalf of clients are based on commercial outlook, not the colour of their shirts''. Wouldnt want her handling my assets, so to speak.

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Much of what we already knew and much of what many of us were saying at the time. The blinding arrogance(and ignorance) of our jumped up neighbours should now be seen in this light.

They are in existence by default. By not paying back the money they borrowed.Money and ibnvestment that they were happy to flaunt in our faces some years back. The mickey mouse club is a joke. Propped up by the Cobbolds for years they repeatedly failed to invest choosing to plough everything into the playing squad. Forced to play catch up, as with the Pioneer stand, the burden has proven far too much. It must also be borne in mind that part of that £25m was used to pay back around £6 or 7 million that they had run up prior to promotion in 2000

Whilst it may look as if they''ve got away with it they are pretty much crippled for the forseeable future. If they are unable to meet the agreed repayments then they will be unable to take on any further loans. Without that boost of extra cash it''s almost certain they won''t have the means to mount a serious promotion challenge. Bear in mind their last few years have been done through wage bills way above what City have spent. Those days are over. Night night binners.

As to Morley Fund Management they are still receiving a regular £1.5m payment from the binners and will do so infinitum. The reduced rate of around 6% is comparable with much in the way of long term business loans so there''s no real loss and all loans are worked out to cover the odd hiccup.

So no real losers and the only gainers are perhaps us, who might now be spared the endless gloating from our impoverished neighbours and the knowledge that they have as much chance of reliving their much vaunted ''glory days'' as I have of seeing George Best score a hatrick at Carrow Road.

The only footnote is that we have a club and board who have had the good sense to ignore the clamour from a few dimwitted City fans who have wanted us to follow this same feckless path.

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Thats pretty much how it is! Ippo are in hock to the tune of 1.5 million a year (and rising), for ever ad infinitum. The assertion that ''the solution is the premiership'' is cock. After a ''prudent'' year in the top flight, our level of debt is the same as before, although we are on a much better footing than the town, it didnt answer all our prayers. Call it schadenfreude or whatever, but i think im really going to enjoy the sight of the blues sinking into footballs abyss.

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What hacks me off is that:

(a) this is OUR pension money (well, invested by the fund managers on behalf of NU policy holders), which ordinary decent people will ned to rely on in later years only to find it placed at risk in ill conceived loans like this

(b) some little oik probably got a multi million pound bonus in the City for doing the deal and is driving round in a 7 series Beamer and drips in gold fountain pens. I run an astra and steal complimentary bic biros.

However I''m just an ignorant, cynical and impoverished thicko who knows nothing of the workings of "High Finance".

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" ..I''m just an ignorant, cynical and impoverished thicko who knows nothing of the workings of "High Finance". "

Blimey you sound like you are from suffolk.

To settle your nerves, nothing has been lost here other than the binner''s prospect of any escape from the clutches of the money lenders.

At the moment they are only repaying the interest on the renegotiated deal. Were they to be paying the capital payments they would at some time pay off this loan. However even if they were repaying the capital the money would then have be reinvested elsewhere by Norwich Union - so there is no difference as far as Norwich Union are concerned.

What is more revealing is how the not too bright binners have been misled. His Lordship and his Muttley like sidekick Derek Bowden have always pushed the line that all debts are being covered whereas it is clear that they are not. That''s why they owe an extra £3m on the loan after already paying up to £6m.

If there is anyone " driving round in a 7 series Beamer" it is most likely Andy Marshall, Sereni and an aged African player who all were on in excess of a million a year and doubtlessly had their contracts paid up. I doubt either that the agent who seems too have his own office at Poorman Road one Jonathan Barnett drives around in anything less.

Still, at least the man for whom the blame for all this lies with is not driving around in a "7 series Beamer ". Nope, Lord Sheepshanks has a flash new top of the range Mercedes instead.

(he even had the cheek to accept a 10% pay increase when the binners were relegated in 2002 *)


* see Rick Waghorn - http://www.pinkun.com/Content/ncfc/Columns/rick/2003-4/031129Rick.asp

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Typical of the head in the sand attitude from Ipswich can be found in the EA Daily Times. The hapless hack named Derek Davis has at various times informed his readers that ITFC are better off financially than Norwich because the binners don''t own their ground !  He also informs his like minded readers that he ( and he alone ) knows that Norwich have a debt of £30m !  What a sad man he is.

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It least we''re not technically insolvent!   If it was any business other than football the financiers would have pulled the plug by now.

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i see where you are coming from tumble, but in reality it''s an excellent investment decision by NU to lend them that money. Why?

because the result is that the deal will see them continue to net 1.5m a year for their pension schemes long after they have recouped the initial £25m outlay. They have, in effect, secured a permanent source of income courtesy of our blue freinds to the south. should they ever somehow make it to the promised land, they''ll probably only last a season or two which won''t do much for their debt as was the case with us and they''ll probably still be shelling out every year.

i think it''s just the sweetest thing! brings a smile to my face whenever i think of it! 

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I can never understand the spitting hatred City ''fans'' have of anything that happens down at Portman Road.

Let''s face it, Ipswich are a football team playing in the Championship just like City - so surely its financial struggle should by looked at a symptomatic of the game these days.

Rivalry is excellent and essential in our national game - but spitting hatred? Surely not.

I have always loved the game and can appreciate great teams from the past for the beautiful football they have played, ie, Spurs of the 60s, the Everton team that won the championship (I believe some time in the 70s), the Arsenal championship winning team in the days before Wenger - and the Ipswich team under Bobby Robson.

Excellent entertainment from some excellent teams.

Many teams around the country have either gone into administration or simply disappeared, ie, Accrington Stanley(!) what a name! Now they are on the way back and for me I am happy to see it. I think the only thing they ever achieved was to groom goalkeeper Harry Gregg for Manchester United!

But to wish that the Tractor Boys actually disappear is wrong and will be a bigger loss than gain for City fans. Can you imagine a season without this particular derby match?

No way. I look at Ipswich''s plight and say: ''There for the grace of God go City.'' Then I breathe a sigh of relief - and look forward to the next derby game.

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look, a lot of us know binners - i have THREE friends who are and the barman in my local is one as well. he won''t serve me if i so much as say a word about football because lets face it, they haven''t had much in the way of local bragging rights in the last few years and we''ve had our season in the sun on top of that after winning the 1st div championship.

i wouldn''t say that many of us have a genuine ''hatred'' for them, and certainly not for our friends who support them.

Their financial situation is unfortunate and we can indeed only thank god we''re not quite there, but anyone who can''t have a laugh at the irony of ITFC being Norwich Union''s b***h for now and the forseeable future needs to lighten up!

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Spitting hatred is an interesting choice of words.. back in the days of john bond, after a 4-2 eric gates / referee inpired 4-2 defeat a scum fan spat a large mouthful in my face through the mesh dividing the fans. i retaliated with my fist and a member of the local constabulary grabbed me by the shirt and ripped it off my back. Hatred.. you bet. ITFC = Scum.

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Budgie
 
That was a very well intentioned piece and I''m sure that deep down we all recognise that you speak words of wisdom, however due to the fact that the only time I''ve ever experienced any sort of violence at a football match was due to the actions of some delightful chaps from across the border, I am afraid that I have to say I hate Ipswich Town FC and all that they stand for and they deserve all the derision, hatred and problems that they have brought upon themselves!

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Some of my best friends are Binmen...

I''d hate to see Ipswich go out of business (not that it''s really likely of course) because the local rivalry is one of the more piquant seasonings in our existance. But they deserve all the p*ss-taking they get over their financial woes because of that mocking collection the Evening Star organised for City when we had real money problems and they were lording it up in the Premiership. Now the boot is on the other foot to some extent, and Ipswich have become the perfect illustration of the saying "Pride comes before a fall".

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