DAVID Sheepshanks last night denied he was about to follow Derek Bowden and quit the club in the summer.

Derek Davis

DAVID Sheepshanks last night denied he was about to follow Derek Bowden and quit the club in the summer.

While saddened at the chief executive's exit, the Ipswich Town chairman insists that it is not a given that he will also go.

Sheepshanks was made a non-executive chairman last year and agreed to stay on for at least one more year on that unpaid basis and there was a widespread belief he will leave the club at the end of this season.

But Sheepshanks last night told the EADT: “I have not made any decision. I have a good relationship with Marcus Evans and I'm available to assist whenever I might be asked.

“I have a very deep affection of everything that is Ipswich Town and want to see the club thrive under Marcus Evans' ownership as I still believe it will.”

It remains to be seen if Evans calls upon Sheepshanks vast experience within the football industry because if Sheepshanks were to leave his post at Ipswich Town he would have to step down from his place on the Football League board, and at the Football Association.

It is not a given that his replacement at Portman Road would automatically be handed a role in either of the respective governing bodies.

It could be that Bowden's replacement, understood to be former BOA chief executive Simon Clegg, would look to be Town's representative on the league committee.

It was Sheepshanks who employed Bowden five year's ago and between them brought in Evans as the club's new owner.

He said: “I am very sad to see Derek leave. He and I were a good team together and he has given first class service to the club.

“I feel sure whatever he does next he will be an even greater success because he deserves it. I'm sorry to see him go.”

Sheepshanks has this week been with the Football league and one of the main points of discussion was a possible points deduction for Southampton FC, whose holding company have gone into administration.

Evans is understood to have been considering buying the saints but chose the Blues instead.

Sheepshanks vehemently denies suggestions that had Evans not bought Town they could now be staring at administration.

He said: “We were under no immediate pressure to sell the club. The board was running the club prudently on a budget we could manage and the team was increasingly competitive as shown when we reached sixth place at one point last season.”

derek.davis@eadt.co.uk