Liverpool Fans vs. Tom Hicks
Filed under: George Gillett, Liverpool, Tom Hicks
Image via daylife
A sign aimed at the club’s U.S. owners is seen at Liverpool’s English Premier League soccer match against Chelsea at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England, Sunday Feb. 1, 2009. A group of Kuwaiti businessmen were at Anfield on Sunday with Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks to watch the match against Chelsea as the American searches for new investors.
There is no doubt that the Liverpool faithful are less than thrilled with ownership these days but apparently George Gillett has no idea why:
Earlier in the day, members of the Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) fans’ group converged on the Crowne Plaza hotel at the Pier Head where Gillett was staying.
Mr Gillett, who had earlier declined an opportunity to be interviewed by the ECHO, was clearly unprepared for their arrival as a number of supporters got past hotel security to confront him.
But after quickly recovering his composure, the Colorado-based businessman agreed to speak with to SOS spokesman Jay McKenna in the hotel foyer.
Mr McKenna said: “I told him all the fans who were outside and thousands more were angry and upset at how he and Tom Hicks were running the club.
“He looked shocked and asked me why. I told him he knew why, because he met Spirit Of Shankly before the Manchester United game.
“I said ‘fans see it as you have made three promises and broken them’. So he asked me what they were.
“The first one was the debt on the football club. I told him his partner Tom Hicks promised it would not be like the Glazer takeover at Manchester United, and to fans that meant no debt on the club.
“He claimed to be unaware and asked what I meant. I told him they had bought the club and then placed the debt for buying the club onto the club.
“He claimed this was at the ‘request of the banks’ and they were in a ‘sound financial position’ with ‘revenue per pound or dollar in ratio to the debt’ better than at any other football club.
I’d like to point out that this is nothing against Americans in general, it’s an easy target when things aren’t going well, but lies have been told, and promises broken, so far the only plus points i’ve seen is that they have tried to back the manager with bigger signings, no more Kromkamps or Josemi’s and Nunez’s but Torres, Babel and Mascherano.
But sponsorhip is way short of the other big clubs, A stadium like Anfield is truely amazing, but we need a bigger place, more money is needed if we really are going to keep up, some people might say that we’ve spent a lot, but we’ve also sold a lot!
Guv, thanks for that insight right there and I definitely agree with ya. Hopefully everyone clicks through and reads the full text because a lot of the frustration is explained. I think Hicks is bringing the same old thinking of how American sports owners do business which is: new stadium x luxury boxes x naming rights = a whole bunch more revenue, but thats not really the way that its done everywhere else. Obviously a beautiful new home helps but we don’t want football becoming like American sports where the real fans are priced out because a stadium cost a gillion dollars or they are sitting so far away from the stadium that they are better off watching at home
so they’d rather have an arab, with dirty oil money, than an american? fuck liverpool then…you’re the scummiest part of all you scummy english.
John, you sound well educated!
actually, i am. i’m from ireland, so i hate the english…and i live in north jersey, so yeah..now u know why i talk the way i do.
Oh so you’re pissed that we starved you! Pity you don’t understand the strong Irish links with Liverpool, get to know the history son, Liverpool love the Irish and the Irish love us.
i do know the irish links of liverpool. but bottom line is, liverpool is in england (which we all hate) and your nasty country still has control of 6 of our counties.
I know plenty of Irish people who don’t hate England, but besides the point, you are entitled to your opinion, please keep politics out of footie, you can say what you like about my country, I love it and I love Ireland too, beautiful place, i’ve grown up Liverpool through and through with Ronnie Whelan being one of my heroes, Jim Beglin, Mark Lawrenson, Ray Houghton, John Aldridge, Steve “steady stan” Staunton and Steve Finnan, we still sing about Stevie Heighway on the wing.
You can include Phil Babb and Jason McAteer too, so don’t bring your shitty politics into it, no point and no place for it, footie is footie, let the assholes figure out the rest of what is wrong between our two countries.
how utterly ignorant”Irish” John , as someone who was raised in both Ireland and England there is no place for this sort of xenophobic pish…no context to the article either and youre a complete mong for ignoring the strong Irish links that Liverpool have and that a Gaelic nation extends beyond Ireland itself…there are a few scummy parts to the emerald isle and lets face it Jersey aint exactly Malibu now is it….so you’ve proved that there are hateful twats either side of the Irish Sea, well done …..while I agree that N.Ireland should not be occupied its people like you that give the cause a bad name…nothing to do with football..and if you hate the English ,well done, so do most English people…soon you start spewing hate speech about Americans and you’ll have to feck off back to whatver Wexford knacker yard you hatched from