Voice of the Echo

[Bromage]

Full Story May 22 2010 Liverpool Echo

 

LIVERPOOL Football Club has been systematically raped by its owners.

 

The words of lifelong Liverpool supporter and football industry expert, Dr Rogan Taylor.

 

Every Liverpool fan and this newspaper wholeheartedly agrees with him.

 

So now, after 3½ years of heartbreak and disharmony, of broken promises and shattered dreams, there can only be one conclusion.

 

Enough is enough.

 

Therefore, the message today to American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett is blunt, passionate, and heartfelt.

 

For Gods sake, get out of a wonderful, treasured football club which so many of our readers, plus millions more around the world, love and cherish so deeply.

 

And get out now before you kill their beloved Liverpool FC.

 

No more time can be wasted. No more words can be said or spun.

 

Because right now one of the worlds greatest and most successful football clubs is facing a grave financial and operational crisis this summer.

 

And, unless things change radically and fast, Liverpool faces falling from the pedestal which the late, great Bill Shankly first placed it upon in the 1960s.

 

Its a revered place where men like Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish, Houllier and Benitez have sought for decades to continue to hoist the Reds.

 

But with £40m a year spilling out of Anfield every year in interest payments to service the disgusting debts two brazen businessmen reversed into Liverpool FC, there is no prospect of that lofty position being maintained any longer.

 

Hindsight shows that previous owner David Moores, ex-chief executive Rick Parry and the rest of the then Reds board for all the pressures they were under to keep the Reds competitive clearly made the biggest mistake in Anfield history when they agreed the sale to Hicks and Gillett.

 

Because the Hicks and Gillett regime has been a shameful, unedifying catastrophe for Liverpool Football Club.

 

They broke their promises not do do a Glazer and saddled Liverpool with massive bank loans the club cannot bear just to pay for their greed and their ruthless desire to sell at a hefty profit one day.

 

They promised a stadium they have never delivered.

 

And most cruelly ironic of all, they promised to be good custodians of a club they have now near-ruined.

 

Today their own selfish, avaricious dreams lie in near tatters too their partnership of chance and convenience broken beyond repair and with it the harmony and professionalism for which Liverpool FC was once renowned.

 

The only good news from them came a few weeks ago when they formally admitted that the Reds were up for sale.

 

Every Kopite prays they mean it and they will now offload the Reds to fit and proper owners who can begin to repair the terrible financial damage they have wreaked upon Liverpool FC.

 

The Echo calls upon the Americans now to realise their unsavoury hopes of making mega-millons in profit are dashed and urges them to sell the club at a realistic price before another day is wasted.

 

As it stands, weary Reds fans are deeply worried about the future of the club they worship and support like no other supporters in the world.

 

They desperately fear players like Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres brilliant talents who love Liverpool to their core and who fit the Anfield culture and character so clearly may feel the need to abandon ship.

 

They fear a manager, who for all his critics and his mistakes many still admire, will have nothing but buttons to spend on new players this summer after a season of so much disappointment and despair.

 

It has all got to stop. And stop now.

 

Because if this drift of despair goes on any longer, it could stop the heart of a football club known worldwide for the size of that heart; for its brilliance and its unrivalled, precious history.

 

Those magnificent Liverpool fans have protested so many times and tried so hard in the past three years to their enormous credit to broker change.

 

But their patience is more than wearing thin.

 

It is utterly exhausted and understandably, rightly so.

 

There is still a chance for Liverpool to find a safe shore and recover. The clubs potential even now in Anfields darkest hour is too big for even men like Hicks and Gillett to totally destroy.

 

But it is a slim chance and today a last chance.

 

As soon as transitional chairman Martin Broughton, managing director Christian Purslow and the rest of the Reds management team find a decent new investor whom they and the Kop can trust, then the Americans must allow them in.

 

Hicks and Gillett have to get on with it and get out and go well before another ball is kicked again at Anfield.

 

They know it. We know it.

 

And every Liverpool fan has long since known it.

 

Their time is up.

[Knox_Harrington]

It wasn't as though the evidence wasn't there two and a half years ago.

[Couldbe]

It wasn't as though the evidence wasn't there two and a half years ago.

 

The pressure on them to sell wasnt as intense 2 1/2 years .... signs are now an offer is on the way but below their asking price., so media campaign is well and truly on.

[Knox_Harrington]

The pressure on them to sell wasnt as intense 2 1/2 years .... signs are now an offer is on the way but below their asking price., so media campaign is well and truly on.

f*** that. This is Liverpool's newspaper. These two have been damaging Liverpool. Forget pressure. The Echo should have done some f***ing journalism and created the pressure, found thestory, rather than be the cowed, pathetic paper it is.

[pipnasty]

This will help but as Neil says, too little too f***ing late.

[Knox_Harrington]

This will help but as Neil says, too little too f***ing late.

What were they waiting for? They were scared.

[Stevie H]

the evidence about hicks was there before moores sold to him, enough people online found it with a quick google. insult to journalism that piece is.

 

'So now, after 3½ years of heartbreak and disharmony'? what the f*** have you been waiting for?

[pipnasty]

They were scared.

 

Of course they were. They wouldn't want to upset their 'friends' now would they? Cowardly journalism at its worst.

[Maldini]

too little, too late

[stressederic]

Now, now, I'm sure the previous few years have actually been really busy and they just haven't been able to fit this in.

[Jarg Armani]

Hahaha!

 

F*cking hell lads, where've you been?

[Crazy Horse]

A bold editorial decision indeed, coming only 'a few weeks' after they publically put the club up for sale.

[pipnasty]

Hahaha!

 

F*cking hell lads, where've you been?

 

 

They thought that N'gog and Lucas were our main problems.

[Billy Dane]

Makes you wonder why they've done it now though doesn't it. Two years too late definitely, but why not the week Boughton was bought in to sell the club? What has changed for them to print it now?

[The walters step over]

Makes you wonder why they've done it now though doesn't it. Two years too late definitely, but why not the week Boughton was bought in to sell the club? What has changed for them to print it now?

 

Maybe they're not getting the info/access fed to them as before and have decided that they've got nothing to lose.

 

I'm choosing to believe that they think a deal is on the way and want to seem to have played a part in the exit of G+H.

[pipnasty]

IT WAS THE ECHO WOT DONE IT

[Will]

Too late, yes - not sure it can be described as "too little" really. They were in an impossible position really as they were so tied into the club financially (and presumably still are)

[Hodgson for Chelsea]

Better late than never.

 

[digs_nz]

Better late than never.

 

 

They could hardly go on a tirade against the owners at the end of last season (86 points)

 

Glad to see it though

[carrafan]

They could hardly go on a tirade against the owners at the end of last season (86 points)

 

Why not? Points had nothing to do with it, everyone knew that we were f***ed in the short term.

[David Hodgson]

f*** that. This is Liverpool's newspaper. These two have been damaging Liverpool. Forget pressure. The Echo should have done some f***ing journalism and created the pressure, found thestory, rather than be the cowed, pathetic paper it is.

 

100% agree, but it all helps. Even if they are jumping on late, it can only help that they are now where they always should have been.

[kop205]

f*** that. This is Liverpool's newspaper. These two have been damaging Liverpool. Forget pressure. The Echo should have done some f***ing journalism and created the pressure, found thestory, rather than be the cowed, pathetic paper it is.

 

Absolutely.

 

It is a f***ing comic and has been for years.

 

They'll no doubt rest easy now with their consicence clear because they wrote such a strongly-worded 'Disgusted of Liverpool' (or Oldham, or wherever the f*** it is printed these days) article, and leave it at that.

[muleskinner]

Too late, yes - not sure it can be described as "too little" really. They were in an impossible position really as they were so tied into the club financially (and presumably still are)

 

If it was down to finance then the value of those deals was being damaged, their stance on this has been indefensible.

[New York Red]

Yeah well now is the time they have to go on the offensive. They've been on the fence for too long. Hiks and gillett don't need to be exposed. They have been exposed already. But the Echo can sure as sh*t go after them.

 

Here's some ideas boys:

 

-- Delve into the horrible lack of due dilligence on the part of Moores and Parry.

 

-- Research the financial goings on the the club and see where tese lies have been spun for financial benefit.

 

-- Research into the personal goings on of these scumbags. Expose their affairs (and I do mean the shagging ones), their bankrupcies, their frauds.

 

-- Look into why the the Premier League let them get away with so much without any policing whatsoever.

 

-- See if they lied to and defrauded local authories and see what their reactions are to H&G's behaviour.

 

-- Look into the affairs of their former board members like Foster Gillett and Tommy Hicks.

 

I will tell you this. I'm sure there is a juicy story out there for the Echo to discover that will be horrifically embarassing for the Hicks family. They just need to dig for it. It's there. I'd bet my house on it...

[muleskinner]

PriceWaterhouseCoopers were the the guilty party, its pointless targeting David Moores.

 

Yeah well now is the time they have to go on the offensive. They've been on the fence for too long. Hiks and gillett don't need to be exposed. They have been exposed already. But the Echo can sure as sh*t go after them.

 

Here's some ideas boys:

 

-- Delve into the horrible lack of due dilligence on the part of Moores and Parry.

 

-- Research the financial goings on the the club and see where tese lies have been spun for financial benefit.

 

-- Research into the personal goings on of these scumbags. Expose their affairs (and I do mean the shagging ones), their bankrupcies, their frauds.

 

-- Look into why the the Premier League let them get away with so much without any policing whatsoever.

 

-- See if they lied to and defrauded local authories and see what their reactions are to H&G's behaviour.

 

-- Look into the affairs of their former board members like Foster Gillett and Tommy Hicks.

 

I will tell you this. I'm sure there is a juicy story out there for the Echo to discover that will be horrifically embarassing for the Hicks family. They just need to dig for it. It's there. I'd bet my house on it...

 

If there is, and you are sure about, it why not go to the paper with what you know yourself instead of dropping spurious gossipy hints on the internet? Tony Barret is on RAWK and TLW, possibly on here. Tony Evans and Oli Kay probably read these boards too.

Edited May 23, 2010 by muleskinner