Spirit of Shankly - Liverpool FC's need for change
Tomorrow night is important for Liverpool fans. On the pitch we want to see a victory in the season's first home game.
Off the pitch, the situation remains as bleak as ever. Today's news of the massive lack of a transfer budget for the manager, only emphasises that point. £1.5 million doesn't buy you much in modern day football.
Not only is the off the pitch situation depressing for fans, with mounting debt, no new stadium, and an ownership structure that cares only for finances, but now the staple part of being a fan, the football, is being affected.
On Sunday it was painfully obvious to see that the squad does not have the depth that the manager desires. Instead of seeing further investment in the playing staff, the manager has to work within a budget derived from the theory 'you can only spend on transfers what you make from transfers'.
Is that really good enough for LFC?
Questions must remain about where the revenue from Champions League success and TV rights is being spent, but with the owners having a track record of using such revenues to pay off their debts - Tom Hicks' old favourite of leveraged buyouts - it's quite clear where the answers lie.
Further questions must be asked about how we have found ourselves in such a situation.
Not only has the 'family silver' been passed on for considerable profit by David Moores, and the now departed Rick Parry, but it is now being melted down to squeeze every last penny from it.
What is David Moores response? Nothing.
He resigns from his position on the board and maintains his Honourary Life Presidency with a seat in the Directors Box.
Why are you sitting back, doing nothing David, while the fans fight for the club's life?
Do we as fans want to see the club standing still, or even worse, being left behind, as other clubs spend millions on players to bolster their squads?
Do we want a situation where the main financial priorities each summer are debt and more debt, rather than transfers and contracts?
If the answer is no, then it's time to say no.
Time to say no to Hicks and Gillett.
Time to stand up for yourself.
Time to bring about change.
David Moores and Rick Parry didn't want to do it.
But we can. And we will.
Hicks and Gillett - OUT NOW!
Spirit Of Shankly
Tomorrow we will be distributing leaflets, reminding people, and informing them, of Tom Hicks and George Gillett's history. If you want to help, and are able to, please meet at the HJC Shop, opposite the Kop, between 5:45 pm and 6 pm.
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This bunch of pseudo-militant idiots are worse for the club than the Americans. At least you can slag the Americans off, if you say a bad word about SOS you get a load of teenage Johnny Concretes kicking off as though you just raped their dog.
Distributing leaflets?? Yeh that'll get rid of them. "We can, and we will"? Why the ominous sounding line which ultimately means nothing? SOS want to help ShareLFC own the club, which would ultimately leave the club in a lot more debt than we are in now, it's a pipe dream which is so unfeasable i can't believe anyone would back it, let alone a group supposedly representing the best interests of Liverpool fans.
cant be there in person lads but i will be with you in spirit, keep up the great work, YANKEE GO HOME
thanks but no yanks
Bob, whatever your views on SOS might be surely you must have realized by now that the Americans are draining the lifeblood out of Liverpool FC. Once you reach this conclusion then the time to act has arrived. While there may be room for legitimate debate as to what form of action would be most effective it can't be an acceptable response to just sit back and do nothing while Hicks and Gillett drag us down to mid-table mediocrity at best or to the level of Newcastle/Leeds at worst. There truly are fearful times for the Club.
That's right Bob , you just sit there and slag everything off. Do nothing but decry people who are actively trying to something useful and fight for the club we've had sold from under our feet by Moores and Parry... You fella are nothing but an arsehole. I'm not in SOS. I am in "ShareLiverpool". Have been from day one. What do you suggest we do? Nothing? Thought so... "No solution" idiots like you who slag off every positive thing fans try to do, to save the club they love, make me sick. Backslider!
Well Bob I heard that the yanks were getting their own people to write on websites. Didn't believe it until I read your comment. Are you from the UK?
Darren, theres no doubt in my mind that Hicks and Gillett have had their people infiltrate fan websites posing as ordinary fans to argue the case that Hicks and Gillett are doing a great job. I'm not saying Bob is one of these but Hicks in particular has definitely had his people infiltrate fan websites before for this purpose. I suppose all we can do is be wary of spin and not allow it to get in the way of real fans debating the issues that matter.
Right, 1. No i'm not a "mole" from the yanks, i don't think they should be running the club either, i just think this SOS/ShareLFC thing is a bad idea based on reading the website and speaking to a few people who are members. 2. Yes i'm from the UK, in fact i'm from Anfield, i live in Burleigh Road South for your information. 3. Why is it that whenever anyone says anything negative about SOS you all jump on their back instead of accepting a different opinion?
4. Do you really want people who chain up banks and hold parties singing about football disasters running the club? These are the people who make me sick, I'm not taken in by all the speil on the SOS/ShareLFC websites, it's all fanciful and unrealistic. I'm sorry if any of you can't accept an opposing opinion, but i can't see how ShareLFC can possibly work, you will not raise enough money to buy the club and then especially raise money for working capital/wages/transfers/site maintenance/contracts/the website/tv channel etc. etc.
THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF THEM IS TO STOP GOING TO MATCHES AND, IF NECESSARRY, TO FORM PICKET LINES TO STOP OOTHER PEOPLE GOING TO THE GAMES. LEAFLETS WONT WORK - ONLY MEANINGFUL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS!
see this is the kind of idiocy i've come to expect.
Avoiding the matches does nothing but hurt our chances of winning.
Instead we should -
1. Protest the Yank's presence at every opportunity. Before the game, half-time and at the end. Make them uncomfortable and unwelcome.
2. Protest the club's board members for being ineffectual and useless.
We need to do it LOUD & PROUD !
YNWA
Avoiding the matches does nothing but hurt our chances of winning.
Instead we should -
1. Protest the Yank's presence at every opportunity. Before the game, half-time and at the end. Make them uncomfortable and unwelcome.
2. Protest the club's board members for being ineffectual and useless.
We need to do it LOUD & PROUD !
YNWA
I can.t understand Bobs criticism of Share LFC. Share LFC has the backing of former players who have the club at heart. The club can be run responsibly with revenues raised for the benfit of the club and instead of our club being used as 'cash cow' for owners who couldn.t care less about our long term future.
Well said Red!
Finally, someone has hit the nail in the head and said what needs to be done: boycott matches. I know it is a shocking idea, but in an era when only financial results matter to most club owners, and our yanks in particular, it is the ONLY way the fans can force a change. I repeat: THE ONLY WAY. We are the ones who are giving Hicks and Gillet their profits, by paying in to Anfield and buying club merchandise. If even 20% of us were to stop going to Anfield, stop buying seasn tickets, stop buying shirts, etc. for one season it would cost the club - ie. the Yanks - a massive amount.
A few years ago fans of Spanish side Alaves (who we beat in the UEFA in 2001) hated their tyranical American owner Dmitri Pieterman so much that they would take banners to away games supporting the opposition and asking them to beat their team and therefore relegate them. They knew that the despised Pieterman was only in it for the money and would leave if they went down. They did get relegated (and celebrated it!) and Pieterman eventually sold up and left.
I know it is extreme, but the Yanks will continue to milk the club dry until
a) the get a good offer for the club (not likely at the moment), or
b) they are no longer making money out of owning LFC.
Sticks and stones is what these protests amount to. The only way to send a message is boycott the games. This may sound disloyal but it would be disloyal to allow this to continue. This wss sheer greed, by the previous owners and shareholders. As ot is written in the big book you reap what you sow.....
I am buying no merchandise this year and i will not be going to any games this year. enough is enough. if we are not careful we going to end up like newcastle. the reason LFC was sold was so we could compete in the transfer market and build a new stadium! no sign of a stadium and now we have to sell players in order to buy. who we gonna sell next year torres??? man city are up and coming, whos position they gonna take in the top four? man utd, chelsea, arsenal or liverpool? im not being negative just being a realist. SOS realise the situation and if something is not done soon it will be a long road to recovery. SOS keep up the good work. YNWA
حلمي هو رؤية الحثالة هيكس وجيليت خاج النادي عندها سنحقق كل البطولات
Iam liverpoolin in KSA . You have to be with our love and do not liverpool walk alone.
whatever the situations we love liverpool but we can not go to see the matches
As I've already said Bob you criticise others trying to do something, but have absolutely no solutions yourself. It not an opposing viewpoint you have, It's a non viewpoint. An opposing viewpoint would offer an alternative. You just slag SOS and Share Liverpool, who at least try to fight for the club they love. So a few idiots at a Xmas party sang a diabolical song. That's not representative in any way of SOS or Share Liverpool. Only some warped Daily Mail reader would think it was.
Here's a thought. May be it's people like you who make others sick by just sitting on your hands while the club is flushed down the pan through leveraged debt! Maybe it's your acceptance ineptitude and capitulation to what's happening at Anfield which makes us sick? As a Liverpool fan who lives in L4, think about that for a minute and Imagine if the HJC had adopted your stance Those lies unchallenged, would now have become fact. What I'm saying is some things are worth fighting for. This club is one of them and whether you agree with them or not. SOS and Share-Liverpool are the only ones leading that fight and doing it for the club you purport to love. I'm dreading this season.I was hoping RBS would call these two "Shiesters" in... Boycott? It might have to come to that. Because it looks like these American leeches are staying.
The have no morals, so I fear platitudes will have no effect on their mindset.
i read that there is going to be a prostest march tonight, lets see how many people turn up i will be there lets hope we make the news
Actually bollocks i live in L5. It's not that i don't want the yanks out, it's just that i can see the futility of singing songs about them and marching up an down outside. I can see that boycotting a game won't budge them and neither will standing silent at the ground. I've seen enough protests over the years to see that the ideas put forward are pointless. ShareLFC might have good intentions but be honest, there's a very very very very slim chance of them raising the requisite amount, then there's even less chance of the yanks accepting their offer for shares, they turned down a bigger offer from DIC, what makes you think they'll accept an offer from a bunch of people who have done nothing but attack them? Hicks has just turned down a $600m offer for the Texas Rangers, why would he accept ShareLFC's offer for Liverpool which will ultimately bring him more money than the Rangers? I might not have a wonder-plan to get the yanks out, but at least i'm not pinning all my hopes on a pipe dream like you.
I guess BarcelonaRed's example of Alaves is quite educating: they DID manage to shake off the owner by boycoting their own club. And what happened? Alaves is now a THIRD division club, more desperate than ever. You can't press the selfdestruct button each time you run out of ideas how to fight, you can't let down the team in times of peril! I'm a Serbian, need I translate YNWA to english to some of you?! There are plenty of creative ways to fight the owners without abandoning the guys on the pitch. Sorry for not being able to be there with you guys, figers crossed!
Protests achieve nothing !
The yanks will only sell when somebody makes an offer they cannot refuse and who knows where that money will come from .
All new owners are interested in one thing and one thing only - PROFIT
We accepted these clowns with open arms, now look at us, fighting amongst ourselves. United tried much harder to stop the Glazers and failed, so we should have learnt a lesson from them.
They are here to stay, we just have to get used to it.
The thing we all have to remember is that boycotting plans only work if they target Hicks and Gillett financially. Hicks and Gillett only deal in money. Mere emotions count for nothing to them. That means a boycott cannot be for only one game. It has to be sustained on the basis that it will continue without end until they sell up. Although I disagree with most of Bob's other comments he is right to reality check us about the pointlessness of one-off measures. I'm sure those of us who loved watching Xabi Alonso in a red shirt did not intend for his transfer fee to be applied towards Tom Hicks's debts in America. This is a portent of what is to come if we don't get rid of Hicks and Gillett asap.
To coin one of Rafa's phrases, it's a FACT that David Moores blew off the initial Dubai deal so he could make greater personal profit and more importantly stay at the club. The Arabs wanted him and Parry OUT. FACT.
The Yanks had Moores sussed.
His resignation from the board is another demonstration of his lack of support. He should had stayed and tried to fight.
Instead, he slithered away to his plush seat in the main stand.
I agree with some viewpoints about ShareLFC and SOS. I think that ShareLFC's current plans are untenable - but at least they are having a go.
As for SOS, a lot of long-term fans I know mistrust SOS as merely an organisation where a few people are trying to build up their own profile. Again though, at least they are having some sort of go.
That's the problem.
The fans are currently divided. Hopefully, this issue with the lack of transfer funds will be enough for the vast majority of fans to say simply, enough is enough.
However, while the Yanks get full houses every week they don't care. Why should they? They are getting the only thing they care about. Mon£y.
Maybe the only option is to appeal to the FA premier league and UEFA on whether these two idiots pass the "fit and proper" persons tests for club ownership?
What is for sure is we have to get these two clowns out by any means at our disposal.
I think we have to applaud the SOS for taking a collective stand against the Americans. Whether this is the best way to oust them from our club, is irrelevant. There will be no easy way of doing this. What it demonstrates is that our club is much more than a money making machine or a 'soccer franchise' as they originally described it when they took over. It is better to take a constructive form of action than to criticise and do nothing. When the Americans first arrived they promised world-class signings, stability for 'great coach' Rafa and a new stadium and have gone back on their word on every point.
I think the Americans should come clean about exactly what their intentions are for Liverpool long term or sell up now. I can guarantee that the only interest they have in our team is purely financial. Longer term, the club needs to be bought out by someone with a passion for Liverpool who can bring stability and investment. A new stadium and continued squad investment has to be the priority, along with improving the marketing of our club worldwide (and playing catch-up with Man U.)
Don't forget that fans ownership schemes work in Spain as the tv rights are split very unevenly to give the biggest clubs more money and these bigger teams are also bankrolled by banks without fear of banktruptcy.
It seems a shame that football has gone this way but maybe handing out leaflets to prespective Middle-East buyers would be more productive....
There's nothing to say Middle-East investors would be any better than the Yanks. That's a very bad assumption to make. They're investors, just like Hicks and Gillett and if they have more money available to invest in the club, then they wouldn't necessarily use it.
SOS are great in terms of how they're trying to do something. But agreed, they seem to lack an education of what to do or how modern day football business is run and conducted. It's all very fairytale, but I wish the luck.
But everyone talks about "well SOS are doing something, and you're not". As long as we're getting behind the team, we're doing our job. You'll notice that all the moaning about Hicks and Gillett goes quiet when we're having good results, doesn't.
And has anyone considered that Rafa may have spent the money unwisely, rather than H&G; not putting the money up? Ferguson and Wenger have spent much less than Benitez this summer.
Except, RedZoo, he hasn't spent a penny. In fact Rafa has made a profit from transfer dealings this summer/last january (keane). Any true Liverpool fan already knows this.
And the fans job isn't merely to "get behind the team". That's a very American thing to say!
Hicks and Gillette are killing the club {and me)which I live and breath - I can handle the lack of money side of things but the dishonesty/incompency which they consistanty demonstrate is behond belief - I'm hearing rumours that Rafa has had enough - I was critical of Rafa for the moves he made over Alonso/Barry last year - I see know it was down to our in compitant owners - setting a transfer stratedgy at the begining of the transfer window is simple - what money do we have, what are are gaps, who wants to leave, what options in the market are there - its down to the owners to set this expectation - the disaster with Robbie Keane (the whole transfer budget for that season wasted) - Alonso/Barry - now this season is down to Rafa doing his best with the information put infront of him - its down to Hicks and Gillette - I'm gutted but will do everything in my power to force them out - youll never walk alone.
Red is right. Only a total boycott will work. It would only take a few weeks before Hicks saw the light.
In the meantime, you may wish to check out where Tom ekes out his meagre existence:-
the first photo at
http://www.dallasarchitectureblog.com/2008/12/mayflower-estates-is-neighborhood-for-president-and-mrs-bush/
Also check it out on Google Earth at
32 52' 59"N, 96 48' 41"W
I have looked at some websites about Gillett & Hicks on how their kids are going about their hometown wearing Liverpool kits and boasting: "They own the club". They don't own it, their banks do and they are using Liverpool fans to pay their debts off everytime they buy a match ticket.
I've been a KOP fan for nearly 60 years and it destroys me to see Liverpool FC in this position.
Gillett & Hicks should do the honourable thing and get out of Liverpool FC, then someone who will love the club take over.
it's by hitting there pocket hard you'll affect the yanks,boycott the merchandise for the season and rbs bank cancel account if you have one with them since their loans are coming from there.....but still go to the macthes as the other will affect the players and that would be the last thing we'd want.....