I would just like to give you my take on the last couple of days. I noticed a statement on the Liverpool website on Tuesday night that Liverpool had recieved two bids for the club, so when I went to bed that night I actually gave a little prayer before going to sleep in hope of getting sold, and I am not a churchy person so very unlike me. Anyway, when I woke up yesterday morning by my wife shouting through the bedroom to me that Liverpool had been sold I couldn't believe it, everything seemed to happen so fast.
MY VIEW
I know many people are sceptical about another American coming in but you have to believe the board are doing the right thing and we have to trust them in their decision on this. Surely can't be any worse than Hicks and Gillett.
Martin Broughton has to be applauded on his work after taking so much stick from so many quarters. He had been employed by Hicks and Gillett to sell the club and this is what he has done, a deal for the best interests of the club. I am amazed with all the media attention how Broughton has managed to keep this deal quiet until yesterday, considering that so many meetings have taken place, he really has to be commended.
Its little surprise to me to see that Gillett and Hicks are not going to go quietly, which to be fair is understantable when they are reportedly going to lose about £70 million each. But by all accounts, and listening to Broughton being interviewed yesterday, it seems that the Americans have virtually no chance of saving themselves and that they could at least do the honourable thing by accepting this and walk away with their heads held high but typical of these men that they will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the club.
HICKS AND GILLETT
They took over on the 6th Febuary 2007 and the future looked bright. So many promises, the biggest one being the construction of a new stadium. To be fair they did give Rafa money to spend on players, and he did spend a lot. But Rafa did recoup a lot back from selling. Relations with Rafa and the Americans became strained when Hicks had a public spat with Rafa and then on the day after the 19th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster Hicks attacked Rick Parry on Sky Sports News, which angered many Liverpool supporters with his timing of the attack. Relations between the Americans and the supporters has declined rapidly in recent times with many demonstations by supporters wanting them out. On the 16th April this year the Americans put the club up for sale, but their valuation of about £600 million has been ridiculous and frightened off potential buyers. So hopefully now we can be rid of these Americans as we were going deeper and deeper into dept and soon to be called in by the bank.
John W Henry
Like most Liverpool fans I had never heard of this man but I like baseball and follow it and know how well Henry and his associates at New England Sports Ventures has done with the Boston Red Sox. He took over the Red Sox in 2002 and they are very similar to Liverpool as being a club that is steeped in history and tradition but like Livepool had not won a World Series title for over 80 years. But since he has taken over they have won 2 World Series titles till now, so he seems a man that certainly knows how to improve sports organisations.
His organisation is also in charge of the Roush Fenway Racing Team which he took over in 2007 and the team won their first Daytona 500 last year so in my view he has a really good C.V.
Time will only tell if he is the right man, but we have to trust the board and early indications from the new owners are that they will clear the debt. Also, it has been believed that they will either improve Anfield to a bigger capacity or build a new stadium so there is great optimism there.
THE FUTURE
It looks bright to me, I think we all have to be confident that this is the right thing the club are doing and that mistakes will have been learned and they won't happen again. I think it will be a knock on effect throughout the club and more importantly on the park as it so obvious in recent matches that it has got to Hodgson and the players. Hodgson will hopefully recieve money to improve the team and our key players like Torres, who has looked out of sorts will maybe now feel a lot more settled and be able to concentrate on his football rather than his future.Things won't happen overnight and we have to be patient but I think now the whole club can now be given a chance to improve rather than slide deeper into the abyss like we were doing. I hope all you fellow Reds are feeling the same optimism that I am feeling.
YNWA
this Dream outgrown by me currently !
ReplyDeleteJames, thanks for this article. Great effort from you :)
ReplyDeleteKop Anfield.