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Benitez given a raw deal by owners who fail to understand Liverpool's rich heritage: The overture to Klinsmann puts Liverpool in Newcastle territory

James Lawton; Independent

Published: 15 January 2008
There was a time when you didn't audition or even interview for the job of managing Liverpool. It came to you because you knew how the place worked and you had proved that you had absorbed all of its lessons. You knew about loyalty and the difference between building a team and chance and speculation. Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish weren't just a series of managers. They were an apostolic succession.

More than a decade of change separated Rafa Benitez from those days when he arrived at Anfield as a man of high achievement and passionate nature, but he seemed to understand what he was inheriting, give or take a few lost years.

He had some big lessons to learn about English football and even his warmest admirers would concede that he has still to master some of them, but a Champions League win, another appearance in the final, and the FA Cup won him entitlement to more than a little patience and respect.

At least that was until yesterday when the apostolic succession might have been a wet leaf trampled into some obscure pathway in Stanley Park.

Now it seems that in the eyes of Liverpool's owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the manager of Liverpool Football Club has one overriding purpose. It is to say yes to the owners. Of course they don't put it so bluntly. They talk about the need for communication – and what happens when it breaks down. Hicks spelt out the effects of such a denouement yesterday. He even had it on the Liverpool website.

What happens is that you line up an alternative manager – in this case Jürgen Klinsmann. Perhaps this was the most astonishing aspect of yesterday's development – not the confirmation of the approach to the former coach of Germany, who is now taking up his first post in club football with Bayern Munich, but the pious, self-congratulatory public revelation of it.

This wasn't a news item. This was a threat to the independence of a football man who, before winning the Champions League and the FA Cup for Liverpool, won two Spanish titles, under the shadows of the hugely financed Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the Uefa Cup for Valencia. "Klinsmann," said Hicks, "was an impressive man."

He is also a stick with which to beat Benitez if he gets up the nerve again to tell the owners who he believes should be signed if Liverpool are to move on to be legitimate challengers to Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. It was Klinsmann when relations between the manager and the owners cooled last November. Who will it be next time? Perhaps Jose Mourinho if he is still in the market or, given the apparent lack of feel for the traditions of Anfield, perhaps even Big Sam giving the long ball another airing in another new and unreceptive pasture.

Reading the statement of Hicks yesterday, you couldn't but go back to his joint outpouring with Gillett when the takeover deal was made less than a year ago. It was a mellifluous little entreaty, almost a love song to the Kop. Here is the key passage: "Liverpool is a fantastic club with a remarkable history and a passionate fan base. We fully acknowledge and appreciate the unique heritage and rich history of Liverpool and intend to respect this heritage in the future."

But how do you respect something properly if you don't really understand it? How do you "acknowledge and respect" a heritage if you don't know how it happened? Liverpool have won the English title 14 times in the 80 years since Newcastle, who are supposed to be the joke entry in the senior list of contenders, last got their hands on it. That's a title arriving at an average of every fifth or sixth year. In Europe Liverpool's five titles leave them in third place, behind Real Madrid (nine) and Milan (seven), and this, no more than the accumulation of domestic glory, has nothing to do with managers willing to doff their caps whenever they meet a director.

The brutal fact is that the confirmation of the already poorly kept secret about the overture to Klinsmann put Liverpool nowhere more firmly than in Newcastle territory.

Newcastle have an owner who gets his inspiration from the banter that accompanies the drinking of Newcastle Brown and the wearing of souvenir shirts. Liverpool have a joint command who presumably believe that their candour over the Klinsmann move is going to enhance their reputation for strong, wise leadership. It is quite hard to know who is further away from the realities of making a successful football club.

Certainly, those who have fretted over Benitez's recent erratic behaviour – and will never endorse what sometimes seems an egocentric preoccupation with rotation for its own sake – are now much more inclined to rally to his somewhat tattered banner. He left Valencia with tears in his eyes, which is not always the most convincing sign of a man in charge of his ambitions, but his intensity now adds to the belief that he is suffering in a way that he does not deserve.

It was also instructive to go back to the seeds of the crisis which emerged last November. Then, Benitez explained quite chillingly, saw the change of climate. He said: "We had a meeting on the day of the Arsenal game [when Liverpool were denied what would have been a huge victory by some late brilliance from Alexander Hleb and Cesc Fabregas] which was really positive. After this something changed. They told me to focus on coaching and training because Rick Parry will be looking after the signing of players."

This wasn't a shift of policy. This was a death sentence for a manager's belief that he controlled, in the way of a Ferguson or a Wenger, the destiny of his team.

Here is the Hicks' website version of the fissures which developed when the financing of the new stadium in Stanley Park came into conflict with Benitez's anxiety to seal up the back of his midfield with the £17m permanent signing of Javier Mascherano: "In November, when it appeared we were in danger of not advancing in the Champions League, and were not playing well in our Premier League matches, and Rafa and we [Hicks and Gillett] were having communication issues over the January transfer window, George and I met with Jürgen Klinsmann.

"We wanted to learn as much as we could about English and European football. We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become manager if Rafa left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason. After George and I had our meeting with Rafa following the United game [lost 1-0 at Anfield] we put all our issues behind us and received Rafa's commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool. We had not reached agreement on an option with Jürgen and we are both pleased for him that he has a great opportunity to return to Germany as coach of a great club. Rafa has the support of both of us and our communication has greatly improved."

There is nothing like an ultimatum as an aid to communication. The one made public by the ownership of Liverpool is not quite spelt out in black and white but Rafa is surely not in desperate need of any help from the decoding department of the secret service. In the unlikely event that he is, an amateur offering might well be sufficient. It would say: "Forget about winning the Champions League and the FA Cup and that loyal fan base that we were extolling on the day we took over, there are plenty more hands to hire out there."

Another reality is that in those days of glory, when Liverpool ticked along as if by remote control, the club had, as Hicks and Gillett so recently said, its own unique place in the football world. It wasn't a cash cow. It was an expression of belief in a passionate commitment to doing all those things that had guaranteed such brilliant success for so long. Chief among them was a belief in the judgement and the integrity of the man in charge. You gave him respect. You certainly didn't tell the world you had been hawking his job behind his back.

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article3339096.ece

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Straight-talking Americans risk being divisive in any language: Yesterday's developments added further strain to the already difficult relationship between Rafa Benitez and Liverpool's overseas owners.

Ian Herbert and Nick Harris; Independent

Published: 15 January 2008
Last November was a hectic month at the ranch in south California which is Tom Hicks' second home. Hicks enjoys doing his sport business there so he invited over Torii Hunter, the baseball centre he wanted to lure from Kansas City Royals to the Texas Rangers side he owns. Hunter could not be persuaded and yet there were higher hopes still for an engagement with the individual Hicks believed could help him sort out the chaos which was beginning to engulf a purchase he was becoming increasingly comfortable with – Liverpool Football Club.

Jürgen Klinsmann, better known to Hicks' business partner George Gillett than to him, arrived at the ranch with his Californian wife Debbie on a Thanksgiving weekend which coincided precisely with that now famous Thursday afternoon sulk in Liverpool during which Rafael Benitez repeated the words "I am focused on training and coaching my team" 15 times after he had been refused permission to wheel and deal in the transfer market.

It is unclear how long the meeting, involving Hicks, Gillett and Klinsmann, lasted but it was against that backdrop of strife the German was told he was the man the Americans wanted to take over if – or when – Benitez walked out. Klinsmann returned to his Orange County home aware of Hicks' irritation with the Spaniard, on whose conduct the American would make his views clear. It was on Thanskgiving Friday that Hicks ordered Benitez, in a message, on Liverpool's website, to "get the best out of the players we already have".

A provisional contract is understood to have been drawn up with Klinsmann there and then, though it seems to have been a subsequent drift of events – rather than a breakdown in negotiations between the parties – which contributed to Klinsmann not signing it. Benitez was talked around, Liverpool embarked on their Champions League escape act and, perhaps most critically, Hicks saw in the fans' pro-Rafa march along Anfield Road before the match with Porto just how much they supported the manager.

Hicks revealed tellingly, in a little publicised US interview only last week, that the passions of Liverpool supporters have taken some understanding. "My involvement happened relatively quickly, so it wasn't like I had been studying this for months. I did not have any appreciation of what the Kop was and how it is really the soul of the club," he said. The march seems to have persuaded him that firing Benitez would not be as straightforward as his shock decision, also in that hectic November, to sack his Dallas Stars ice hockey manager Doug Armstrong.

So that, for the time being at least, might have been the end of the Klinsmann connection, had not sources at Bayern Munich suggested late on Friday that a contract had been on the table for him at Liverpool. At first, Hicks had no plans to respond to the comments. The focus of questions put to him on Sunday morning was a newspaper report suggesting that he and Gillett may be ready to sell Liverpool to the Dubai Investment Company, a financial vehicle ultimately controlled by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, one of the world's richest men, which came close to buying Liverpool a year ago.

Hicks was busy and did not immediately respond to this, or to a subsidiary question about Klinsmann, but within five hours he provided the written statement to the Liverpool Echo which he seems to have thought might satisfy fans seeking some transparency, but which served only to astonish them and had prompted plans for a "get the Americans out" online petition by last night.

Hicks has a habit of speaking with a candour which, refreshing though it may be, seems not to augur well for Benitez. His assertion the day after Liverpool crashed to the 2-0 defeat in Beşiktaş, for example, that "[we] should be winning things. If [we're not], we'll have to have a meeting at the end of the year and understand what happened" was in the same bracket. But this is the most extraordinary of all. A club so used to civility that it parades ousted managers – Gérard Houllier – on the pitch before waving them off does not tout for a replacement while an incumbent is in place – and then reveal the fact on its website.

The club's former players were understandably astonished yesterday. "I haven't got a clue why he has come out and said this," Alan Hansen said. "Maybe the story was going to come out and he thought he'd be better off making a statement first. Whichever way you look at it, though, these events cannot do anything but undermine manager Rafael Benitez."

Benitez did not respond yesterday but there are only so many questions about the Americans' failure to back him properly that he can answer. Though he was angered by Sunday newspaper reports nine days ago that he believed he faced the sack, the reports were the product of a genuine sense of gloom he was conveying.

There was some daylight for him on Sunday when Jose Mourinho's representative, Eladio Parames, rejected suggestions that he might be in line for Benitez's job now that Klinsmann has gone to Munich. But after yesterday's developments, what scant trust that remained between manager and owners has gone and Benitez will surely soon be on his way.

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article3339106.ece

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Benitez future uncertain after Liverpool talk to Klinsmann

By Ian Herbert; Independent
Published: 15 January 2008
Rafael Benitez's position at Liverpool is bordering on untenable after confirmation by the club's owner Tom Hicks that he and business partner George Gillett held secret talks with Jürgen Klinsmann in November to sound him out about taking over at Anfield.

Hicks, who confirmed the meeting had taken place after sources in Germany revealed that discussions in America had resulted in a provisional contract being drawn up, said the talks had been triggered both by the "communication issues" he and Gillett were having with Benitez over transfers and by Liverpool's poor form at the time. "We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have [Klinsmann] become our manager in the event Rafa decided to leave our club for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason," Hicks said.

Though Hicks insisted that Benitez now had his support, it is understood that the Spaniard would have been fired had Liverpool not qualified for the next stage of the Champions League and, though he remains in place, the open courtship of Klinsmann, which has echoes of the way Tottenham Hotspur pursued Juande Ramos before eventually sacking Martin Jol in October will dismay Benitez, a man of high intensity who has been trying for weeks, with mixed results, to maintain a facade about the strength of his relationship with the Americans.

Though Spurs' pursuit of Ramos provides a precedent, Hicks broke new ground by describing the German as "a very impressive man" in a full statement published on the club website. Some might even see that as an attempt to provoke Benitez into leaving the club altogether and it will make the Spaniard the focus of intense scrutiny yet again tonight as Luton Town arrive for an FA Cup third-round replay. But the statement, made to the Liverpool Echo late on Sunday, seems to be more of a miscalculation on the part of Hicks, seeking to pacify Liverpool fans through transparency, than any deliberate attempt to persuade Benitez to call it a day.

Questions also surfaced yesterday about whether the Americans will even outlast Benitez. It emerged that Hicks and Gillett, whose purchase of Liverpool is built entirely on loans, would have sold a stake to the Dubai Investment Company, which came close to buying the club a year ago, had they been able to agree a price with the pair last October. Talks between the two parties over the sale of a proposed 10 to 20 per cent stake are understood to have reached an advanced stage, but a disagreement on the £1bn valuation placed on the club by the Americans stopped DIC from investing.

But it is the Klinsmann revelation which will alarm the club's fans most. Gillett, who knew the German through US sports contacts, made the introduction to Hicks, who said the aim of the meeting was "to learn as much as we could about English and European football". As justifications go, it was utterly unconvincing.

Hicks added: "After George and I had our long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Manchester United match [on 16 December], we put all of our issues behind us and received Rafa's commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool. We never reached agreement on an option with Jürgen. Rafa has both of our support, and our communication has greatly improved."

Benitez again mentioned last Friday the value of Foster Gillett, George Gillett's son and the Americans' representative at Anfield who is now back in the office which adjoins his own at the club's training ground, and Hicks said that the two meet there every Monday morning with the club's chief executive, Rick Parry. Hicks added: "The two families always try to have a telephone meeting on Mondays, so we all are on the same page. We all want to win more games."

But winning any games has been a problem for Liverpool, whose title hopes all but vanished after the dismal draw at Middlesbrough on Saturday – even though the Liverpool fans' chants throughout for Benitez underlined again how much support his Champions League success still carries in Liverpool. Winning the FA Cup now looks like the minimum requirement for Benitez to stay beyond the summer. "From our point of view, we want to win the FA Cup again," he said yesterday. We still want to win the title, but also we want to win the FA Cup."

http://sport.independent.co.uk/footbal....108.ece

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Blackwell has sympathy over 'betrayal of Benitez'

By Mike Rowbottom; Independent

Published: 15 January 2008
Liverpool and Luton Town may be separated by 61 places in the League structure, but when their respective managers look across at each other from the dug-outs during tonight's FA Cup third round replay at Anfield, they will recognise something in common. Both men know what it is to be betrayed.

Kevin Blackwell has already served notice of his intent to quit as Luton manager on 9 February following the administrator's unilateral decision to sell off five of his players last week. Having discovered the club's financial plight after being lured to Kenilworth Road last March on the promise of big investment and a new stadium, Blackwell now feels, in his own phrase, that he has had the rug pulled from under his feet not once, but twice.

But as he looked ahead to a match where extraordinary circumstances may yet deprive him of other key players – three were actively discussing transfers with other clubs as he spoke yesterday – Blackwell was swift to sympathise with his opposite number in the wake of reports that Liverpool's owner, Tom Hicks, had admitted to holding a secret meeting in November with the former Germany manager, Jürgen Klinsmann, who had been widely tipped as a possible successor to Rafael Benitez before taking up a post last week at Bayern Munich.

"If those reports are accurate, Rafa is a dead man walking, and I don't think he will like that feeling," Blackwell said. "The game of football at the moment, for me, has lost all credibility in how the business of the game should be run. When you think of what Rafa has done for Liverpool, it seems incredible to me that someone has had the cheek to go behind his back and speak to someone else about his job. It's a disgrace. If you have the morals of alleycats in the boardroom, how can you expect players to be the virtuous role models we expect them to be on and off the pitch?"

Blackwell, meanwhile, admits that he cannot be sure who he will have available tonight, and accepts he faces the possibility of a player pulling out on the eve of the match in case an injury should jeopardise his chance of a move, especially as his squad have only been paid for two of the last 10 weeks.

"Someone might come up to me an hour before the kick off and say they didn't want to risk it," Blackwell said. "I would be deeply disappointed at that stage, that's for sure, but I would understand it. The players are frustrated they have seen people moving before we felt they needed to. We felt that we were all in this together and we wanted to stick together.

"This was all part and parcel of why I decided to leave. It's difficult enough to manage a club without having hand grenades thrown in when you don't need them."

Blackwell, who has previous experience of steering a club through financial crisis having managed Leeds United when they went into administration and guided them onwards to a play-off final, was utterly frustrated at the timing of last week's sales, having secured what he thought was an agreement with the administrators to hold off from such action until after the Liverpool replay, when a decision is expected on whether one of what are believed to be three bids for the club would be acceptable.

"I felt that having a match live on Sky TV would be a great opportunity for us to show our wares to the biggest possible audience," Blackwell said. "And if any bidders were to be confirmed, they might want to have a full squad still at the club.

"If no bid was confirmed, we were all ready to do everything we could to help the club sell to keep it afloat financially until the end of the season. The sales happened just after we had pulled in another half a million from the first Liverpool game that had never been part of the calculations. We spoke to the administrators, and we thought we had a strong strategy in place. So to see that blown away within 24 hours ... to the day I die I will not believe when and how it was done. It just made no sense."

Blackwell would not be drawn on whether he might yet stay at Luton if a new owner – and TV personality Nick Owen might yet be that person – asked him to do so. But he feels his CV holds up well, especially as he has stayed to do his bit without getting wages himself, donating the last of his payments to the club's YTS players.

"I've tried to show honour," he said. Something of a rarity, it would appear.

http://sport.independent.co.uk/footbal....107.ece

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Rafael Benitez sees red over Klinsmann offer

By David Bond; Telegraph

Last Updated: 09:30am GMT 15/01/2008
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is understood to be considering whether to sue the club's co-owner Tom Hicks after he made the startling admission that he tried to line up Jurgen Klinsmann to replace him.

Although Hicks claims the move for the former Germany manager was an "insurance policy" in case Benitez walked out on Anfield, the Spaniard is now weighing up whether he can take legal action against the Dallas billionaire for constructive dismissal.
   
He is said to be furious at what he sees as another attempt to undermine his position, which comes just one month after Hicks and co-chairman George Gillett reassured Benitez that he had their full support. But following Hicks' comments, in an interview with the Liverpool Echo, the Spaniard's position now looks untenable.

Hicks said: "We attempted to negotiate an option as an insurance policy to have him [Klinsmann] become manager if Rafael left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the press - or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason.

"We never reached agreement on an option with Jurgen, and we are both pleased for him that he has a great opportunity to return to Germany and coach a great club team."
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The confirmation that an approach was made to hire the former Tottenham striker, who has now agreed to take over at Bayern Munich at the end of the season, is all the more damaging for Benitez as it was reports linking Klinsmann with his job which prompted the November stand-off with Hicks and Gillett.

Benitez's attack on the Americans over a perceived lack of support in the transfer market led to Hicks and Gillett slapping him down, telling him to "quit talking about new players".

Since their meeting in mid December, Hicks claims relations have greatly improved with Benitez. He added: "After George and I had our long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Manchester United match, we put all of our issues behind us and received Rafa's commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool. Rafa has both of our support, and our communication has greatly improved."

But the Klinsmann revelation would appear to confirm Benitez's fears that he will be sacked at the end of the season. And if he were to be sacked or successfully claim wrongful dismissal then he would be entitled to around £6 million in compensation for the two years outstanding on his contract.

The timing of Hicks' comments is all the more surprising given the financial uncertainty at the club.

A £350 million deal to refinance the Americans' borrowings used to buy the club last February is still not concluded. But Hicks yesterday insisted: "It's probably taken two to three months longer than if the markets had been healthy. It's going to close by the end of the week."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport....115.xml

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Rafael Benitez struggling to walk on

Oliver Kay; Times

January 15, 2008
Rafael BenÍtez will battle on as Liverpool manager, despite having his position undermined further yesterday when Tom Hicks, one of the club’s owners, admitted that he had attempted to line up Jürgen Klinsmann to replace the Spaniard.

The news did not surprise BenÍtez, who had already learnt of the meeting that Hicks and George Gillett Jr held with Klinsmann in California in late November, but he is understood to be aghast at the co-chairman’s willingness to make the information public. Hicks defended the approach by saying that the former Germany coach was targeted as “an insurance policy” against BenÍtez’s departure for Real Madrid or another club, but that casual admission has caused astonishment even within Liverpool, where some believe that the manager has effectively been rendered a lame duck.

The threat from Klinsmann has since evaporated, with the former Tottenham Hotspur forward signing a contract on Friday to succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld as coach of Bayern Munich from July 1, but, despite the insistence of Hicks that BenÍtez has his “support” after a clear-the-air meeting last month, there is a feeling within the club that the Spaniard’s position is untenable in the long term and perhaps even in the short term after another damaging blow to his credibility.

In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Hicks said: “In November, when it appeared we were in danger of not advancing in the Champions League, weren’t playing well in our Premier League matches and we were having communication issues [with BenÍtez] over the January transfer window, George and I met with Jürgen Klinsmann to learn as much as we could about English and European football.

“He is a very impressive man. We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become our manager in the event Rafa decided to leave our club for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason.”

BenÍtez chose not to respond to Hicks’s comment, but, upset as he may be, he has no plans to resign from his position. Manuel GarcÍa Quillon, his agent, last night told The Times: “Rafa wants to stay at Liverpool. He is happy with the club, with the supporters and with the city. He does not want to leave.” Cynics may feel that BenÍtez is merely holding out for a payday, with Liverpool likely to have to provide £6 million in compensation if he is dismissed, but the Spaniard has not abandoned all hope of staying on as manager, even if it appears that he has little or no chance of surviving under the present regime.

There have been indications in recent weeks that Hicks and Gillett may be forced to sell Liverpool, with the American tycoons under serious pressure to refinance the £270 million loan that they used to buy the club last February. Doubts about their financial strength increased with Hicks’s admission that they had held talks in October with Dubai International Capital, the private-equity arm of the Arab state, about selling a 15 per cent stake in the club for £150 million, but that meeting did not come to fruition.

Hicks added that no further talks were planned, while there were indications from Texas last night that Hicks expects to secure a successful refinancing package “this week”, which would enable them to proceed with their troubled bid to build a new 70,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park.

Regardless of their long-term plans, though, Hicks and Gillett face an immediate battle to win back the trust of the supporters, having plotted to replace the popular BenÍtez. A protest of some kind is expected at this evening’s FA Cup third-round replay at home to Luton Town.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol....853.ece

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Liverpool owners will make sure it ends in tears for Rafael Benitez

Oliver Kay; Times Online

January 14, 2008
There was a widespread sense of disbelief among Liverpool’s supporters earlier this season when The Times and other newspapers began to report that the club’s American owners were plotting to replace Rafael Benitez. Reporters have been accused of working with an anti-Liverpool agenda, of being hell-bent on driving Benitez out of the club, of inventing controversies when there was nothing but harmony behind the scenes at Anfield.

Let us get one thing straight here: The Times does not have it in for Benitez; Liverpool’s owners do. To go behind his back to talk to Jurgen Klinsmann, as Tom Hicks admitted today that they had, might have been within their rights as owners of the club, but in the eyes of the supporters, it is a betrayal. And to make this information public two months on, just when his position appeared to have stabilised in the short term, is either lunacy on Hicks’s part or a deliberate attempt to undermine an increasingly beleaguered manager.

Hicks defended the move by saying that he and George Gillett Jnr “attempted to negotiate an insurance policy, to have [Klinsmann] become manager if Rafa left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press.” This might all sound very smart to Hicks, but it is an insult to a manager whose affection for and commitment to Liverpool runs far deeper than that of the owners.

Benitez has been far from blameless in this episode, but the only he was ever going to leave the club this season – as seemed possible in November, when his relationship with the owners was at rock bottom – was if he was kicked out. Real Madrid was not an option for him, partly because he and his family are settled on Merseyside and partly because of the job Bernd Schuster is doing at the Spanish club.

If Hicks knew anything about European “soccer”, he would have been aware of that. There was interest from Bayern Munich – interest that Benitez instantly discouraged – but that was about a job starting next summer. A job that, as it happens, Klinsmann has taken.

There is another issue here: what is the big attraction with Klinsmann? Why, like Roman Abramovich at Chelsea a year ago, were Hicks and Gillett seduced by the idea of replacing a European Cup-winning coach with a man with such little obvious coaching pedigree. Yes, Klinsmann took Germany to the World Cup semi-finals in 2006, but it was on home soil, riding a wave of patriotic fervour to overcome the collective might of Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador and a toothless Sweden before a lucky penalty shoot-out victory (aren’t they all?) over an Argentina side that self-destructed in the quarter-final. They then lost to Italy in the semi-final. The view within the game at the time was that the real work had been done by his assistant, Joachim Low, who has proved his worth since taking the job full-time.

The similarities with the Chelsea situation a year ago are numerous: the Klinsmann link surfacing after an owner (or two in Liverpool’s case) had his ego bruised by a manager who dared to challenge his authority. Jose Mourinho was effectively left a lame duck after his fall-out with Roman Abramovich a year ago. He lasted until the end of the season and then, to everybody’s surprise, held on until mid-September, but it all ended in Iberian tears – just as it will with Benitez at Anfield.

What’s that you say? That everything is fine now that Foster Gillett is there to act as a go-between? That Hicks made clear in remarks to the Liverpool Echo that Benitez “has our support”? Do you really believe that? Do you see it as a genuine vote of confidence? Do you really believe that the media are the ones trying to drive Benitez out of Liverpool? Or has the penny dropped that Benitez will be out of Anfield by the end of the season? Unless, of course, Hicks and Gillett, fearing a revolt on the terraces, sling their hook first.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol....370.ece

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Liverpool's US dream turns to nightmare

Andy Hunter; The Guardian

Tuesday January 15, 2008
Tom Hicks and George Gillett provided plenty of ammunition to sceptics of the American takeover of Anfield last February (of which there were precious few) with talk of franchises, Liverpool Reds and goal-tenders but it was their considered and frequent description of themselves as mere "custodians" of a £218.9m investment that resonated loudest with the club's support, even as the institution that is England's most successful club was heading for foreign ownership.

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Appeasement and ambition were their overriding objectives as they were introduced in the Anfield trophy room by the chief executive, Rick Parry, who, with the departing chairman and then majority shareholder, David Moores, had helped clear the path by vouching for the credentials of men who promised openness and to "earn the respect of the fans".

Given that Hicks and Gillett had to purchase compulsorily only 1.4% of the club's shares over the next 21 days, the message was evidently taken on trust. How different the picture looks 11 months on.

It says everything about the Liverpool co-chairmen's standing among that same support today that Tom Hicks' revelation that he spoke to Jürgen Klinsmann about replacing the popular Rafael Benítez was not the only bad news to emanate from Texas. As far as the vast majority are concerned, Hicks' insistence that neither he nor his business partner is interested in selling Liverpool to Dubai International Capital is a further, demoralising blow.

"The speculation in the London tabloids on Sunday morning is more rubbish," said Hicks in an extraordinary interview with the Liverpool Echo yesterday, attempting to perpetuate the myth that it is a southern media conspiracy that is destabilising the club. "George and I have no interest in meeting with DIC or selling our shares to them. We are amazed at how silly rumours find themselves in print in the tabloids." This from a man who claimed he approached Klinsmann only on the basis of press rumours about Benítez's discontent, and who staged the meeting in the same week the Spaniard brought their rift over transfer policy into the public domain.

Whether honesty, fear that the meeting with the next Bayern Munich coach would be made public or a considered effort to push Benítez closer to the exit fuelled Hicks' admission is unclear but the Kop's anger and discontent are not.

A concerted effort was made by the organisers of the pro-Benítez march last November to avoid anti-US sentiment and to concentrate on support for the man who has delivered two Champions League final appearances in his three full seasons at the club. Yet that feeling is growing as Liverpool's absentee owners act with continued disregard for the traditions and heritage they vowed to protect.

Save for a carefully scripted statement issued after they met Benítez following the defeat by Manchester United on December 16, Gillett has maintained a public silence on the manager's future. His presence at Hicks' retreat in southern California for the meeting with Klinsmann, however, indicates it is not just the more vociferous Texan who harbours doubts over the Spaniard's title-winning credentials. And what might they have heard from the former Germany national team coach last November that prevented an agreement with their "insurance policy"? That Liverpool require time and more signings of the calibre and expense of Fernando Torres to sustain a genuine challenge for the Premier League? If so, Klinsmann's advice would have been identical to what they have heard consistently from Benítez.

Hicks and Gillett are not close to selling Liverpool to DIC, as weekend reports suggested. Should they succeed in securing a £350m loan to refinance their takeover and fund the first stages of the proposed stadium on Stanley Park before the end of February, then the pressure to seek outside help for their ambitious project also diminishes. Such is the rising anger at their reign, however, the pressure to sell could eventually come from Liverpool supporters and not the Royal Bank of Scotland, which funded the takeover.

Despite Hicks' dismissal of the DIC stories, the Americans did hold talks with the Dubai company about acquiring a 15% stake last October. The deal was close to completion until Liverpool's owners valued the club at £1bn - accounting for a completed stadium - and DIC refused to pay £150m for 15% of an investment they hoped to buy outright only eight months previously. DIC's interest remains.

Tonight's FA Cup replay with Luton should be about the League One club's desperate plight and Jamie Carragher's 500th appearance for Liverpool. The distractions will linger until either the Spaniard or the Americans walk on.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2240982,00.html

==============================================

Benítez fights on as owner admits courting Klinsmann

Andy Hunter; The Guardian

Tuesday January 15, 2008
Rafael Benítez will not be pressured into quitting Liverpool and believes a good Champions League campaign will save his job, despite the Liverpool co-chairman's admission yesterday that he spoke to Jürgen Klinsmann about replacing the Spaniard at Anfield.

Tom Hicks undermined his manager further when he confirmed he and fellow owner George Gillett had met the German at Hicks' Californian retreat last November. That was the time of Benítez's public row with the Americans over transfer policy, although Hicks claimed Klinsmann - who was last week announced as Ottmar Hitzfeld's successor at Bayern Munich - was only ever "an insurance policy" and the Spaniard now enjoys his employers' full support.

Article continues
Hicks' revelation sheds new light on Benítez's furious reaction to being ordered to "concentrate on training and coaching his team" at the same time as Klinsmann was holding talks with the Americans.

But the Liverpool manager will not walk away from his post and remains confident he can yet appease the Americans with another convincing Champions League campaign. Manuel García Quilón, Benitez's agent, said last night: "Rafa wants to stay at Liverpool. He is happy with the club, with the supporters and with the city. He does not want to leave."

That still appears a difficult task, however, with Hicks confirming they considered a change of manager this season. "In November, when it appeared we were in danger of not advancing in the Champions League, weren't playing well in our Premier League matches and Rafa and we were having communication issues over the January transfer window, George and I met with Jürgen Klinsmann to learn as much as we could about English and European football," said Hicks.

"We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become our manager in the event Rafa decided to leave our club for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason."

The Liverpool co-chairman claimed relations have improved with Benítez since a clear-the-air meeting at Anfield in December. "Rafa has both of our support and our communication has greatly improved," said Hicks.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2240984,00.html

==============================================

Hicks' excuses fail to convince, time they moved on

by Jim Boardman; Anfield road.com

Posted on January 14th, 2008
Tom Hicks has today made yet another bungle in his long list of errors and misjudgements since taking over at Anfield with the nowadays silent George Gillett.

Reports on Friday night that hit the papers on Saturday morning spoke of Jurgen Klinsmann having been offered the Liverpool job before accepting his new role as manager at Bayern Munich. Liverpool FC refused to comment on the stories, and remained silent throughout the weekend.

However that silence was making things much worse for them. There was little doubt that they had approached Klinsmann, the rumours were far too strong and had come from far too many directions in the football world, in the US, the UK and in Europe.

Rafa’s position was being made increasingly difficult.

Added to this was the speculation that Hicks and Gillett were about to sell out to DIC if they couldn’t get that loan refinanced.

Today Hicks made a number of contradictions when trying to explain recent events to the Liverpool Echo.

In an article headlined, ‘Tom Hicks: Jurgen Klinsmann “only an insurance”‘, Tony Barrett gets the scoop of the year so far as far as Liverpool are concerned. The restrictions Tony faces when reporting on such matters mean he perhaps can’t say what he’d like with regards the quotes from Hicks. The paper has always tried to be careful not to offend the top brass at the club, and the editor of the paper, part of the same group as the Daily Mirror, would not allow the article to be pitched too far in opposition to the owners.

Hicks’ story is full of holes, when compared to previous statements, and suggests he either assumes Liverpool supporters are slow-witted imbeciles, or perhaps hasn’t the wit to check his previous statements first to avoid making those contradictions.

The Echo say that Hicks and Gillett met Klinsmann in Hicks’ other home, in Southern California. This meeting took place during the US Thanksgiving Holiday. The 2007 date for Thanksgiving was November 22nd, the day before the never-to-be-forgotten press conference where Rafa repeated the “concentrating on coaching my team” mantra. The following day was the Newcastle match at St James’s Park, where Rafa wore his tracksuit and trainers instead of his usual suit.

At that time Liverpool had just won their previous two matches - the 8-0 Champions League win over Beşiktaş and the 2-0 win over Fulham in the league. They were still unbeaten in the league and certainly still capable - despite having had less invested than the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United - of challenging for the league.

The owners’ plot included wining and dining both Klinsmann and his wife Debbie, Klinsmann being told he’d be the perfect for the club should Benitez either leave the club or be fired.

Hicks admitted that an offer was made to Klinsmann - but claims it was purely an “insurance policy”. He now says that Benitez has his full support. Unfortunately his word means very little these days.

Rafa has always maintained that at a meeting following the draw with Arsenal on October 28th that everything was fine between him and the owners. But it’s known that Foster Gillett disappeared from England after that game, only returning in December. Back at that October meeting Liverpool had already failed to win those first three Champions League games. Yet the owners did not tell Rafa of any problems with that situation.

The Arsenal game was followed with a Carling Cup win over Cardiff and a goalless draw with Blackburn, before those wins over Beşiktaş and Fulham.

After the Fulham game came the international break. A number of Liverpool’s players were on international duty, and those that weren’t were injured. Rafa had more time than normal to look at transfers. Transfers he’d discussed following that Arsenal game. But the owners had seemingly lost interest. They and Rick Parry were trying to fob him off; Foster had already disappeared, perhaps to ensure he didn’t let the cat out of the bag about Klinsmann.

Hicks has claimed through the Echo that it was doubt about the Reds progress in the Champions League - following the Beşiktaş defeat back in October - alongside “communication problems” that made them turn to Klinsmann as a so-called contingency.  In actual fact the time from the Arsenal game until the time of the Newcastle game was pretty much the thirty days Hicks said it would take for their refinancing application to be approved. It’s still not been approved now, almost another two months down the line.

Exactly what the “communication problems” could be that were sufficient enough to line up a replacement is hard to work out. Foster Gillett may have disappeared, for reasons still unknown, but Rafa just wanted to move forward with plans he’d already discussed a couple of weeks earlier. He was told then that the plans he had were fine. Yet four weeks later they weren’t. Why? Had the owners got money worries? Or was it something else?

Hicks explains, or tries to: “In November, when it appeared we were in danger of not advancing in the Champions League, weren’t playing well in our Premier League matches, and Rafa and we were having communication issues over the January transfer window, George and I met with Jurgen Klinsmann to learn as much as we could about English and European football.”

For two weeks of November there were no fixtures, since they’d last seen Rafa Liverpool had at least got the Champions League back on track with that 8-0 win and they were still unbeaten in the league. And now Hicks is adding to his claims that the meeting with Klinsmann was to help them learn a bit more about the game of football over here! Which is it? To learn about the game, or to offer him Rafa’s job?

It seems it was the latter really: “”He is a very impressive man. We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become our manager in the event Rafa decided to leave our club for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason.”

Real Madrid had not been rumoured in any reputable English press articles at that time. Rafa was also under contract for another two-and-a-half years. To use that as an excuse is nonsense.

Hicks told the Echo that when they finally managed to get their backsides across the Atlantic, and then after a few days in the country finally talk to Rafa, that they then suddenly realised that there was now no need to go any further in their move for Klinsmann.

A few days after that meeting Hicks used Sports Illustrated to belittle Rafa, claiming he “pouted” when told to concentrate on coaching. The fact he’d perhaps just found out they’d interviewed his replacement had nothing to do with that then? Rick Parry used the BBC to warn Rafa publicly that he had to keep quiet in public about club policy. Gillett spoke at a party before pretty much disappearing again.

Rafa has never said he wanted to leave Liverpool. The one time that happened was well before the Moores sold out to the Americans, and Rafa chose Liverpool above his boyhood idols. He and his wife and kids love the country and the city; he loves the club and the fans. He was promised so much yet given very little by comparison. Now he’s being blamed for the owners talking to Klinsmann - it’s back to them being worried he was going to leave! Hicks said: “After George and I had our long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Man United match, we put all of our issues behind us and received Rafa’s commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool.” Rafa’s commitment has never been in doubt Mr Hicks. Where’s your commitment to Rafa? We don’t trust your word; it’s been shown not to be worth a great deal.

Klinsmann never signed the contract with the Americans, probably because he knew his popularity would start off very low and would struggle to increase, and also probably when considering that if this sneaky way of doing business and managing key staff is how the American work, it was perhaps as well he steered clear. Hicks says: “We never reached agreement on an option with Jurgen, and we are both pleased for him that he has a great opportunity to return to Germany and coach a great club team.”

It’s the first time we’ve heard anything close to support for Rafa from Hicks, but it sounds hollow: “Rafa has both of our support, and our communication has greatly improved. Foster, Rick Parry and Rafa now have regular meetings at Melwood on Monday mornings. The two families always try to have a telephonic meeting on Monday afternoons, so we all are on the same page. We all want to win more games.”

The way to show that support for Rafa is to extend his contract. But in reality the damage has already been done. The owners just can’t be trusted. Rafa has earned a lot of respect from Liverpool fans and this respect has allowed him some time to make mistakes, and some patience from the fans. That patience is running out, but it does remain. The owners have done nothing to earn respect from the supporters, quite the opposite, and so patience is something they will struggle to get.

They say they invited Klinsmann over for Thanksgiving because they wanted to learn about football on this side of the pond, then they say they got him in to ask him if he’d mind awfully being the backup should Rafa be sacked or leave.

They claim they thought Rafa might leave because of press reports linking him with Real Madrid “and other clubs”. Which other clubs? When did these reports come out, and were they from anyone remotely reliable?

They also claim that they were considering firing him because of poor results in the league. Yet from the Arsenal game where they were happy until Thanksgiving only had two league games - one was a draw and the other win, and they were still undefeated in the league. They certainly weren’t out of touch of the top. They’re further away from that now, having had three draws in their last three games, so surely Rafa is now under even more of a threat?

The Champions League dropped points had already happened before that Arsenal game; by the time Thanksgiving came along they’d got back on track with an 8-0 win.

There’s also an admission via another Echo story that they had almost come to a deal with DIC for the Arabs to buy a share in the club. Their high valuation of that shareholding blocked the deal. It also alerted DIC to the troubles the owners are in, hence their sitting in the wings waiting for their opportunity to take over. Yet back at the end of November, Rick Parry told the Daily Post, that the stories talking of Hicks looking at selling shares was untrue: “I have seen the story, and as far as I am aware it is complete rubbish,” Parry said at the time.

Chris Bascombe has taken a lot of stick over his reporting, when he was at the Echo and even more now that he’s at the News of the World. But he’d certainly got enough contacts to find out most of the truth that Thanksgiving weekend, with the gaps being filled in during the following weeks.

The owners have used a mixture of lies, spin and silence to avoid owning up to the truth about their intentions. Forget “Snoogy Doogy” and talk of being custodians. They’ve no intention of putting anything of their own into this club, and judging by their ill-advised - if they even were advised - plan to install the failed manager that is Jurgen Klinsmann then it seems they really just don’t care all that much what happens on the field.

This time they’ve gone too far. Already there is deep-seated anger from more and more supporters at the way they are handling our club. And already fans are discussing ways of making this known to the owners. It should also be made known to the financial institutions the owners are speaking to, because they need to know that the owners are not what they make themselves out to be. They’ve not got a clue how to run a football club, and there is a serious risk that the club’s status will fall under their ownership. Liverpool could easily drop out of the top four, even the top six, by employing inexperienced coaches and failing to try and invest in the team at the same rate as their rivals. Another year’s revenue from the new stadium has been lost due to their pathetic showing off of a stadium they couldn’t afford. All in all these owners stand to ruin this club. It’s only a matter of time before they remove their rubber masks to reveal they are actually Neville Neville and Norman Whiteside.

They need to do a lot more than this to even start to win the supporters over. And I believe it’s already too late. Time they left. Time the financial institutions were warned - there’s a vote of “No Confidence” in Hicks and Gillet.

http://www.anfieldroad.com/

==============================================

YANKS STAB RAFA IN THE BACK

By Kevin Francis; Daily Star

15th JAN 2008
LIVERPOOL’S American owners have confessed they HAD lined up a new manager behind Rafa Benitez’s back.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett admitted approaching Jurgen Klinsmann about taking charge at Anfield as they prepared for life after Benitez.

The pair claim they made contact with the new Bayern Munich boss in November because Liverpool were in danger of being dumped out of Europe and the Premier League title race – and because their relationship with the Spaniard had broken down.

They also say they were trying to protect themselves because there were stories linking Benitez with a move to Real Madrid at the end of the season.

But the fact that they tried to negotiate terms with the German at all casts a huge shadow over Benitez’s Anfield future – and almost leaves his position untenable.

Hicks said last night: “We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become manager if Rafa left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press – or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason.

“It was in November, when it appeared we were in danger of not advancing in the Champions League and we weren’t playing well in our Premier League matches – and Rafa and we were having communication issues over the January transfer window.

“George and I met Jurgen Klinsmann to learn as much as we could about English and Euro-pean football. He is a very impressive man.

“We never reached agreement on an option with Jurgen and we are both pleased for him that he has a great opportunity to return to Germany and coach a great club team.”

Hicks now says Benitez has the full backing of the Americans and explained: “George and I had a long and productive meeting with Rafa following the Manchester United match.

“We put all our issues behind us and received Rafa’s commitment that he wanted to stay with Liverpool. Rafa has the support of both of us.”

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/footbal....he-back

==============================================

Rafa Benitez on the brink

By David Maddock; Daily Mirror

15/01/2008
Liverpool's crisis deepened last night as owner Tom Hicks finally confessed that he DID offer Jurgen Klinsmann the chance to become Anfield boss.

Mirror Sport revealed last week that current manager Rafa Benitez has been left as a dead man walking, after the American owners went behind his back to tap up the German. Hicks confirmed yesterday that he and co-owner George Gillett met with Klinsmann to discuss the position, and made a proposal to the former Germany manager, who instead last week chose to become the next boss at Bayern Munich.

Benitez now knows what he suspected all along - that he is still only in a job because his bosses can not yet find a suitable replacement.

Benitez's agent Manuel Garcia Quillon insisted that the Spaniard is ready to fight for his position. He said: "Rafa wants to stay at Liverpool. He is happy with the club, with the supporters and with the city. He does not want to leave."

But it leaves him as a lame duck manager until the Americans find a successor.

That is not likely to happen until the summer because the top two candidates - Jose Mourinho and Martin O'Neill - will not become available until then. Although that could change if they lose at home to League One Luton in their FA Cup replay tonight.

Benitez offered a dignified silence in response to the whole sorry mess. But Hicks did try to diffuse the situation when he bizarrely argued that he only offered Klinsmann the job as an insurance policy in case Benitez quit.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport....0286473

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[Leonmc0708]

Liverpool in meltdown

David Maddock; Daily Mirror

15/01/2008
It was supposed to be the American dream - a takeover of Liverpool that promised massive investment from two generous billionaires which would finally enable the great club to compete at the top again.

Fast forward 12 months, and that dream is turning into something of a nightmare, with no end in sight to the lurid crisis that has gripped Anfield in recent months, culminating in confirmation yesterday that Rafael Benitez's job was casually offered to Jurgen Klinsmann.

Such a revelation from owner Tom Hicks, which fatally undermines Benitez's position at the club, should be just about as bad as it gets at an institution better known for its dignity in the face of adversity down the years.

But the Americans' relationship with their manager - and the implications of employing a lame duck boss over the next four months - are just about the least of the worries facing Hicks and his co-owner George Gillett.

Liverpool are in a mess. In fact, prefix that with an expletive, and you begin to understand the sort of mess they are in. They are a club beset by financial concerns and political infighting, and one whose prospects look bleak for at least the next four to five years.

When they bought Liverpool, Hicks and Gillett explained that they were very different from the Glazers at Manchester United, promising they would use their own money to finance the deal, and not borrow against the club. Depressingly, that promise has been broken, with the pair spending the last six months attempting to arrange finance that will ultimately put Liverpool in debt to the breathtaking tune of around £600million.

Because of the global 'credit crunch' however, banks are nervous of lending money without security, and they have demanded that both Hicks and Gillett provide personal guarantees and letters of credit to cover the loans.

Gillett has been either unwilling or unable to provide such guarantees, which has caused a major delay in finding the money, and led to speculation that the Americans would be forced to sell their stake. Hicks insisted yesterday that neither he nor his partner have any intention of selling - but he did reveal recently that the plan now is to borrow the money in two stages over the next 12 months.

If they can appease the banks then they will borrow £300m to pay for the purchase of the club and other related costs, and get the 'new Anfield' stadium build underway. In a year's time, they will borrow another £300m to pay for the stadium.

Such massive levels of borrowing means that the interest on the loan will be around £35-40m every year.

Last year, Liverpool's operating profits were in the region of £30m, meaning the loan would be almost 20 times operating profits. In comparison, Manchester United's are eight times, and Arsenal's just four.

Such financial talk is above the heads of many fans, but the bottom line for Liverpool is that at current levels, any profit will be wiped out completely by the interest on loans - which means there will be little or no money for transfers.

The Americans plan to increase profits, but until the new stadium is built - which won't be until at least 2012 - their only real way of doing so will be to increase ticket prices dramatically, another Glazer route they promised not to follow.

To this heady mix of financial worries must be added real problems in the relationship between the two Americans. There are clear indications that the pair simply no longer trust each other, and certainly, both appear to be briefing frantically against each other.

Hicks was supposed to be the silent partner providing the financial muscle in the deal, with Gillett the dealmaker who handled the public relations. Now Hicks seems to have taken over, and Gillett to have disappeared.

There is also disharmony within the Anfield boardroom, with former chairman David Moores and chief executive Rick Parry uneasy about the level of borrowing against the club, and the lack of financial progress that has been made. Which all leaves the situation with Benitez as a puzzling sideshow. In their current financial situation, Liverpool desperately require stability and guaranteed income.

Benitez has not only qualified his team for the Champions League every season, but reached the final twice in three years, providing desperately required revenue. But there is a real danger now that by undermining him so badly, the effect on the team's morale will cost them a Champions League place this season, which would be an unmitigated disaster.

By replacing him, the Americans are merely opening up the possibility of spending even more money they haven't got, because his successor would demand funds to get rid of Benitez's players and bring in his own.

Logically, the Americans would be best served by backing a manager with a good track record, in the hope that he can get the best out of a squad that will not be added to in any significant way over the short to medium term.

But logic has long flown out of the Anfield window. Benitez knows that his only chance of survival now is if the Americans sell before they can sack him.

While that seems a remote prospect, it is not impossible. DIC, the investment arm of the Dubai government, lurks in the background, still interested in buying the club they believe they were cheated out of a year ago.

Hicks revealed yesterday that in October, Liverpool were in talks to sell DIC a stake - but they stalled over the Americans' valuation of £1billion for a business they paid only £180m for just eight months previously.

If borrowing costs get any higher, then the Americans could yet be forced to lower their valuation, and sell not just a stake, but the whole club to the Arabs. A mess it certainly is.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport....0286461

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Lawro: Liverpool promises don't ring true

By Steve Rogers; Daily Mirror

15/01/2008
Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson says the actions of the club's co-owners are "very very strange" after it was revealed they met Jurgen Klinsmann.

American investor Tom Hicks had talks with the former Germany boss, but insists that was an "insurance option" should Rafa Benitez leave for Real Madrid.

Mirror columnist Lawro, a stalwart of the famous Liverpool sides of the 1980s, believes Hicks and business partner George Gillett are making some poor decisions.

He said: "I just find some of the things they are doing are very very strange indeed.

Advertisement
"They have wanted Klinsmann to say: 'I will take the job if Benitez goes', which is strange in itself. Because how would that come about?

"Their actions are very, very difficult to work out and I think the majority of Liverpool fans are looking at this and thinking it doesn't bode well for the future."

Lawrenson believes Benitez's response to the news could go either way. He added: "Benitez could say: 'That's out of order' and walk or he could turn around and get on with things - it's purely down to his reaction."

Supporters have already marched through the streets of the city this season to back their beleaguered manager, and Lawrenson added: "The vast majority of Liverpool fans are pro-Benitez. I think they will be even more so against Luton."

"When these two Americans took over the club, it was supposed to be a brand new dawn, a new stadium was on the way, etc, etc, etc but something just doesn't ring true - I sometimes think the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport....0286455

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[account deleted by request]

good idea Leon

[66-1112520797]

I dont think we need three threads running this debacle, I'm sure if one of us mere mortals posted this up, serious Bob would of locked it.

Half these articles are in this forum anyway.

[Leonmc0708]

I dont think we need three threads running this debacle, I'm sure if one of us mere mortals posted this up, triggy happy Bob would of locked it.

Half these articles are in this forum anyway.

You think too much.

Here, why dont you go in this thread and moan about that as well.

[66-1112520797]

This is exactly the kind of thing you did before you became Mod (moan).

Anyway Woollys was light hearted, yours was just to get your "name up in lights"

Maybe I do think too much, but at least its better than not thinking atall.

[Ciggy]

Graham Hunter reported this morning that Klinsmann was definitely offered the liverpool job.
Hunter was talking to Bayern officials at their winter training camp in spain about the klinsmann position and was briefed the following:

- Klinsmann had detailed talks with Hicks, and was assured that he would be taking over from Rafa at the end of the season
- Klinsmann started plans for the transition, including lining up his own men for back-up roles, including some 'new-age' type fellas he used with germany
- The talks went way beyond what hicks implied yesterday. The offer was definite, and was not some back-up insurance policy.
- When Bayern officials began to hear of this, they moved very quickly to offer klinsmann a lucrative deal.

I know some people's opinions of g hunter around here aint great.

But I'd believe him rather than Hicks.

From RAWK

[account deleted by request]

I dont think we need three threads running this debacle, I'm sure if one of us mere mortals posted this up, serious Bob would of locked it.

Half these articles are in this forum anyway.

To be fair mate I think its a good idea, it saves discussion threads getting filled with newspaper articles, (I know I am worse than anyone) and its a ready source of information if you need to look back , rather than searching through threads trying to find a particular article.

Leon did offer me money if I said it was a good idea anyway.

[Leonmc0708]

I dont think we need three threads running this debacle, I'm sure if one of us mere mortals posted this up, serious Bob would of locked it.

Half these articles are in this forum anyway.

To be fair mate I think its a good idea, it saves discussion threads getting filled with newspaper articles, (I know I am worse than anyone) and its a ready source of information if you need to look back , rather than searching through threads trying to find a particular article.

Leon did offer me money if I said it was a good idea anyway.

Cheques in the post.

[kazza]

Rafael Benitez on borrowed time at Liverpool
By Tim Rich
Last Updated: 7:40am GMT 15/01/2008


Footballers are like children. They bicker among themselves; they respond to simple, direct language; they crave attention - even Bobby Moore complained regularly that he didn't receive enough praise. And they don't like change.

David Bond: Benitez sees red over Klinsmann offer

When Liverpool took their biggest managerial gamble of all, confirming that Kenny Dalglish would take over the most successful side of modern times in the aftermath of the Heysel disaster, it worked because so little did change.

Bob Paisley was still at Anfield, acting as a mentor to someone three years younger than Alan Shearer is now. Ronnie Moran was assistant manager, Roy Evans was still alongside him, the Boot Room was still functioning as it always had done.

If you imagine yourself as Jamie Carragher, who tonight will lead Liverpool out against Luton in his 500th game for the club, much has changed and very quickly.

The assistant manager, Paco Ayesteran, has gone. The academy director, Steve Heighway, has gone. The chairman, David Moores, a man brought up on the deep traditions of Anfield, is still at the club but stripped of his power. The owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, may be about to sell up and move out. The manager, Rafael Benitez, is on borrowed time. This is a club in a vacuum.

There is no clear chain of command anywhere at Anfield. The three men running the club on day-to-day basis, Benitez, the chief executive, Rick Parry, and George Gillett's son, Foster, meet on a Monday. One person round the table had his job offered to Jurgen Klinsmann by the other's father. The third man, Parry, was incandescent when hearing that Hicks had confirmed the offer to the Liverpool Echo. You wonder what they discussed.

The news that Daniel Agger's metatarsal gave away again in training on Sunday, which might cost the centre-half the rest of a desperately frustrating season, will be lightened by the knowledge that Benitez has already spent £6.5?million bringing in a replacement in the formidable shape of Martin Skrtel.

However, any thoughts Roy Hodgson might have had of bringing Sami Hyypia to Fulham appear to have evaporated completely but Skrtel might be Liverpool's only reinforcement. On Saturday afternoon, Benitez and the Middlesbrough manager, Gareth Southgate, were chatting before a match rescued only by the brilliance of Fernando Torres. Benitez told Southgate that he had "no money" for transfers.

One of the benefits of Benitez's rotation policy is that Liverpool have always finished the season more strongly than their competitors - it has been the starts that have undone them. Not this time. You can count up the points since Ayesteran's departure (29 from 17 games, equalling 65 points in a season). Or you can count up the points since Benitez delivered a press conference at St James' Park outlining his disagreements with the owners (12 from eight games, the equivalent of 57 points in a season).

There was similar uncertainty at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson announced that the 2001-02 season would be his last. His authority began, almost imperceptibly, to drain away day by day. The ultra-loyal Paul Scholes refused to play in a League Cup tie at Arsenal, David Beckham and Roy Keane delayed signing fresh contracts until they learnt the identity of Ferguson's successor. Manchester United lost six times before December was 10 days old.

There may have been other reasons. Keane thought the uncertainty may have played a part but believed that the complacency and self-satisfaction that hung like a fog over Old Trafford was the bigger reason. The midfield and attack were being reshaped around Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy while Laurent Blanc proved no kind of replacement for Jaap Stam. But in Ferguson's own words. "It changed the working atmosphere and derailed the players."

Benitez has not lost the dressing room, he has not lost the fans but the players and supporters will look at him tonight and wonder how much longer he has left. The last time Anfield was enveloped by this much uncertainty was during the brief, disastrous joint-management of Evans and Gerard Houllier. By November 1998, Liverpool were 11th and somebody had to go.

Benitez at Liverpool     
Season Win% Draw% Loss% Gls/game Con/game
2004-05 45% 18% 37% 1.37 1.08
2005-06 66% 18% 16% 1.50 0.66
2006-07 53% 21% 26% 1.50 0.71
2007-08 48% 43% 17% 1.67 0.67




Liverpool managers in Premier League 
Manager Win %
Benitez 53.3%
Houllier 49.1%
Evans 47.3%
Souness

[puroresu]

I was disappointed when the boot room era ended!!!

[Emerald Red]

I don't see the problem of this thread existing when there's a few other's of similar note on top of the board. No point in arguing about it. There shouldn't be one. We should all be more f*cked off at these two c*nts that own our club rather than arguing with one another, after all, we are all Liverpool supporters which makes us part of the same family, and family comes first. One, two or even three threads - who cares? It's not enough IMO.

We need a massive protest to this. Another rally in the streets or some kind of protest at tonights match. And not a silly one where a few are holding up a couple of small banners or picket cards voicing their opinion either. We need one very much like the one we had at the game against Arsenal when we held up a card per person in the Kop end to spell out "The Truth" as a protest to The S*n. We need to make it clear, that we, the fans, are more valuable to this club than those two shower of w@nkers. They may own the club via their check books and a signature; but we possess the club through spirit and soul.

[redmikey]

I was disappointed when the boot room era ended!!!

it went on to long and we are now stuck with tales of how it used to be!!!!!!!

the club was left behind in the nineties and unless we see a big turn around in the yanks or a shock purchase by DIC we will never imo catch the three in front at the moment

[Red @ Heart]

a mate was telling me today that he saw in a paper that Arsen Wenger reckoned that goodison park had a better atmosphere than Anfeild and that the kop has been silenced, what the hell would he say that for? if its true, i mean talking about rubbing salt into wounds under the current situtaion that surrounds liverpool at the moment, what the fúck is he playing at?

[account deleted by request]

From The Times
January 16, 2008

Liverpool could pay heavy price for Tom Hicks shooting from the hip

Oliver Kay

There has been a sense of dismay at Anfield since Tom Hicks, the Liverpool co-owner, said that he tried to line up Jürgen Klinsmann as manager, a slip of the tongue that may have financial repercussions for the club if, or more likely, when the time comes to part company with Rafael BenÍtez and to negotiate a settlement on his contract.

The Spaniard intends to fight on as manager, but with his position at the club weakened by Hicks’s remarkably frank admission about the unsuccessful move for Klinsmann, leading sports lawyers suggested yesterday that BenÍtez would be entitled to resign and pursue a claim for constructive or wrongful dismissal if he wished. While he has no intention of dragging the club through the courts at present – and has not abandoned hope of staying in the job – BenÍtez is understood to be aware that he would have a strong case if Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the other co-owner, refused to pay at least £5 million in accordance with a compensation clause in his contract, which runs until June 2010.

“This is classic constructive dismissal,” Peter Coyle, senior partner of Coyle White Devine, a firm of solicitors specialising in sport and dispute litigation, said. “If you effectively advertise someone’s position while they are still in it, that undermines the mutual trust that underpins any employment contract. I am certain things go on behind the scenes at football clubs all the time, but the fact that it has been made public makes it a different scenario because it undermines the manager.”

Hicks defended the approach to Klinsmann, who has chosen to take charge of Bayern Munich next season, by saying that it was merely “an insurance policy” in case BenÍtez left the club, but that argument would not be guaranteed to stand up in court.

“That doesn’t work for me,” Coyle said. “You insure yourself against things that aren’t within your control. Yes, there were reasons why he [BenÍtez] could have chosen to leave, but why would he do that? Whether he stays or goes is ultimately at the whim of the two owners of the club.”

Richard Linskell, an employment partner with Dawsons Solicitors, said: “Certainly I would say he [Hicks] was not well-advised. He may well, of course, have an American approach to employment law; in America they have what is called employment-at-will and they can say what they like and dismiss people without any repercussions. He may be coming from a legal system where he can say that sort of thing without fear of legal consequences. I couldn’t really say whether he has even thought about the issue or whether he has just shot from the hip, as people in that sort of position often do.”

The word from Anfield before last night’s FA Cup third-round replay at home to Luton Town was that Hicks had not intended to undermine BenÍtez, at a time when relations and communication had appeared to be improving, but there is a feeling from some within the club that the Texan’s comments have undermined the manager in the eyes of his players.

Whatever the long-term impact of Hicks’s comments, they have prompted an angry backlash from Liverpool supporters and from one of the club’s most eminent former players. Kenny Dalglish, who excelled for Liverpool as player and manager, said: “It certainly does no one any favours whatsoever. It affects the players, because they are looking for confidence. It affects the manager, because he’s looking for confidence. He doesn’t need the added pressure of this. There are always problems in your workplace, but if there’s a problem you sort it out behind closed doors, not publicly.”

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