Liverpool FC Forum

by **spion** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:31 am

Tom Hicks this morning is interviewed on sky sports claiming that he will buy Liverpool outright, will clear the club debt, give the manager complete control over transfers & give him a "massive warchest" to build a league winning team.
He also goes on attack again against Rick Parry claiming that he is attempting to get rid of Benitez & only has personal gains in his interest.

Sky are pushing this as an exclusive but to me it looks like Hicks wants to win the fans support.

by **account deleted by request** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:01 am

From Times OnlineApril 17, 2008

Rick Parry's leadership at Liverpool has been a disaster, says Tom Hicks
Tom Hicks has launched yet another blistering attack on Rick Parry, the Liverpool chief executive.

The Anfield co-owner, whose relationship with his business partner, George Gillett Jr, has disintegrated over recent months, claims Parry has taken the club too far backwards.

"Look at what's happened under Rick. It has been a disaster," Hicks said. "We have fallen so far behind the other leading clubs.

"We should have the stadium built by now. We have a few major sponsors when we should have 15.

"We have still got the top brand in the world of football but that's no good if you don't know how to commercialise it.

"Rick needs to resign from Liverpool FC. He has put his heart into it but it is time for a change.

"You have to be able to work with the manager and Rick has proved he can't do that."

In a revealing and wide-ranging interview on Sky Sports News, the American businessman admits he had never heard of Jurgen Klinsmann before approaching the German to take over from Rafael Benitez, claims he wants to extend the Spanish manager's contract and insists he will buy the club from Gillett.

More to follow

Divide and conquer - going to offer Rafa a ONE year contract extention.

by **Raj_Xedos** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:11 am

I was dropping my mum off at work at 5:30 and was listening to talk sport.

I heard that Tom Hicks had spoke to sky sports and was talking about his feelings about the club, rick parry, rafa, gillett etc etc.

It was the biggest load of cods-wallop i have ever heard.

He loves the city?? His wife loves the city?? dont make me laugh. You dont care!

I feel all he is trying to do is get the fans onside.....take a tidy profit and get the eff out!

by **JoeTerp** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:24 am

"We have two sponsors, maybe three. We should have 12 or 15. We are not doing anything in Asia the way Manchester United and Barcelona are.

"We have a tremendous number of fans in Asia. So we have got the top brand in the world of football, but we just don't know how to commercialise and get the money for it to use to buy great players.

by **puroresu** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:26 am

JoeTerp wrote:"We have two sponsors, maybe three. We should have 12 or 15. We are not doing anything in Asia the way Manchester United and Barcelona are.

"We have a tremendous number of fans in Asia. So we have got the top brand in the world of football, but we just don't know how to commercialise and get the money for it to use to buy great players.

like him or not this is correct. Parry has been awful and he should of went when they took over.

by **NANNY RED** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:36 am

The biggeast load of S.it ive ever heard in my life spewed from someones mouth. Lying b.astard. Forget about Asia what abar :censored:

Liverpool . you can shove your corporate boxes where the sun dont shine lad. we want real fans at our club not plastics.

And Everton wont like that . lol What a :censored:

joke of a man

by **Boocity** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:13 am

puroresu wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:"We have two sponsors, maybe three. We should have 12 or 15. We are not doing anything in Asia the way Manchester United and Barcelona are.

"We have a tremendous number of fans in Asia. So we have got the top brand in the world of football, but we just don't know how to commercialise and get the money for it to use to buy great players.

like him or not this is correct. Parry has been awful and he should of went when they took over.

Thats about the only bit he was spot on about.

He just made me cringe sitting there in his house with the homely look fire in the background, saying how him and his family love Liverpool, what a load of cr@p.

This is the typical 'Hey, we love you guys' while screwing the knife into our backs. :angry:

by **112-1077774096** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:19 am

good luck to hicks in my opinion, get parry out, hopefully rafa will follow. also lets not forget he has made money available for rafa and rafa has spent it.

this is exactly the same as last time, fans having a go at the owner to detract from the managers failings (although people are very quiet at the moment about rafa, he has played a settled side and its has showed, just like he did last year and the year before and will no doubt do again next season when we are out of the title race), in fact the anti rotationers have every right to start spouting facts and figures here to show how the settled side has been performing as opposed to the unsettled sides he put out earlier.

so lets hope he buys out gillet and gets rid of parry then things can settle down and then we can see what hicks is all about when the excuses have been removed

by **JoeTerp** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:37 am

this one has a LOT more quotes

Hicks brands Parry's Liverpool reign 'a disaster'

Tom Hicks today branded Rick Parry's leadership as Liverpool chief executive 'a disaster' and warned co-owner George Gillett that the stalemate over the club's future will continue until he agrees to sell his stake.

Click here
Hicks has demanded Parry's resignation and vowed that his top priority if Gillett were to sell to him would be to offer Reds manager Rafael Benitez a one-year extension to his current deal.

The Texan also revealed that he plans to rid the club of all debt by heading up a group of financial backers willing to invest in the club.

Hicks blamed Parry for Liverpool's failure to compete commercially with their Premier League rivals in a Sky Sports News interview.

'Look at what's happened under Rick's leadership. It has been a disaster,' claimed Hicks. 'We have fallen so far behind the other leading clubs.

'We should have the stadium built three or four years ago. We have two or three major sponsors when we should have 12 or 15.

'We are not doing anything in Asia, the way that Manchester United and Barcelona are, and we have a tremendous number of fans in Asia.

'We have still got the top brand in the world of football but that's no good if you don't know how to commercialise it.

'Rick needs to resign from Liverpool FC. He has put his heart into it but it is time for a change.

'You have to be able to work with the manager and Rick has proved he can't do that. At the first meeting we had with Rafa he talked of the number of players he had missed out on because he (Parry) was too slow. Too many times nothing happens.'

Turning to his relationship with Benitez, Hicks said: 'If I were to buy George out the first thing I would do is offer Rafa a one-year extension to make sure he is going to be here up to when we get the stadium.

'Hopefully we could have some success and then extend him again.

'I think we will continue to have success. I think Rafa has unique skills, he motivates the team and we have some great players who are learning how to play with each other.'

Hicks and Gillett took over the club in February 2007 but Hicks admitted their relationship has now completely broken down.

'At this point it is unworkable,' he added. 'We started this as friends but 50-50 is a difficult business proposition because you cannot do anything without your partner's approval.

'If George doesn't sell - because I am not going to sell - I guess we stay in this position that we are in.

'I am planning to make him a very attractive offer. If I had a majority on it (ownership of Liverpool) I could put more capital in.

'My goal is take all the debt off the club except the working capital needed and get the permanent financing totally in place for the stadium.

'I want the finances of the club to be secure. I want to be the majority owner of a group that buys the club and I have got a 25-year track record of being a very successful investor around the world.

'The fans don't like the fact that we borrowed a lot of money to buy the club but I will fix that.'

Hicks ruled out any chance of Dubai International Capital (DIC) taking over but admitted he had held meetings with them in the past.

'DIC has no seat at the table. They are masters of the British tabloid spin. They want to stir the pot of Liverpool to create dissension,' he said.

'I did talk to Dubai about being a 49% partner but it just didn't work out. They didn't share the same vision I have and I didn't think they could become minority partners. I am not going to have any more 50-50 partners.'

On the infamous meeting in New York last year about Klinsmann becoming manager which undermined Benitez, Hicks added: 'George became good friends with him (Klinsmann) a year ago.

'I get this call from George out of the blue in which he says `have your people do their research on Klinsmann'. He and Rick set up the meeting in New York. I did go to the meeting along with my son Tom.

'Rick Parry had already met with Jurgen alone for a couple of hours when we arrived. We all then spoke to him for another four hours.

'Afterwards I told the truth to a reporter who asked the question and suddenly it is `Tom Hicks tried to get Jurgen Klinsmann'. George initiated it but we all participated.'

Hicks admitted it was frustrating that his unpopularity with Liverpool fans has prevented him from bringing his whole family to Anfield to watch matches.

'My family loves Liverpool. The sad thing is that right now we can't go there as a family until we get this thing sorted out,' he added.

by **Leonmc0708** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:44 am

peewee wrote:good luck to hicks in my opinion, get parry out, hopefully rafa will follow. also lets not forget he has made money available for rafa and rafa has spent it.

this is exactly the same as last time, fans having a go at the owner to detract from the managers failings (although people are very quiet at the moment about rafa, he has played a settled side and its has showed, just like he did last year and the year before and will no doubt do again next season when we are out of the title race), in fact the anti rotationers have every right to start spouting facts and figures here to show how the settled side has been performing as opposed to the unsettled sides he put out earlier.

so lets hope he buys out gillet and gets rid of parry then things can settle down and then we can see what hicks is all about when the excuses have been removed

Clueless, however I am sure that your millions in the bank and seat on the board make it easier for you to operate.

Good Luck to Hicks ?

Get Rafa out ?

Your not even a Liverpool supporter.

by **Boocity** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:49 am

peewee wrote:good luck to hicks in my opinion, get parry out, hopefully rafa will follow. also lets not forget he has made money available for rafa and rafa has spent it.

this is exactly the same as last time, fans having a go at the owner to detract from the managers failings (although people are very quiet at the moment about rafa, he has played a settled side and its has showed, just like he did last year and the year before and will no doubt do again next season when we are out of the title race), in fact the anti rotationers have every right to start spouting facts and figures here to show how the settled side has been performing as opposed to the unsettled sides he put out earlier.

so lets hope he buys out gillet and gets rid of parry then things can settle down and then we can see what hicks is all about when the excuses have been removed

The only sensible thing you said in your post is 'Parry out' the rest is just cr@p.
With regard to the rotation, did Rafa do this just for the fun of it or to find the right formula? when he did get the formula right has he rotated? If you think that at the start of next season he will revert to the way he started last season you are delusional, he will take this winning formula and improve on it.
What makes you think if he buys out GG everything will be rosey, his teams in the states don't exactly excel do they. Just face it, he does not have the financial muscle (especially in the current climate) to take us forward without lumbering the club with massive debts.

by **account deleted by request** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:50 am

I would have thought you would be hoping Hicks was the one to go peewee. As Rafa is more likely to stay in the short term under Hicks, with Parry being the one most likely to stay if Gillet/DIC gets the upper hand.

I certainly don't see both Parry and Rafa staying no matter who eventually wins out in the ownership battle.

I just don't believe anything Hicks says anymore. New stadium - not even started yet after repeated promises. No debt on the club - I think we have heard that one before as well.

It seems to me we are going to have a hell of a job getting rid of Hicks now though, I think we are going to be a club in turmoil at the top for some time to come.

by **112-1077774096** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:52 am

haha what a surprise, the same old idiots think because i have an opinion that differs then i mustn't be a fan.

so if i disagree with your opinions on riise does that mean you are not even a fan?

just grow up, i have my opinions on things and i will stick with them, better than jumping on the bandwagon like some others on here just to agree and to fit in.

remember one thing leon, i was going before you were born and went weekly until i moved. in my opinion a real fan has the balls to say it as it is rather than let the club be badly managed out of some sense of misplaced loyalty

by **NiftyNeil** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:53 am

This is just more embarrassment for the club. What the feck his is playing at?

by **tubby** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:57 am

He makes some good points about how we havent maxmmised our potential on overseas markets. Lets face it we never cashed in on our sucess in the 70's and 80s and we didnt make the most of Istanbul in terms of marketing the club for generating revenue. If he can do the things he said he is willing to do then good luck to him. People wont be bashing him as much as if we bring in some more world class players and challange for the premiership next season. I know we all would prefer DIC (well actually I would prefer no one but that isnt a viable option). For DIC to come in and buy us would take a massive over inflated bid which I think is something they are not prepared to do.

I dont like the idea of a 1 year extention to Rafas contract though. That would mean if he was given lots of funds and we didnt at least finish 2nd next year he could sack him and not have to fork out lots of money in compensation.

Liverpool FC Forum

Hicks on sky sports. - Claims he is buying the club outright!

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