I learnt about an absolutely unbelievable news story today, related to Liverpool Football Club. During a protest against the Hicks and Gillett regime 2 Liverpool fans were arrested, held at a police station for 6 hours and then charged with public order offences.
The fans were shouting, "YANKS OUT!" like many concerned supporters have been, and the police deemed this to be a racial slur although it was clearly an attack on the owners of Liverpool Football Club and not the American people. In fact, Liverpool fan's hatred of Hicks and Gillett has precisely the square root of nothing to do with the fact that they are American. Clearly Americans are extremely clever business men and can be successful even in the football industry (take a look at Randy Lerner at Aston Villa) however Hicks and Gillett are simply a nightmare.
If they kept their promises they would be the ideal owners of Liverpool Football Club. There's just one problem. Every time their lips move they lie. For example, they claimed that they would start the construction of a new stadium within 60 days of their takeover. 3 years later and there are still no developments on this front. They've also been claiming that the financial climate has made it impossible for them to build. This is an illogical claim if you think about it. Surely, with builders desperate for any sort of work, it would be much cheaper to undertake a major building operation, such as the building of a football staudium. As the financial climate improves the builders will have more work and will be able to demand more money. Simple common sense is all that is needed to see through the Yanks smokescreen of lies and spin.
Secondly, they claimed that the club was brought "without a single penny of debt on the club." Another lie. When David Moores owned the club Liverpool had around £44 million worth of debt. Not ideal, but definitely manageable. Now, Liverpool are an astronomical £237 million in the red and seem to be heading further and further into a black hole of debt. These eye watering debt levels, in the long run, are unsustainable. The worrying thing is Liverpool are nowhere near paying off these huge debts that the Yanks have afflicted on our great club. With interest payments alone amounting to around £30 million every year, the club is struggling just to pay these, let alone hack into the debt owed. Of course, this leaves Rafa potless and searching for bargains in each and every single transfer window.
Also, for the first time ever, money used to give star performers a pay rise, is being taken out of the transfer budget. Pay rises are vital in any business (just ask any banker worth his salt) however they are especially important in football as Rafa's star players could easily go to another top level club and earn so much more money then they currently do at Anfield. To keep some of them happy, they must be given pay rises. These pay rises are cutting Rafa's transfer budget, which is frankly ridiculous. It has never happened like that and never should.
Furthermore, the Yanks promised they would support Rafa in the transfer window. George Gillett even said that he would give Rafa money if he asked for "Snoogy Doogy." Of course, once again these were just empty promises that haven't been kept. Rafa had a net spend of just £10,000 this summer. No manager should ever be expected to achieve anything better than a top 8 finish with these levels of investment, but Rafa is expected to not only provide Champions League football year after year, but also to compete for the Premier League Title. Expectations are way too high at Anfield and must be brought down to realistic levels, that are consistent with the amount of money that Benitez has had to invest in the playing sqaaud.
Rafa has spent, in net terms, just over £80 million during his 5 year stint in charge of Liverpool. Most of this money has been earned through successful runs in the money spinning UEFA Champions League. Hardly any of the cash that Rafa has spent came from the back pockets of messers Hicks and Gillett. Instead, it has been earned through Rafa doing well in Europe, and also through the boss buying players cheaply then selling them for profit. This profit has been reinvested into the development of the squad, however in this January transfer window it looks like things have got even worse, with Rafa not even given the money generated through player sales.
If Hicks and Gillett were born and raised opposite Anfield it would make absolutely no difference. Liverpool fans would still despise them for their lies, and the way in which they have dragged our famous club into the mire of debt. It is a damning indictment of our politically correct culture that a police officer doesn't even have the common sense to realise that Liverpool fans do not detest the Yanks for their racial background, rather they can't stand the lies that roll along their slimy tongues.
YNWA
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