DIC latest - the largely wild speculation thread

[sonsofthedesert]

Ah come on, when Rashid "hears" something he is lauded, but when poor old Darth hears something then all I get is ridicule....woe is me, woe is me........I will spill my insider knowledge no more.

You forgot to say it would happen in days, that would have gotten you respect.

[Darth Marty]

tick tock....

[sonsofthedesert]

tick tock....

Respect, what do you know?

[Red Chilli]

now that would be cool. i remember in the early 90s the chancellor pissing off some european business man who then ****ed up our currency resulting in us having to withdraw from the European monetary union. In hindsight probably a blessing in disguise but boy did i laugh at the tory prick

Norman Lamont?

Always had the physical resemblance to a badger IMO

[carlton]

Just heard a rumour - it was DIC that caused the american bank to fail thereby ensuring that cunt would have to sell to them.

Honest, I heard it..........................

Marty- its bollocks like this that will make Redheart come on and say that this thread is a waste of time (for like the 20th time).

[Morten_nogamst_Pedersen]

Marty- its bollocks like this that will make Redheart come on and say that this thread is a waste of time (for like the 20th time).

But in reality it sort of has, hasn't it?

[Assassin]

4 days ago in the Examiner
------------------------------------

DANA POINT, Calif. (Map, News) - Liverpool co-owner George Gillett said the weak dollar makes it difficult to invest in the English Premier League club.

Since acquiring a 50-percent stake last March, Gillett, who also owns the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, has been frustrated as the dollar has slumped.

"We've invested internationally with Liverpool and with Montreal in Canada, and it's had a very positive effect on both of them from the standpoint of strengthening the value," Gillett said in an interview with Sports Business Journal at the IMG World Congress of Sports.

"On the other hand, it's made it more difficult in terms of investing in those businesses because the dollar is really tremendously weak compared to where we started. It just costs us more to send money to those franchises, those business."

Widespread concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy saw the dollar drop Thursday to a new low against the euro.

It is the first indication why Gillett has been trying to sell his stake in the club. Co-owner Tom Hicks has blocked the purchase by Dubai International Capital.

Hicks, who also owns baseball's Texas Rangers and the NHL's Dallas Stars, wants to buy a small percentage of Gillett's stock so he will gain a controlling interest and reduce the UAE consortium to silent investors.

Despite the friction between the Americans and furious protests by fans, Gillett insists he still enjoys being involved with Liverpool.

Gillett, the majority owner of the Gillett Evernham Motorsports NASCAR team, said, "I'm really enjoying all three (teams), but for different reasons. In Liverpool, it's a long distance away and there's been a fair amount of controversy over there.

"In spite of that, the boys are playing very well and I'm proud of them."

Despite a disappointing Premier League campaign, Liverpool has reached the quarterfinals of the lucrative European Champions League. The Reds host Reading in the Premier League on Saturday as it looks to secure the fourth qualification berth for next season's lucrative Champions League competition.

[Assassin]

Interesting pictures. Miilisecond snapshots, but Gillet seems to be the one in charge from the body language.

What really ****s me off is the Liverbird on hicks chest

[Kev_81]

Nicked off RAWK - more Hicks PR. (it is long)

A Fans corespondance (Id start a thread of my own but i dont seem to be able to)

Tom Hicks is a man hated by many Liverpool fans, as they believe he is guilty of bringing the club into disrepute after taking over the running of the club along with his business partner George Gillett.

Fans look back to their Messianic press conference in which they made various promises to supporters, all which led them to believe that these two men would help build Liverpool back into what Shankly once called “a bastion of invincibility”. They promised to do this by building a new stadium, fund new and better players, and to do both of these long dreamed of goals without a penny of debt being put upon their beloved football club.

A year on and the one thing that Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett have achieved is to motivate fans to form a Union of supporters who have the main short term goal of ridding the club of the very men who they had believed would fund their trip back to the top.

Things are not good in relationships between the owners themselves either, with the two men desperate to find a way out of a partnership which neither wants to be in, but without looking like a failure in either a sporting or a business sense.

In the last few weeks I have been trying to form a relationship with Mr Hicks, as a supporter who was yet to make up my mind as to who is to blame for the farcical year, which if on the TV programme Dream Team would be described as totally unbelievable. I am not a member of any supporter group, a reporter, or a person with a hidden agenda – I purely wanted to know the facts about our club.

I have been privileged to have had many of my questions answered by the man himself, and was a missed phone call away from speaking to him and asking the questions many fans want asked but haven’t had the opportunity to.

I am writing this as, due to some fans deciding to share their emails with the press Mr Hicks has seemingly cut off correspondence with the fans and as such leaving me with no further hope of meaningful discussions, and I feel it is right to share the answers I have received with a wider number of supporters.

I began on 4th of March with a phone call and then an email asking what his intentions with the club were, how he can explain the many promises that have been broken, and finally urging him to give me some form of hope for the future of Liverpool football club. Later that day I was utterly surprised to receive a reply which not only acknowledged my email, but also answered my questions in a way that I never expected.

The email began “My intention for the Club is to make it the best in the world….again. The Club has been run poorly for the past 10 years. I intend to fix that.” A target many supporters would agree with and dream of achieving, but many would argue that the ownerships mistakes over the last year have destroyed “the Liverpool way” and has turned the club into a laughing stock rather than a great club.

What of the new home which was promised? “The new stadium will break ground Nov 1, assuming the Planning approval and Judicial Review happens on schedule. It will open for the August 2011 season, and will be the best in the world.” The future of Liverpool relies heavily on the building of a bigger more modern stadium which keeps the history whilst embraces the future and enables them to compete with the ticket sales, and then the finances, of the rest of the top 4 teams of the Premier League. Supporters are frustrated, as is Mr Hicks himself, by all the delays which have surrounded the building of this stadium, but Mr Hicks clearly believes the original date of completion will still be met, despite all delays.

Debt is a dirty word, with many supporters forgetting that the club had a small amount of debt secured on it when the club was taken over, but with Mr Gillett stating very clearly at the original press conference that No debt would be secured upon the club, supporters have felt let down when the complete opposite happened, with rumours claiming that the debt is now at the stage of £30 million pounds being paid back each year, which will only cover the interest and not anything else. This is made worse by the belief that the majority of the debt is secured on the club, with the underlining fear of repeating the downfall of Leeds being at the back of their minds.

Mr Hicks’ response is to point out that “Only 105 million pounds of debt are on the club. I personally guarantee much of the debt, and assure you it will be serviced.” A response which, if true, is encouraging, however in previous discussions with representatives of the clubs holding company they clearly stated that if for any reason the debt that is not secured on the club is not paid then the club would be used as collateral for those loans, which once again has left supporters with very mixed messages.

Mr Hicks continued “Gillett did say “no debt on the club” in the press conference, but that is unrealistic. The debt is at a comfortable level. Man U has much more debt and is winning consistently.” A statement which not only confirms the problems between Mr Gillett and Mr Hicks but also shows the wish to place the blame onto the partner who is actively looking for an escape route, in the hope of winning the fans back on side.

Clearly Football is all about on the pitch activities, and buying world class players is, in theory, all that most fans want at their club and this is a fact which hasn’t been lost “I have backed Rafa to sign Torres, Babel, Benayoun, Skrtel, and Mascherano…..and will continue to make funds available on a sensible basis.” A statement which can not be argued with, however, many would argue that due to the amount of debt put onto the club it isn’t Mr Hicks or Mr Gillett who has purchased these players; in fact these players have been purchased by the bank who has supplied the money.

Finally Mr Hicks talks about the future as he explains “The commercial revenues are starting to grow nicely under the management of our new Commercial Director, Ian Ayre. We have 12 new management people working on sales, marketing, ticketing, merchandise etc that were not here last year. All will become more clear when I can report it publicly. In the meantime, please be patient and resist the blogger hysteria” Which perhaps shows why many supporters have a problem with the owners, even without what they perceive as lies, as this infers that the owners care more about the money than the football. The Irony, perhaps, is that if you had spoken to the very same supporters a year ago many would have put a wish for the club to become more commercially competitive with the other big clubs as a wish list along with the new stadium and the elusive league title.

After this first email 9 more were received from Mr Hicks, all much shorter than the first, but they showed a clear wish to rebuild the bridges with the fans. He claims to watch as many matches as he can, and shared the fans wish that he “would like to "disappear" from the press”.

On 10th March I once again emailed Mr Hicks asking questions and requesting he ring me in order to discuss the club, this time however I received a reply informing me he had tried and sure enough I discovered a voice mail message on my mobile.

Unfortunately this was the last I have heard from Mr Hicks, as on 12th March a national newspaper printed an article containing quotes from emails received from Hicks (not mine) and as such it has made it harder for Mr Hicks to trust people and I can only assume this is why I have not heard from him since that missed call, despite numerous emails and phone calls trying to re make the connection.

My conclusion in all this is that there are just as many questions as there are answers in this ongoing ownership Saga and it will be going on for a long time yet. Mr Hicks wants to stay at the club, the fans want him gone, Mr Hicks wants to win back the fans, and the fans want new owners at any cost.
Throughout my communications with Mr Hicks he was willing to acknowledge his mistakes and said on numerous occasions that when the issue regarding Gillett’s part of the club is sorted he will come to Liverpool and explain what has happened, apologise to the fans and ask for time to rebuild their trust. “S.O.S” (Spirit of Shankly) would have you believe that whatever Mr Hicks will try he is doomed to fail, often using the horror stories of other sports clubs owned by Mr Hicks to scare fans out of trusting him. I do not want to tell anyone whether to give him a second chance or not, what I am wanting to ensure is that fans hear both sides of the story in order to make educated decisions, as hard as they are to make.

Whatever happens one thing is certain, Liverpool fans and the owners all have two things in common, and that is they hate to lose and they want the team to win things. The question is, is there a route out of the current crisis where neither the fans nor the owners feel like losers, and will the off the pitch situation effect the on the pitch performances like they did when the crisis first began? For the first question the answer seems like a long way away, and for the second we will see in May if supporters can sing “6 times in Moscow”

This supporter, for one, feels that the words to Liverpool’s famous anthem have never been so meaningful, and, like most, hopes that the storm we are walking through clears up soon.

By Matt (Morety)

[DannyMan2006]

I've heard the views of both sides and made my mind up a long time a go. He can try his best to put all the blame on Gillet, but it doesn't wash with me.

A man who stands by and says nothing can sometimes be just as guilty as the man who carrys out the actions.

Hicks was quite happy to sit back and say nothing as Gillet made these outlandish promises. So the argument isn't who stated we would be debt free, the argument is about whether or not they expected reds fans to accept their excuses like fans of their other franchises.

Both of them lied in my eyes, and neither will be accepted as owners of our club. I don't blame them for what they have done, they're buisness men after all, but I would rather have a wolf in charge, than a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Had they been honest from the start, I doubt they would have succeeded with their bid, hence the lies. No point coming out with excuses now.

[serenejim]

“Only 105 million pounds of debt are on the club. I personally guarantee much of the debt, and assure you it will be serviced.” We know it will be serviced but by who? There is no statement here that it will be serviced BY HIM and we must assume this is deliberately vague and the debt will be serviced BY THE CLUB-i.e. you and me via tickets etc.
“I have backed Rafa to sign Torres, Babel, Benayoun, Skrtel, and Mascherano…..and will continue to make funds available on a sensible basis.” No he hasn't. He has put ZERO of his own money into the club. All transfers were funded out of pre existing funds, player sales and bank loans. Moores and Parry could have taken this route were they not total ****wits. Tom Hicks-get out of our club!!

[Lecter]

I've heard the views of both sides and made my mind up a long time a go. He can try his best to put all the blame on Gillet, but it doesn't wash with me.

A man who stands by and says nothing can sometimes be just as guilty as the man who carrys out the actions.

Hicks was quite happy to sit back and say nothing as Gillet made these outlandish promises. So the argument isn't who stated we would be debt free, the argument is about whether or not they expected reds fans to accept their excuses like fans of their other franchises.

Both of them lied in my eyes, and neither will be accepted as owners of our club. I don't blame them for what they have done, they're buisness men after all, but I would rather have a wolf in charge, than a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Had they been honest from the start, I doubt they would have succeeded with their bid, hence the lies. No point coming out with excuses now.

Doesnt matter who said about the debt in the press conference its all there in black and white in their formal offer (and appendices) made to the shareholding

I cant remember the exact wording as its been awhile since I read it but its something along the lines of "the debt will not significantly impact nor depend on LFC"

Hicks fully endorsed that offer to the shareholding so hes every bit implicit in the lie despite his protestations and best efforts to deflect the blame

I am almost certain they said this in the offer to msilead the shareholders and coerce them into backing their bid

I know many many shareholders who wouldnt have sold their shares then if they knew what they are doing today

[Jayesh87]

Why do you think its gone so quiet Lec??

Enlighten us with your wisdom

[Lecter]

Why do you think its gone so quiet Lec??

Enlighten us with your wisdom

Dunno - why dont you email Tony Barrett and find out

And Milky dont try and be smart it doesnt suit you

Keep to the village idiot image its more becoming of you

[Jayesh87]

Dunno - why dont you email Tony Barrett and find out

And Milky dont try and be smart it doesnt suit you

Keep to the village idiot image its more becoming of you

I wasn't trying to be smart, was a genuine question...