The Interview

[anfieldreds]

anyone has any idea why Gillet hates Rafa?

[AFII]

Tom Hicks: Rick Parry has been a disaster at Liverpool FC
Apr 17 2008

Tom Hicks today branded Rick Parry’s time 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.

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, who revealed that Parry had taken part in the meeting with Jurgen Klinsmann that undermined Benitez, blamed him 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. It has been a disaster,” claimed Hicks. “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.”

On the meeting in New York last year about Klinsmann becoming manager, 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 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 told Sky Sports News. “We started this as friends but 50-50 is a difficult business proposition because you cannot do anything without your partner’s approval.

“We had a good honeymoon but, over a period of time, there have been issues, the stadium being the main one.

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

“It’s complicated but it’s going to happen (Hicks buying Gillett out) although I can’t force George to accept.

“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), who came close to taking over Liverpool before the Reds turned instead to Hicks and Gillett, doing so now 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.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...4375-20777044/

[Nicey]

**** knows .. this is just so ****ing draining ... One thing is for sure Parry will be off at some stage ... soon .. regardless of who owns us becuase once all this Bull**** is sorted .. the fans will turn their attention to him quicker than you can say ehh something really short

[fred_plasticine]

all he does it basically saying that he'd have done things differently had he been in sole control in the frist place.
right now we don't know
- who was the driving force behind the current financial situation
- who was really trying to get klinsmann in
- who let the situation with rafa get out of hand

the press, rather than anyone else, laid the blame on hicks who in return lays it gillette who's silence may speak louder than words.
in a 50-50 share, it will always take two to tango, so they've got to collectively share the blame.

by the face of it hicks doesn't want to sell but to buy whereas gillette wants out.
make no mistake, gillette doesn't even bother to communicate with rafa which is totally unacceptable.

fact is, you won't make much of a profit out of lfc for quite a while with the stadium to be financed so the question is why didn't he accept
dic's offer, take a nice profit and run? why go through all the hassle? wasn't dic's offer as high as it supposedly was?

i don't know what or who to believe. and that includes all that is being claimed about dic. they've conducted themselves quite in the same manner as hicks.
all i know is i want the boardroom row to stop, get us out of the press and back on the footie pitch.
if that means hicks in sole control, fair enough, as for now, it would be worth a try. we need stability and stability is provided by rafa.

and no, i've not fallen for hicks pr, i've just not jumped on the anti-hicks bandwagon.

[Reece]

So how do we know he isn't telling the truth then? I mean don't get me wrong, I have no reason to believe he would be, but he can't really win can he? He says nothing he gets stick. He comes on air and answers the questions that we all want to know and he'll still get stick - I have no doubt that the majority will just call him a liar. So what is he supposed to do (and don't say **** off ).

I'm not now backing him or saying he is our saviour, but I really can't be arsed to spend my time spitting with fury at the guy. Maybe we should see how this plays out, and then make our minds up who really was the bad guy. Who knows - if he does what he said in that interview, then would things really be all that bad? And even if there is some debt on the club - well that's how the mancs are at the moment and we don't hear them complaining currently.

Basically most of what we believe about him (and Gillette) has been fed to us from the media, and we know they aren't always right.

I know my opinion isn't going to be very popular, but meh, I'm not just going to be a sheep and call him a cunt etc, because I really don't know.

[AFII]

You won't get stability with Hicks in charge. His track record at Corinthians, Stars and Rangers proves that.

[AFII]

So how do we know he isn't telling the truth then? I mean don't get me wrong, I have no reason to believe he would be, but he can't really win can he? He says nothing he gets stick. He comes on air and answers the questions that we all want to know and he'll still get stick - I have no doubt that the majority will just call him a liar. So what is he supposed to do (and don't say **** off ).

I'm not now backing him or saying he is our saviour, but I really can't be arsed to spend my time spitting with fury at the guy. Maybe we should see how this plays out, and then make our minds up who really was the bad guy. Who knows - if he does what he said in that interview, then would things really be all that bad? And even if there is some debt on the club - well that's how the mancs are at the moment and we don't hear them complaining currently.

Basically most of what we believe about him (and Gillette) has been fed to us from the media, and we know they aren't always right.

I know my opinion isn't going to be very popular, but meh, I'm not just going to be a sheep and call him a cunt etc, because I really don't know.

Well, he lied again in that interview....

[tepid water]

It does show quite clearly how badly the club has been run.. total disaster

Gillette is no more use than Hicks, we only like him because he wanted to sell to DIC

I hope to god that Hicks gets his way soon, we cant carry on with the two owners (sorry I would prefer DIC but I cant see it happening). It is tearing us apart and the club is not being run or managed at all.

Why do I feel this way? I dont like Hicks BUT him in sole charge will be better than the current situation, things will be easier for the club. We can then work at getting him out from this point..... but the floundering and arguing has to stop...

[Guest]

You won't get stability with Hicks in charge. His track record at Corinthians, Stars and Rangers proves that.

It proves nothing. For a start, these are not clubs in the same calibre as LFC. They were not in the 'public eye' compared to what LFC is, and as regards the brand etc ... And we don't fully know how much involved he was in these clubs !!

It would be absolutely foolish of him to say things such as that !!! Yes it's bad PR, but to be fair to him, it's been started by Rafa a long time ago. It has escalated to what it's been right now following that ...

I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. No point crying foul over him right now. It's the stability which is important. Calling for his head all right, left and centre won't help.

[fred_plasticine]

Well, he lied again in that interview....

cause he said we wanted to get rid of parry six month ago?
well afii, just because he wanted to get rid of parry back then doesn't neccessarily mean he wants rafa to be in charge or transfer dealings - which is what we said back then, that rafa should concentrate on the team, not on handling transfers.

[Guest]

Well, he lied again in that interview....

How do you know that he's lied !!??????????

[Sarb]

He is going to make us debt free? Doesn't he have a 35 year history of being a leveraged buy-out specialist? So why's he going to change his philosophy?

I hate the ****er for selling his soul to the Daily Mail and Sky. Both of them hate LFC and enjoy slating us at any opportunity they get. Sky must be loving airing this crap and causing more turmoil at the club

****** Hicks

[AFII]

How do you know that he's lied !!??????????

As I pointed out....

He was the one that told Rafa to concentrate on coaching and training his team and leave the transfer business to Parry and that wasn't six months ago.

[tepid water]

You won't get stability with Hicks in charge. His track record at Corinthians, Stars and Rangers proves that.

The club could not be any LESS stable than it is now.

[fred_plasticine]

As I pointed out....

He was the one that told Rafa to concentrate on coaching and training his team and leave the transfer business to Parry and that wasn't six months ago.

read my previous post, mate.