David Moores letter to The Times

[BillobShaisley]

Because 'The Liverpool Way' became null and void around about 1990, since then pretty much every other 'major' club has overtaken us either on the field, off the field or both.
Chelsea, Man U, Spurs, Arsenal, Villa and Man City have all markedly improved one or both aspects of their club.
We were nice and cosey with our 'Liverpool Way' winning bugger all (comparitively) between 1990 and 2001.
We were so far behind commercially that H&G have trebled commercial revenue in the past 12 months (or something like that).

Those commercial failings are 100% the fault of Moores and Parry, I'm sorry but 'The Liverpool Way' is about as relevent in modern day football as the boot room.

Standing still is moving backwards because everyone else progresses, we're actually regressing of our own accord while other clubs are progressing.

Chelsea, Villa, Man City and Spurs - All have sugar daddy owners and operate on a defecit. Not a model I want for LFC

Man U - Started off by becoming a PLC now in more debt than us. Had all the advantages of location

Arsenal - Is the model we should have followed. They also have joint owners, came up with a self sufficient plan to improve the stadium and managed through the short term reduction in transfer funds. Stuck with the manager and kept all their dirty washing in private. Very Liverpool. Over the coming decade and more we'll see why 'the liverpool way' was so good as they clean up on the pitch and off it.

Tantrum throwing kids have pushed us to this.

[BillobShaisley]

The fact that we are still at Anfield 10 years after first stating the intention to get a new ground says it all! In 2000 the parry bowl would have cost only £80m which was the price the club set and Moores could have easily taken out that loan against the club which if he did would most likey had been paid back by now and we would have a 70k ground and no debt or at least a bit of debt.

60k **** souless ground.

Not sure many would have accepted so much debt on the club either.

[Big-Red-Ed]

Here is my plan.

Hicks says that he is going to be at such and such a match next season. 100 000 fans go to liverpool for the weekend. (the number is arbitrary but needs to large and some of us could even go to the match). Someone tops the ******* in a manner we all agree upon in advance. Something suitably painful but not to graphic (in case any young fans are watching at home). We could even set up an individual thread using code words.

All 100 000 fans come forward to the police and confess to topping the *******. Thereby totally confusing the police (not too hard to achieve) and tying up the investigation resulting in no chance of a prosecution.

The only flaw in my cunning plan is that this is an open internet forum. lol.

[Craig_H]

Chelsea, Villa, Man City and Spurs - All have sugar daddy owners and operate on a defecit. Not a model I want for LFC

Man U - Started off by becoming a PLC now in more debt than us. Had all the advantages of location

Arsenal - Is the model we should have followed. They also have joint owners, came up with a self sufficient plan to improve the stadium and managed through the short term reduction in transfer funds. Stuck with the manager and kept all their dirty washing in private. Very Liverpool. Over the coming decade and more we'll see why 'the liverpool way' was so good as they clean up on the pitch and off it.

Tantrum throwing kids have pushed us to this.

Spurs are owned by the ENIC group, not a sugar daddy. And i'd hardly call Learner at Villa a sugar daddy either.

[Bender]

Tom Hicks has responded to criticism from former chairman by David Moores and promises that a new stadium will be built when new owners are found.
"I think we've done everything we can to improve the club in so many ways in the past three years from the way it had been run before," he said.

"I think we have a great management team now led by Christian Purslow, the commercial director Ian Ayre has done a great job and we have a strong financial director in Philip Nash, we've grown our sponsorships from £40m to £100m so all those sponsorship revenues are extra resources for the club to use to support the wage bill and be competitive.

"Since Moores ownership in the last three years including this summer we will have doubled both gross and net spending on players.

"We have tried to make Liverpool as professional as possible and a world leader. The new stadium is fully designed now and the club financing markets are back so with a change of ownership coming we will be able to have a new stadium built for Liverpool and we have a great board now."

[Leyton388]

60k **** souless ground.

Not sure many would have accepted so much debt on the club either.

As opposed to the state we are in now?

No stadium and £400m in debt.

Also the ground would have been full with LFC fans so it would not have been souless.

Thats just my opinion of course mate. But i would take that so called **** souless ground and £80m debt than what we have today. Infact if you were to offer me it i would bite your ****ing hand off and ask for seconds! LOL

[johnly]

Listening to Hicks, he didn't sound confident at all. It's like this letter had got to him He's breaking. Just sell man, get on with it!!!!

[Lecter]

He maintains that £600m is not an unrealistic valuation, saying that 'the market is the market', and that he's more concerned with finding the right person to come in, build the new stadium and make LFC be the 'best possible football club in the world'.

FLMAO - hes certainly right about the market being the market but I just cant see anybody paying him £600 million

Lets face it the club has been unofficially up for sale for almost 2 years at a lower level than this (see the Merrill Lynch prospectus), they've tried to find investment of £100 million for a part stake and the best they found was somebody willing to pay that for 40% which valued the club at £250 million

[Lecter]

"They've put the debt onto us" - What does that mean?

New buyers wont buy Kop Holdings they will buy lfc, probably with some debt, at least but not limited to ongoing player purchase costs etc. G&H will then use the money from the sale to pay Kop Holdings debts and keep any leftovers.

Correct but obviously the owners will want to recoup enough money to cover the RBS debt and the debts of Kop Holdings and a profit (which is probably why we have seen this £600 million figure mentinoed)

I cant see that happening anytime soon

I honestly believe they will be lucky to find someone willing to pay over the current RBS debt

[Rich]

FLMAO - hes certainly right about the market being the market but I just cant see anybody paying him £600 million

Lets face it the club has been unofficially up for sale for almost 2 years at a lower level than this (see the Merrill Lynch prospectus), they've tried to find investment of £100 million for a part stake and the best they found was somebody willing to pay that for 40% which valued the club at £250 million

True enough, I do think the 40% offer for £100m was something from Dragon's Den style investment though. I don't think £250m sounds like a realistic figure, sounds as implausible as £600m!

[Lecter]

True enough, I do think the 40% offer for £100m was something from Dragon's Den style investment though. I don't think £250m sounds like a realistic figure, sounds as implausible as £600m!

I honestly dont reckon they will find a better buyer

The buyers know there is blood in the water the longer they bide their time the more likely RBS wil move towards forcing a sale (I personally think this could be 2 years down the line)

The club will be available for a song then

[luke]

I don't think we will be sold for a while, the two owners purchased the club when (i think) it was almost 2$ to the pound, today its just over 1.4$....this is great for Investors from the states or any country that's pegged to the dollar buying the club, but is a massive stumbling block for the greedy ****s that own us

[Le Chef]

Tom Hicks has responded to criticism from former chairman by David Moores and promises that a new stadium will be built when new owners are found.
"I think we've done everything we can to improve the club in so many ways in the past three years from the way it had been run before," he said.

"I think we have a great management team now led by Christian Purslow, the commercial director Ian Ayre has done a great job and we have a strong financial director in Philip Nash, we've grown our sponsorships from £40m to £100m so all those sponsorship revenues are extra resources for the club to use to support the wage bill and be competitive.

"Since Moores ownership in the last three years including this summer we will have doubled both gross and net spending on players.

"We have tried to make Liverpool as professional as possible and a world leader. The new stadium is fully designed now and the club financing markets are back so with a change of ownership coming we will be able to have a new stadium built for Liverpool and we have a great board now."

GG has been awfully quiet of late hasn't he - I wonder what his response would be

[Norbs]

Here is my plan.

Hicks says that he is going to be at such and such a match next season. 100 000 fans go to liverpool for the weekend. (the number is arbitrary but needs to large and some of us could even go to the match). Someone tops the ******* in a manner we all agree upon in advance. Something suitably painful but not to graphic (in case any young fans are watching at home). We could even set up an individual thread using code words.

All 100 000 fans come forward to the police and confess to topping the *******. Thereby totally confusing the police (not too hard to achieve) and tying up the investigation resulting in no chance of a prosecution.

The only flaw in my cunning plan is that this is an open internet forum. lol.

[Craig_H]

FLMAO - hes certainly right about the market being the market but I just cant see anybody paying him £600 million

Lets face it the club has been unofficially up for sale for almost 2 years at a lower level than this (see the Merrill Lynch prospectus), they've tried to find investment of £100 million for a part stake and the best they found was somebody willing to pay that for 40% which valued the club at £250 million

The funny thing is, he actually said £600m-£800m - but i was just trying to type quickly, so i just put £600m