The OFFICIAL Liverpool Supporters thread

[The Real Laoislad]

It's doing the rounds now that Juventus are looking for Alonso and Sissoko and Obi Martins of Newcastle

[charlie stubbs]

apparantly in the papers today rafa going for big clearout in the summer targets include etoo,torres,bent,milito and alves!

[stiffler]

I had a dream last nite that Sissoko moved to Spurs and Alonso went to Juve, hope it doesnt become true!

[Uladh]

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish AC Milan the very best of luck in the final tomorrow night.

Lightening can't strike twice...

[Will Hunting]

Lightening can't strike twice...

Oh it can... just not in the same place! But we're in Athens this time around, so Liverpool should be fine

[mooncatiii]

rafa rafael
rafa rafael
rafa rafael benitez

YNWA

[The Real Laoislad]

[corn02]

How you getting on 5times, whats the craic like? How much are the touts charging?

[Syd]

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish AC Milan the very best of luck in the final tomorrow night.

Lightening can't strike twice...

They didnt need much luck in beating that shower of wankers in the previous round.....

[ExiledGael]

Woh Syd watch your language now!
Or you'll have to come back as Sailor next time 

[new devil]

Woh Syd watch your language now!
Or you'll have to come back as Sailor next time 

[An Fear Rua]

Hicks the cereal buyer enjoys Anfield honeymoon


The Anfield owner is hoping for better results than those achieved at Texas Rangers, writes Lawrence Donegan

Tuesday May 22, 2007
The Guardian


Even billionaires have bad days. The rain is falling, the stands at the Ameriquest Field at Arlington are half-empty and the Texas Rangers - the Leeds United of baseball's American League West - are sliding to a miserable defeat against the Los Angeles Angels. "I've had the best success and I've had the lowest success," says Tom Hicks, glumly reflecting on the team's fortunes since he bought it in 1998 from a group of investors headed by his friend, George W Bush.

Baseball pedants, or even pedants of the ordinary variety, would argue this assessment is putting an overly positive gloss on Hicks' tenure as the Rangers' owner. The last time the team made the play-offs was 1999. Since then they have not finished higher than third (out of four teams) in their division. The highlight, or rather lowlight, of the last eight years was the infamous $250m (£127m) contract - the richest in American sports - given to Alex Rodriguez, who singularly failed to lift the team out of the mire and quickly departed to the New York Yankees.
The Rangers are currently in last place and, barring a reversal of fortune straight from the script of a Ron Sheldon movie, they will not win the world series this year. All in all it is little wonder the big Texan looks pleased when the subject changes to the newest acquisition in a business empire that stretches from electronics in China to the pet food business in Argentina: Liverpool FC.

Two months ago Hicks and the Montreal-based businessman George Gillett bought the club from David Moores. The price was £178m, plus a hundred million or so to clear off the club's debts and pay the fees associated with the deal. In return the pair bought one of the most storied teams in the global game and a share in the Premiership's financial bonanza.

As a bonus they also received that most elusive of sporting windfalls: instant success. Tomorrow night the two men will be in Athens to watch Liverpool take on Milan in the Champions League final. "I feel kind of guilty about it all. It's like buying a baseball team a month before they go to the World Series. I feel guilty. I had nothing to do with any of it but I'm going to enjoy it," says Hicks, who will be taking his family to the game. "I couldn't think of a better honeymoon for new owners than for the club to win the cup. It would be the perfect start. But even if we don't win, it will still have a been a great start."

Hicks' history in the ruthless world of leveraged buy-out business deals - in short, using other peoples' money to buy companies - suggests someone who is astute and hard-nosed but in person there is a gee-shucks approachability about him that can be disarming. At times he seems more like a cuddly uncle than a businessman. As the public face of Liverpool's new ownership this apparent friendliness has served him well, especially when it has come to selling the idea of yet another of England's biggest clubs being bought by North American owners.

"Clearly I think that was a blueprint of what not to do," he says when asked if he had learned anything from the experience of the Glazer family, whose reluctance to speak in the aftermath of their Old Trafford takeover left a vacuum that was quickly filled by critics' bile. "Their style is different. They are very private people. I have owned sports teams for 13 years. I gave up my privacy a long time ago so it is easier for me to be open about these things.

"The English football press can be . . . " The sentence trails off as Hicks punches his open palm with his fist. "But I think the press and the fans can see we want to win and that when we say we want to win we mean it. I much prefer it [press coverage] to be like this but I know how the world of sports works. Things will probably change down the line but George and I will enjoy it while we can. But so far I have been pleasantly surprised."

The gregarious Texan has every right to be surprised at the contrasting response to the two transactions. Admittedly the Glazers' takeover was a hostile one while Hicks and Gillett were invited to buy Liverpool but in essence the two deals were the same. Like the Glazers Hicks and his partner borrowed money to buy the club. Like the Glazers they face enormous interest payments on their borrowings. It turns out, too, that the Anfield owners, like their counterparts at Old Trafford, will take money from the club to meet the debts. "Hopefully there will be extra cash flow so [the club] can pay us a dividend to do that," Hicks says, citing new revenue streams he believes have yet to be exploited such as the nurturing of Liverpool's vast fan base in the Far East to the club's new stadium at Stanley Park.

Those seeking guidance on future ticket prices, the sale of naming rights to New Anfield and on the size of Rafa Benítez's transfer budget will have to wait a while longer. And so, too, will anyone waiting for Liverpool's new owner to make the old-fashioned case that owning a football club is as much about nurturing a social institution as it is about maximising the return on your investment.

"When I was in the leverage buy-out business we bought Weetabix and we leveraged it up to make our return. You could say anyone who was eating Weetabix was paying for our purchase of Weetabix. It was just business. It is the same for Liverpool. Revenues come in from whatever source and go out to whatever source and, if there is money left over, it is profit."
One can only begin to wonder what diehard Liverpool fans would make of the comparison between their beloved club and a breakfast cereal. Presumably, if the result in Athens goes their way tomorrow night, they will not care less - at least not until the business realities of life under the new owners begin to bite.


and this lot were welcomed in with open arms, where as a real fan, with money ended up buying Wolves for £10.00.

The worst thing about this is, that if Hicks & Gillette or the gimps decide they have had enough they can walk away and it wont cost them a penny. All the debt has been transferred to the club. So to date that leaves Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea open to extinction at the drop of a hat. More to follow?



Better get chomping shithouse

[SuperSub]

The day has come................COME ON THE POOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Syd]

An fear Rua......Take your particular brand of bullshit elsewhere. Bitter wee turd that you are....

[The Real Laoislad]

The day has arrived and i can't wait for kick off!!
Im off down to Laois now as my sister is getting married tomorrow
So let me take this chance to wish the Red Army best of luck tonight and bring back Number 6

COME ON THE POOL