by zarababe » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:32 pm
In the Guardian: Lawrence DoneganJanuary 14, 2008
Liverpool's owners find themselves lost in translation
Tom Hicks and George Gillett's treatment of Rafa Benítez shows they have failed to understand how football differs from North American sports
Great Britain and the United States; two nations divided by an ocean and a wildly differing view of the manager's place in the hierarchy of a sports team or, if you prefer, sports franchise.
Over here, team managers enjoy great power and influence for as long as they occupy the office. The great ones become legends. They have stands named after them and gates erected in their honour; Shankley, Paisley, Busby, Stein and, when he retires no doubt, Ferguson.
It's different in the world of North American baseball, where the team manager is the guy who picks the team, executes the match-day tactics and, if he has a strong personality or a death wish, isn't scared to challenge the club's general manager or owners - aka. the real bosses - about the club's signing policies. Nothing more. In baseball, the great managers are no longer exalted, they are treated like day workers, to be summarily dismissed at the owner's whim, as Joe Torre, who brought great success to the New York Yankees, discovered to his cost at the end of the 2007 Major League Baseball season.
Once upon a time British football fans could afford to ignore this particular quirk of the American sports world. No longer. The recent influx of American money in British football has meant an influx of American attitudes, most notably at Liverpool, which has now been owned by the American pair of Tom Hicks and George Gillett for nine months.
Most people who have followed the Peyton Place saga that is modern day Anfield have been shocked at the way Hicks, in particular, has publicly treated Rafael Benítez. But those who know a little about baseball will recognise exactly what has been going on - Benítez, a manager who brought a Champions League trophy to Liverpool and who has both the potential and desire to follow Shankley and Paisley into the club's lexicon, is being treated with the same respect accorded to a baseball team manager, which is to say "very little".
So it is that Hicks can approach Jürgen Klinsmann about the Liverpool job while Benítez still occupies the office. "We attempted to negotiate an option, as an insurance policy, to have him become manager if Rafa left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the UK press, or in case our communication spiralled out of control for some reason," Liverpool's co-owner told today's Liverpool Echo.
Hicks's "reign" at Anfield has been notable mostly for the obfuscations of his slick PR machine so it would be remiss not to congratulate him for his straightforwardness on this occasion. But in his honesty he also reveals his ignorance of how football works in this country and his failure to realise the most successful clubs are those that place the greatest emphasis on continuity and loyalty. Liverpool fans can only hope that the rumours are true and that he and his cohort sell up and leave town before too much damage is done.
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Spot on !!
THE BRENDAN REVOLUTION IS UPON US !
KING KENNY.. Always LEGEND !
RAFA.. MADE THE PEOPLE HAPPY !
Miss YOU Phil-Drummer - RIP YNWA
The heart and soul of LFC is being ripped out be these so-called 'custodians'.. This club of ours don't feel the same anymore - bunch of back-stabbing bas.tardos.. I'll fu.kin kill'em - how dare these shi.tters behave like this - beleaguring our manager further and making us as bad a laffing stock as them Barcodes 
livid at the moment if I was G & H I wouldnt be coming to Anfield anytime in the near future.
