Liverpool FC Forum

[Steve Crooks]

John Henry just tweeted..

John_W_Henry
 
A little fiction reading today: http://www.express.co.uk/posts....-threat

[metalhead]

John Henry just tweeted..

John_W_Henry
 
A little fiction reading today: http://www.express.co.uk/posts....-threat

Hehehe.. love it when he said a fiction reading

[tubby]

Some good info there Reg. Let's hope this is the start of a great new chapter.

[Reg]

Inspiring to see the owner at the game again with his wife Bav, when they go back Stateside they'll have a great insight into how it all works, the passion of the team and fans and also to be honest, how low we dipped due to the mismanagement of T&T. Fingers crossed, so far so good.

[metalhead]

Well, they experienced a one hell of an atmosphere today, just wait until we get back into the CL.. they won't know what hit em

[Reg]

Well, they experienced a one hell of an atmosphere today, just wait until we get back into the CL.. they won't know what hit em

Exactly, thats the whole point, they were there to witness it. It aint like a baseball crowd or atmosphere.

[metalhead]

Agreed, which is very impressive from their part, they are trying their best to learn something that they haven't experienced before and kudos to them for at least doing something.

T&T have never done that.

[metalhead]

John Henry just tweeted

John_W_Henry

An indication of what can happen when this group comes together as one? The second goal was perfection. Learned what a very clean sheet is.



... and he learned a new term as well

[JoeTerp]

DEAR JOHN W HENRY, TAKE A GERMAN LESSON AND PUT FANS FIRST 
Sunday November 7,2010

JOHN W HENRY has made an impressive start as the new owner of Liverpool, declining to arrive with a cowboy swagger and instead conducting intensive but low-key research into all aspects of running a football club in England.

He has been seeking opinions from all quarters, and has already voiced his admiration for the way Arsenal operate, which is hardly surprising when they make vast profits and have built a wonderful 60,000-seater stadium within a stone’s throw of their ancestral Highbury home.

What Mr Henry should also do is pay a visit to Bayern Munich and talk to the powerbrokers of that famous German club, celebrated former players like Franz Beckenbauer and club president Uli Hoeness.

He will discover a vision of the game that, if he has the courage to implement it, could make John W Henry a true hero to the fans crowding expectantly into Anfield today for the showdown against champions Chelsea.

Bayern’s philosophy is to make football affordable for all supporters, and they have decreed that one-third of their season tickets, 12,500 of them, will cost just £104, a staggeringly low sum compared to Premier League prices.

“We could charge more than £104,” said Hoeness, the striker who helped Germany win the 1974 World Cup final. “Let’s say we charged £300 a season. If we did that, we’d get £2million more in income.

“But what’s £2million to us? In a transfer discussion you argue about that sum for five minutes. But the difference between £104 and £300 is huge for the fan.

“We do not think the fans are there to be milked like cows. Football has got to be for everybody. That’s the biggest difference between us and England.”

Listen to this. It is the truth of how it could be. It is the truth of a major football club that goes beyond platitudes and does something meaningful to prove it cares about its supporters.

Is it a good way to run a club? You might think so, and it can hardly be argued that the policy prevents Bayern Munich being a force in football when the team reached the final of the Champions League last season.

The Munich method strikes a chord with the embittered fans of Manchester United who stopped watching their favourite club in the wake of the Glazer brothers’ takeover and formed FC United of Manchester.

A marvellous milestone was reached on Friday night when FC United played in the first round of the FA Cup away to Rochdale and won 3-2.

FC United’s general manager Andy Walsh, a lapsed Old Trafford season ticket holder, surely spoke for many when he said: “After the recent Wayne Rooney contract negotiations (with the player being granted a £200,000-a-week deal) it was described as a score draw between the player and the club.

“But the losers were the fans – because they’re the ones who will be picking up the tab. The extra money to pay for Rooney’s new contract will come out of their pockets, not those of the Glazers.”

The Munich method will also strike a chord with supporters at lower division clubs that try to operate in a correct manner.

One of them, trying to spend every penny wisely, is Millwall, the subject of an outstanding new book called Family: Life, Death And Football*.

It is the no-holds-barred story of last season at Millwall, and if you want a taste of what it’s really like within a professional club, read this. It reveals the heart and soul, as well as the cruelty and occasional brutality, of our nation’s favourite game.

A standard season ticket at Millwall, now promoted back to the Championship, costs £460 this season. It is lower than most Premier League teams, though not Blackburn Rovers, where the price is an admirable £224.

We wait to see whether that will continue should the proposed takeover of Rovers by an Indian poultry firm be completed, just as we wait to see the practical effect of the John W Henry regime at Anfield. Promises count for nothing. Fine words count for nothing.

The standard price for a season ticket on The Kop this season is £680. Bayern Munich charge a basic £104 – and feel they would be fleecing their fans if they went even as high as £300.

So, let’s see if these new Anfield Americans can set a fresh path for English football. Let’s see if they can be modern, sophisticated and radical owners of a major football club – and truly put the fans’ interests at heart.

* Family: Life, Death And Football by Michael Calvin is published by Integr8, £12.99.

it would have taken a few seconds of research to find that the Red Sox have the highest ticket prices in baseball.  I doubt NESV are going to slash prices at LFC.

[JamCar05]

John Henry just tweeted

John_W_Henry

An indication of what can happen when this group comes together as one? The second goal was perfection. Learned what a very clean sheet is.



... and he learned a new term as well

I kinda like the way he (and his wife for that matter) are using Twitter to give messages to the fans. Some might think it's a cheap trick, but it does somewhat make the difference/distance between owners and fans seem smaller. And in your (MH) previous example where Henry disregarded a story about Gerrard possibly being sold it was quite an effective little step to take in order to quell such "journalistic" rubbish.

[boodiddy1]

Why it's time to salute the victorious fans who are the true owners and soul of Liverpool football club
By David Maddock

Published 13:06 09/11/10

(12)Recommend (29)
.
Elsewhere on the site I've written about why Liverpool should be pleased that they can get back to worrying about on-pitch matters again following the NESV takeover .

It also must be said, though, that Liverpool’s supporters deserve immense credit for this, because it is down to them that Hicks and Gillett were finally seen off.

There is a great irony in that fact, because fans don’t want to be interested in the business side of their sport. If they did, then it would be the Financial Times they’d pour over, not the Daily Mirror.

And yet after one of the bloodiest, most depressing episodes in Liverpool’s long and illustrious history, the enduring message that emerged, was the fans are ready to fight to the end to protect the club they love.


  Shanks’ statement is true to them, it’s much more important than life or death. That is why they saw through and ultimately saw off the threat of Hicks and Gillett to the very future of their club.

When Hicks eventually released his death grip on the club, when, like Saddam Hussein his statue was toppled and his evil regime was ended after some pantomime villainy, he admitted it was the fans that did for him.

He described them as “internet terrorists”. Like the bad guy in Scooby Doo, he may have added that he “would have gotten away with it, but for those meddling fans”.

It was inspiring to see so many people come together from different walks of life to oppose Hicks and Gillett, and to stop their attempts to refinance.

Board members Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre must take great credit for the moral decency they showed in making the right choice for Liverpool Football Club, not the Americans who appointed them. But the plain truth of the matter is, it was the fans who made the biggest difference.

Hicks showed with his ever more desperate attempts to keep control of the club that he would go to any lengths. He almost succeeded, because there were some dubious parties out there prepared to lend him obscene amounts of money to extend his appalling regime.

It was only the action of the fans in exposing their plans that prevented it. Not the media, not the Football Association or the Premier League (who must now take a long, hard look at their rules), but the fans.

Without their massive, co-ordinated intervention, Hicks would still be in control today, and there wouldn’t have been the optimism we witnessed on Sunday.

Many people were involved in the campaigns, and all deserve equal credit. Liverpool fan Mike Jeffries produced an amazing video that generated more than a million hits on YouTube, highlighting to potential investors the size of the opposition to Hicks. It even starred our very own Brian Reade, which surely increased circulation massively!

A supporters union, Spirit of Shankly, campaigned tirelessly against the pair, and towards the end, they organised a sit in at Anfield which again demonstrated the depth of feeling amongst the fans.

Many websites concentrated their efforts on exposing the chicanery of Hicks and Gillett, who increasingly came across as fairground wagon hucksters. One site in particular, Anfield Road, produced forensic research that was important in the fight against the Americans, and put the media to shame.

There are many, many others who did equally important work, and sadly there is not the space to name them, but two groups stand out for their campaigning efforts that summed up what Liverpool Football Club is really about.

KopFaithful were described by Hicks as the “enemy”, a greater recommendation you couldn’t get. Their base is the excellent The Liverpool Way website, which is the home of some of the most passionate, and reasonable Reds supporters.

Helped by the work of people like Steve Horner (he’s the guy who was the target of the infamous email rant sent by Tom Hicks jr) and Alan Kayll of the Independent Liverpool Supporters Club, they brilliantly identified and targeted businesses Hicks was trying to deal with, and frequently scuppered his plans, as he himself later revealed.

Save Liverpool performed an equally important role in fighting against Hicks and Gillett. They were born in May, formed by members of one of the most important Liverpool fan sites, Red And White Kop, and they made such a massive impact that new owner John Henry sought them out for talks as soon as he took over.

None of the people involved want any recognition, because what they did came through their passion for Liverpool, not for publicity, and I won’t embarrass people by listing them here….not even Big Leo, who is world famous amongst Reds fans!

But the efforts of two people deserve to be brought to the attention of the wider support. Kit Nelson’s inspired artwork provided a platform for both groups to launch their campaigns from. He designed everything from campaign posters to t-shirts, and made a massive impact.

You can see his work here , and you’ll agree, I’m sure, that his rare genius helped to stop Hicks.

John Hackett was another tireless campaigner behind Save Liverpool, and he invested not just countless hours of his time, but also a lot of his own money to produce a special alternative Liverpool kit, to highlight the protest.

His shirt was black and bore the legend ‘Standards Corrupted’, which summed up what happened at Anfield. It cost him thousands, and it was one of the most visible protests around the stadium.

John didn’t get all his money back from sales, and doesn’t want it back, but an effort like his deserves support from grateful Liverpool fans.

You can see the kit here and you can still buy it too . All proceeds now raised will go to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, and the Hillsborough foundations, and all donations are monitored by independent auditors.

It is such a worthwhile cause and also a wonderful memento of a unique period in Liverpool’s history. Alternatively, you can donate to the cause by going directly to the Save Liverpool website and clicking on the donate button at www.savelfc.org .

On Sunday at Anfield, you sensed that Liverpool fans are daring to believe that the ugly chapter in their history is now closed, and they are ready to look forward to a brighter future.

But it is a chapter that will never be forgotten, indeed must never be forgotten, and what Liverpool fans did, led by the likes of KopFaithful and Save Liverpool, was to show that even in these days of global franchises, it is still the fans who are the true owners of the soul of a football club. And that is why it is a unique sport.

[metalhead]

They just hired a recruitment company to look for our new CEO..

[redsoxfan]

Well, they experienced a one hell of an atmosphere today, just wait until we get back into the CL.. they won't know what hit em

Exactly, thats the whole point, they were there to witness it. It aint like a baseball crowd or atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1szUC3ZiEo

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/video...._id=bos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ZUK4Ci3cM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9hxbD-A8Q&feature=related

[kazza]

Well, they experienced a one hell of an atmosphere today, just wait until we get back into the CL.. they won't know what hit em

Exactly, thats the whole point, they were there to witness it. It aint like a baseball crowd or atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1szUC3ZiEo

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/video...._id=bos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ZUK4Ci3cM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9hxbD-A8Q&feature=related

No offence mate but that is nothing compared to a football atmosphere, and in football it goes on throughout the match not just at the end. The close proximity of the fans to the field is probably the difference. You can feel the noise on your chest.

[LFC2007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1szUC3ZiEo

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/video...._id=bos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ZUK4Ci3cM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9hxbD-A8Q&feature=related

pffffft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MQnQ8QjJs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_BGkFYHG5Y