Liverpool FC Forum

[Redman in wales]

To my knowledge and research:

Abramovich hasn't commented on John Terry's case (or any of his past mistermeaners)

Mike Ashley didn't comment when there was a punchup at newcastle

Utd's owners didn't comment when Cantona kung-fu kicked a palace fan


The owners shouldn't need to comment or sort out the turmoil caused by this case. The club should be able to deal with this.

If it highlights anything, it shows we desperately need a Press/PR Officer!

[Igor Zidane]

Well if ian ayre and the solicitors and pr people here have f.ucked up ,they should be sacked by the owners. The owners should then bring people in who are capable of doing the job

[maypaxvobiscum]

see this is where I disagree. I do see your points Igor but I, like Maypax, think it could have been handled better here, and if it had, they wouldn't have needed to comment at all.  In my opinion, the owners shouldn't have come in any sooner than this because the media and PR approach from our club should have been a lot better.

These matters up to now should have been dealt with by Ian Ayre and the club - it doesn't need US owners to come over here to tell our MD how to do his job. Our approach was wrong, so they're now coming over to clear up the mess and try and calm the situation. Had our approach been right (eg the examples given in Maypax's post above) there would have been no need for the owners to say anything.

it's not fair to blame just Ayre and the PR team for this as well. Kenny has to share the blame. he, of all people should know that he represents Liverpool and his position is very important as he is in the front-line of questioning from the media. the press aren't gonna go to the owners and question them, they are gonna go to the manager as they are far more easier to reach out to, after and before games, etc. his handling of the media this season in general, not just the Suarez issue, has been very poor. he falls prey to the press far too easily, though i have to admit the press has been merciless, but that's the press isn't it? i reckon the best thing for us now is simply to avoid the media, and focus on our results, starting by progressing to the next round of the FA Cup and winning the League Cup the following week. we should be recognized for our football, not off-field drama.

[Thommo's perm]

It had to be done. KK had lost the pr battle
Its no disgrace. But we HAVE to learn from this

[parchpea]

If they genuinely felt the charge was unfair then they should have come right out and said why rather than bitching and moaning about it and giving the media a field day.

All we ended up with was some tshirt wearing bravado and a half arsed challenge that ended up nothing more than a wet fart with everyone stood laughing at us.

All I am saying is if they are going to do something then do it well and do it professionally and not like some tinpot outfit.

Because of the amateur fashion in which they went about the matter we have a player demonised forever and a black (forgive me) mark against the club which quite frankly could and probably should have been avoided.

[yckatbjywtbiastkamb]

If they genuinely felt the charge was unfair then they should have come right out and said why rather than bitching and moaning about it and giving the media a field day.

All we ended up with was some tshirt wearing bravado and a half arsed challenge that ended up nothing more than a wet fart with everyone stood laughing at us.

All I am saying is if they are going to do something then do it well and do it professionally and not like some tinpot outfit.

Because of the amateur fashion in which they went about the matter we have a player demonised forever and a black (forgive me) mark against the club which quite frankly could and probably should have been avoided.

i wish it was a half ar$ed challenge mate then the grovelling apologies wouldnt seem so bad, but that statement we released when the players wore the t shirts was full of bravado and beligerence which made the climb down even worse imo.

[yckatbjywtbiastkamb]

see this is where I disagree. I do see your points Igor but I, like Maypax, think it could have been handled better here, and if it had, they wouldn't have needed to comment at all.  In my opinion, the owners shouldn't have come in any sooner than this because the media and PR approach from our club should have been a lot better.

These matters up to now should have been dealt with by Ian Ayre and the club - it doesn't need US owners to come over here to tell our MD how to do his job. Our approach was wrong, so they're now coming over to clear up the mess and try and calm the situation. Had our approach been right (eg the examples given in Maypax's post above) there would have been no need for the owners to say anything.

it's not fair to blame just Ayre and the PR team for this as well. Kenny has to share the blame. he, of all people should know that he represents Liverpool and his position is very important as he is in the front-line of questioning from the media. the press aren't gonna go to the owners and question them, they are gonna go to the manager as they are far more easier to reach out to, after and before games, etc. his handling of the media this season in general, not just the Suarez issue, has been very poor. he falls prey to the press far too easily, though i have to admit the press has been merciless, but that's the press isn't it? i reckon the best thing for us now is simply to avoid the media, and focus on our results, starting by progressing to the next round of the FA Cup and winning the League Cup the following week. we should be recognized for our football, not off-field drama.

what did kenny do? he just defended the club and the players just like ferguson has done many many times in the past for manchester united when they`ve had controversy surrounding their club.
did you ever see ferguson grovelling?
if ferguson had to grovel every time he had crossed words with a reporter the arl would have to spend half his career at united on his knee`s.
kenny was put in that position because the clubs p.r had been so bad it needed drastic measures to get the press of the clubs back.

[lakes10]

I think some forget that we come close as 12 hours from going bust. In my view and it's p.o.d. my view.the owners should and will stand by the club in whatever it's involved in.

Your right lakes, but it doesn't mean these owners are immune from critisism .

yes very true.

[lakes10]

neither are Kenny and the management in UK, Igor. he should have been smart enough to realize that he should be talking with his brains, instead of his heart. some people are capable of saying the dumbest things in the heat of the moment. what the club should have done is simply refuse to allow the media to ask any questions on the Suarez issue, hence Kenny would have avoided being bombarded with question after question which got him mad. that was the first thing the club did wrong.

this whole debacle has been an absolute PR disaster and it's very disappointing. in a recent match between Man City and Villa, the Vila mascot refused to shake the hands of the City mascot. this is just another opportunity for the press to pour some heat on Suarez claiming he is a bad influence, etc etc.

when Liverpool came out with such a strong response to the 8 match ban, i was expecting an appeal. so when we decided not to appeal, i felt that the purpose of releasing such a strong statement only to back down is ridiculous, and made us look very fickle. i was actually pretty supportive of such a strong statement, but on hindsight, i realize it was poor and posters such as Andy G, DD and 7_Kewell were correct in their assessment of it.

i think generally, the owners was probably under the impression that whatever the team in Liverpool were doing, they had control over it and were capable enough, hence they took the back seat. they didn't think it would escalate to such heights where even the sponsors get involved. and like it or not, in today's age, sponsorship is a very big deal. i do like the manner in which FSG runs the club though, by rarely ever being in the public eye, unlike their predecessors. i really can't find a reason to blame the owners based in America for this, when it was the management team is Liverpool who should have been competent enough to handle the press.

all in all, the end result of this is that we have been made to look silly, in our efforts to protect Suarez. the club could have just gone along the lines of it was an innocent misunderstanding because Suarez used a word acceptable in his culture and did not think it would provoke such a response here. that kind of statement would have at least garnered some sympathy and understanding, after all Suarez is from a different culture. it also shows humility on our part. but for me, the worse part of it is that Fergie is happy.

Good post mate and fair points made. The point i was trying to make was that the owners only decided to step in when standard chartered and the new york times opened there mouths . They should have and would have been in much sooner if they were over here or had either JW or Tom werner over here on atleast a semi permenant basis. That's the part that is not good enough , they are the o wnersafter all the buck does stop with them .[/quote]
from what i understand it was the press that run to standard chartered and would not stop calling them until they got something out of them.

lets not forget NYT love in with Sky so they were always going to cover it.


the sad fact is that if this had been last year not much would have been made of it but as most sports media are now based in Manc land they loved it and and see it a way to rip into Liverpool, not just the club but the city.

[stmichael]

i presume henry and werner will be at wembley next weekend for the cup final?

[7_Kewell]

the owners did the right thing...the stood back and let the club deal with it...only when it became clear our management had f**ked things up, did they come in and order things to be sorted.

I fail to see anything wrong with that.

[Benny The Noon]

Maybe it's time to draw a line under it all and move on , learn from mistakes and the experience.

[devaney]

the owners did the right thing...the stood back and let the club deal with it...only when it became clear our management had f**ked things up, did they come in and order things to be sorted.

I fail to see anything wrong with that.

You surprise me here Kewell. You have castigated Suarez,the club,the management and the fans for the way the Suarez Evra debacle has been handled. And yet you are prepared to accept that the owners have acted satisfactorily. My concern is not their lack of visibility but lack of direction. If as you would expect they have been talking to Ayres behind the scenes then one of two things has happened.Either we have failed to carry out their instructions or their instructions didn't work.Kenny has been hung out to dry and that in itself is wrong on just so many counts.As the owner of a business you take action when the issue is of such a highly sensitive nature. They acted too late when the damage was done and LFC becomes the grovelling laughing stock of world football.

Abramovich hasn't just spent several days at Chelsea's training ground to make the tea and slap a few backs! He is clearly unhappy with AVB and taking action to protect his investment before it is too late. As I have said our owners acted two late or inaffectively.

[yckatbjywtbiastkamb]

the owners did the right thing...the stood back and let the club deal with it...only when it became clear our management had f**ked things up, did they come in and order things to be sorted.

I fail to see anything wrong with that.

You surprise me here Kewell. You have castigated Suarez,the club,the management and the fans for the way the Suarez Evra debacle has been handled. And yet you are prepared to accept that the owners have acted satisfactorily. My concern is not their lack of visibility but lack of direction. If as you would expect they have been talking to Ayres behind the scenes then one of two things has happened.Either we have failed to carry out their instructions or their instructions didn't work.Kenny has been hung out to dry and that in itself is wrong on just so many counts.As the owner of a business you take action when the issue is of such a highly sensitive nature. They acted too late when the damage was done and LFC becomes the grovelling laughing stock of world football.

Abramovich hasn't just spent several days at Chelsea's training ground to make the tea and slap a few backs! He is clearly unhappy with AVB and taking action to protect his investment before it is too late. As I have said our owners acted two late or inaffectively.

thats pretty much how i see it as well.
john henry seems a sound fella and in terms of class he is on a different f##king planet to the other pair of cowboys who took dollars out of their wallets and waved them around in a press conference.
john henry has got class unlike those
also i honestly think john henry understands the importance of anfield to liverpool and he`d rather re develop the stadium but the council are forcing him to build a new one.
i respect him for that.
they have done many things right, thats why it`s so surprising to see this situation end up such a pigs breakfast.

[maguskwt]

We might have lost the PR battle, but can we at least try to raise the standard of spelling on the new kit forum?