Liverpool FC Forum

[hello_red]

Compared to the likes of Man Utd and a team like Spurs we have a useless board.

We could sign the likes of Simao and Tevez easy enough but because the board is so incompetant they dont, considering we havnt even got decent sponsorship for this club considering who we are and the success of the last few years the baord have not acted.

Make whole sale changes now please.

from a concerned fan

[ivor_the_injun]

I say give the club another 7 days before getting overly concerned. Things are definitely afoot, and often you'll find it's actually the player that holds some of these deals up, not the club.

I do share your worries about competence at times, and this summer - with new owners at the helm - it's an ideal opportunity for the club to put such concerns to bed.

Fingers crossed there'll be plenty to smile about soon.

[RUSHIE#9]

It's a difficult time I feel for the board at the moment. We the fans have had great expectations about signing 'galactico' (to coin a phrase) style players but because we're now nearly two weeks into the transfer window and haven't spent 20/30m pounds we're starting to get itchy feet. Many are being quick to point the accusing finger towards the board/Parry when in reality we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes.

I do think that certainly changes need to be made at boardroom level in the coming weeks/months but I would be cautious about whole sale changes being made. Too much instability could seriously damage the club in the long run. Foster Gillett is scheduled to take up his role at the club come august and I think once he's got his feet under the table he'll then be able to report back to George & Tom about how the structure of the club should be. For now though the best course of action has to be that they come good with their promises of backing Rafa (or ROFA if you're George & Tom  ) with funds in the transfer market.

Of course it's not just the transfer dealing were the clubs current hierarchy have been found short in recent times. Certainly the clubs communication with the fans needs to be improved as the Athens ticket fiasco demonstrated that by not giving the fans as much information as is needed can lead to a lot of ill feeling and can affect the club as a whole.
In fact communication when it comes to the club seems to be an alien concept when you consider the number of players we've missed out on signing down the years due to poor communication on the clubs part. The same has to be said with the players already at the club as demonstrated by the whole Gerrard saga in 2005.

Certainly the business side of Liverpool F.C. has to be overhauled and a more dynamic business strategy be exercised if LFC is to return to the top cos football isn't just a sport anymore and sitting on your laurels will not make you top dog.

[LFC2007]

Compared to the likes of Man Utd and a team like Spurs we have a useless board.

We could sign the likes of Simao and Tevez easy enough but because the board is so incompetant they dont, considering we havnt even got decent sponsorship for this club considering who we are and the success of the last few years the baord have not acted.

Make whole sale changes now please.

from a concerned fan

I think there are a few separate issues you point to in your post with regard to the competency of the board.

1) Commercial activities e.g. Sponsorship, Marketing, Merchandising.

2) Transfers, player acquisition and retention.


On point one my views are......

Considering the fanbase we have and worldwide appeal we developed during the 70's and 80's I'd say our commercial success in terms of revenue has been poor. Only three or four years ago we were 8th or 9th in the revenue charts. For a club of our size - the most successful in English History - that is disappointing IMO. You could argue that the 90's did us no favours in trying to develop our revenue streams, but you go to Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Scandinavia....etc. and there are plenty of Liverpool fans there and plenty who have supported us for years. Even though we probably have just as big if not a bigger fanbase than the mancs. it is dissappointing that our merchandising revenue doesn't match or is so far behind. The same applies to our modest sponsorship deal with Carlsberg. Our revenue since the 03/04 season has grown significantly from £92m to £120m in 04/05 to £123m last season. The signs are good, helped by our UCL victory, but there needs to be a hell of a lot of work done on our global exploits. That is what the Americans are experts in and IMO is something the outgoing board lacked.


On the second point..........


In past seasons we have acted too late in trying to sign players e.g. Simao. But part of this may be down to lack of funds, in the Simao situation we were on the brink of signing him only for Benfica to suddenly demand a higher price at the eleventh hour - if we had the funds we may have said "feck it, lets get him, it's only £1m more". I'd ask the question why we were in that position so late on in any case - it may be issues to do with other clubs biding their time to get a higher price. The board also showed a lack of impetus to get Gerrard signed up after the UCL victory, that was a more tangible sign of their lethargic approach to keeping our best players.

Now, I believe the situation is different. OK, Parry is still there, but key players have all been signed to long term contracts in a relatively short time frame. We signed Leiva promptly whilst other clubs were hovering and the funds are available for further business. There hasn't been a great deal of business done anywhere, especially on the continent. The mancs have done business swiftly and that has prompted some alarmist posts saying how we're fecked all of a sudden. I wouldn't have expected us to have signed a Tevez or Simao by now any way, I would expect by the end of June to have at least one £10m+ player signed if not more.

It isn't possible to know the intricacies of each deal, e.g. the Tevez deal may be more complex because of MSI and because West Ham are desperate to keep him. I wouldn't apportion the board any blame at this stage as we don't know what is happening behind the scenes, all we know is Hicks  has promised business is being conducted, he said by the end of the week, I'd cut him some slack on that one seeing as deals are rarely if ever announced on the weekend. It may be one fax from a lawyer that holds up a deal for a day or two extra but I have faith in the new regime to deliver pretty soon.

[Reg]

I dont get these threads..... we just sold the club to new owners, they've imrpoved the design of the stadium they've told Rafa to resign all the key players and they've assured the fans (by apparantly assuring Rafa) the wedge is there for big name signings.

What more d'ya want for gods sake, personal invitations to pick the new players and negotiate their contracts?

All issues will be resolved in time but for the first 3 months the new owners and the board are doing pretty freaking well if you ask me, the place is a hive of activity

If you want BIG NEWS, then SG, Carra, Alonso, Pepe etc.. queuing up outisde the gaffers office to sign 5 year extensions is pretty freakin' big news. Its called getting ready to do battle. Imagine how much these new contracts are costing the club !! If we aint got the money to by Eto'o its cos we gave it all to these lads to get their loyalty.

Game on.

[redtrader74]

Regarding the commercialism of LFC and its marketing, imo the board has been living in the Eighties, devalueing the power and support of the Club. It has always seemed to me that the Club have been embarressed to say how big we actually are. The official website is very amatuerish IMO, shirts are often out of stock, the time taken to send is atrocious. Where is Liverpool TV? we are the  biggest club not to have a channel.

Surely this was the fault of the previous owners, we now have new owners, who we are led to believe are experts at marketing, and we have all been told Rafa has made it clear what the problems have been with the way the club has been managed, so it is reasonable to assume they will take that on board and make the changes required, because it is in their interest.

I did not expect that any major signings would have been made up to this point, only because it must take more than a couple of weeks for the process to go through from start to finish, especially with the established big names a lot of us are hoping for.

[RedorDead]

If you want BIG NEWS, then SG, Carra, Alonso, Pepe etc.. queuing up outisde the gaffers office to sign 5 year extensions is pretty freakin' big news. Its called getting ready to do battle. Imagine how much these new contracts are costing the club !!

I think that is a very good point, we have done some excellent business in the off season so far, re-signed our four best players and in Leiva have a possible super star of the future signed...I know we want more....i want more but like others have said the transfers havn't really started yet, a few squad players and some young talent has moved...none of teh big names has gone anywhere.....let's just a have a little patience.

[The Manhattan Project]

Just chill.

We'll sign some good players.


For frick's sake, Hicks had LFC leather boots made.

That's how much he cares.

[Reg]

If we get Tevez, I'd put a tenner on us to win the Grand National as well !

[puroresu]

In terms of shirt sponsership where do we actually rank when it comes to revenue coming in. I assume Utd make more from AIG and chelsea make more with samsung. Do Arsenal and Tottenham make more with there respective deals?

[heimdall]

In terms of shirt sponsership where do we actually rank when it comes to revenue coming in. I assume Utd make more from AIG and chelsea make more with samsung. Do Arsenal and Tottenham make more with there respective deals?

We have to get a new sponsorship deal as pretty soon the players won't be allowed to wear Carlsberg or any other drink company on their shirts, bloody Tony Blair nanny state!!!
In any case the other top clubs are making lots more money in sponsorship deals than we do and that has to be changed, and I'm sure it now will be.

[stmichael]

i'm no fan of rick parry but to suggest that spurs have a better board than us is just laughable. just because they throw money around like a confetti and win bugger all, doesn't make them better.

anyway, spurs and manure are both PLC's, we're not.

[babu]

i'm no fan of rick parry but to suggest that spurs have a better board than us is just laughable. just because they throw money around like a confetti and win bugger all, doesn't make them better.

anyway, spurs and manure are both PLC's, we're not.

Manure is not a PLC. or am i wrong? 

[dawson99]

where ha it been actually quoted that we wont be spending a lot of money?

all conjecture and hearsay so not listening to a word (unless we sign bent and forlan, then im pi$$ed)

[Igor Zidane]

Manure are now a private company owned by the glaziers.