Liverpool's Chief Executive sat down with the club's official website last week before our matches against Arsenal and Charlton to answer questions raised by supporters about the proposed new stadium in Stanley Park, the financial situation at the club, Michael Owen's contract, Djibril Cisse, our difficult season, the race for fourth and the position of the manager.
Rick, when can we expect news on the new stadium's plans submission as we were originally led to believe a decision would be made by March 2004, and will this delay proposal for a 2006 opening?
Rick Parry: There's always a host of issues which arise, as has been the case this time. It's too early at this stage to say what it means for the opening date but none of the delays help, let's put it that way.
Are you still confident at this stage that the stadium will go ahead as proposed?
Rick Parry: Yes, we are very confident. We are still working full steam ahead addressing all the issues that the plans have raised and proceeding full steam ahead with our fundraising plans.
If planning permission for the new stadium fails, will the ground share be revisited as an option for the future?
I don't think we would re-look at ground sharing on the basis of planning failing. I think we've said that we don't have a plan B. We have put all our eggs into this one basket. We are working closely with the city and with the local community because we think that it's a tremendous solution, not just for us but also for the whole of north Liverpool. I don't think it will fail. I think there may be delays, there may be areas that have to be modified but we would be very disappointed if we ended up with a 'No' because that would essentially mean we hadn't done our homework somewhere along the line. We might have to refresh some of the ideas, we might have to have to introduce some modifications but this is the one that we are going for.
Are you in any way concerned that we may not be able to fill a 60,000 stadium if some ofour recent Premiership attendances are anything to go by?
It's always a concern but if you plan for mediocrity then you will achieve it which is what we have said all along. What we have to do is to aim higher. You can't guarantee success but you can programme for it. Clearly it has always been our view that to compete with the best in Europe we have to generate more revenue and we have to have a greater capacity, so we can't change that as a policy. That has to be the right way forward. Again, as I've said repeatedly, the rate of change in football these days is such that standing still isn't an option. You either go forwards or you go backwards and for us going forwards is the only option.
What was the main motivation in appointing Hawkpoint to review financial options for the club at this time and when do you expect to receive their recommendations?
I think there are a number of factors. The chairman had said at the AGM that he would consider his position come the end of the season and that's something that we have to bear in mind. We have to look at our capital needs in terms of bearing in mind the stadium commitment and also the need for team building. We have clearly got to be mindful of that. We are clearly also very mindful that we had the approach from Steve Morgan which needs to be reviewed carefully. Really the decision was, 'Let's get some experts on board and look at all the options carefully and not be rushed into any one decision. Not get it wrong because any decision we take would clearly have a very major impact on the long term and wellbeing of the club.' So, get them on board and literally consider every possible option and see what they have to say and then decide what, if anything, we need to do. In terms of time scales we expect them to be reporting back in the next month or so and reviewing options across the close season, which is the right time frame to be taking major decisions. It's not the easiest to take long-term decisions in the middle of the season. Close season isn't very long these days but it gives us that window to think about the way ahead.
Did the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea change the scenery of finance in football in this country?
Of course it did. To an extent, there is now one market for Chelsea and one for everybody else. What you can't do is to try follow or copy Abramovich because that's the way to a certain ruin for everybody. You look at the last day of last season when we played at Chelsea, the painful memory that it is, they were on the verge of going into administration. I think had they not beaten us and got the Champions League qualification that might have happened. They go from a club on the brink to being the richest club in Europe overnight. I mean, that's the crazy thing about this industry. It certainly makes it lively like no other because that just couldn't happen anywhere else. Of course it changes all the dynamics for the rest of us.
How can the club advertise the credit card the way they do, when it has become clear that the Academy is not producing players for Liverpool's future at the moment?
I think that the Academy is a long-term investment, which we remain completely committed to, there's no shadow of a doubt about that. To say that it's not producing players I think is a mis-statement. We've had Jon Otsemobor playing games this season, back with us now after a short loan spell at Bolton, Neil Mellor has just come back from West Ham and celebrated his return with four goals in the Reserves against West Bromwich Albion. John Welsh has been knocking on the door and has done well in the England Under-21s. Unfortunately he has picked up a little injury which will hold him back for the rest of this season but it's not completely gloomy. Looking at the lower age groups, there's some tremendous talent down there. We remain firmly committed to the Academy but you can't look at any one year in isolation. It has to be looked at as a long-term project.
The week before last we saw Djibril Cisse on the cover of the LFC magazine. Are we to assume he's definitely joining Liverpool regardless of whether we finish fourth or not?
We remain very hopeful that he will be arriving on schedule.
Apart from Cisse, does the amount of money available for transfers totally depend on where we finish in the league?
Frankly, yes, of course it does. There's a big gulf financially between being in the Champions League and not which is what we have said all along and yes, of course, it does have a major bearing.
Gerard Houllier said recently that he believes Michael Owen will stay. Are you confident he will sign a new contract and have negotiations started?
We have always been hopeful. As ever, we are not going to go into details about the discussions and when they have started, when they haven't started and where they are up to. That's totally counter productive. Yes, we do remain hopeful.
This season we have seen Liverpool fall a long way back from the top three clubs. Finishing fourth may be a success in terms of finance but do you accept that the current gap in points between us and the league leaders is worrying and after last year's failure, we have failed again this year?
We want to be challenging for honours clearly and I think we all feel as disappointed and asfrustrated as the fans. We feel it as much as any fan feels it. You can never guarantee that you are going to win the league but we should be challenging. We really should be a title contender. I think we all felt confident this year that with last summer's signings that we'd made improvements and we would be a strong contender. Clearly there is a whole series of different factors which I won't go into as to why that hasn't happened. The league table doesn't lie at the end of the day and the reality is we will have fallen short. What we are focusing on of course at the moment is making sure we get that fourth spot and Champions League.
What are your expectations for Liverpool in the next five years? Is it accepted in the boardroom now that we cannot cope with the wealth of Man United and Chelsea, and do you see fourth place becoming a long-term acceptable target for the club?
There's no way that fourth could be a long-term acceptable target. That's partly why we have our financial advisors on board to re-look at our strategy. The last time we brought advisors on board was back in 1999 when we got the injection of funding from Granada, which took us through to the treble year 2001 when we all felt we were clearly well on the way to a serious challenge for the Premier League. We don't accept fourth as being the level where we want to be. As I said, we can't guarantee winning titles but what we have to do is make every possible effort and pull out all the stops to make sure that we are a regular contender, because that would be acceptable. Anything less than that for a club like Liverpool isn't.
Does the manager's position rest solely on us finishing fourth this season?
No. Of course it doesn't. Fourth is essential, as we have said all along. For all sorts of reasons we really do need to clinch that. There's a huge financial gulf between the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. It makes life difficult. We are reasonably confident but it's going to be tight all the way through. Statements saying this will happen if we finish fourth and that will happen if we finish fifth is not what this club's about and it's not helpful at the present time.
is it me or are members of the board totally contradicting themselves?
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