Liverpool FC Forum

by **Bammo** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:35 pm

Benitez keen to extend Reds stay

Rafa Benitez has revealed he would be open to extending his Liverpool contract following peace talks with owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

The Reds boss met the American duo on Sunday, following the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, to discuss the recent stand-off.

Benitez had been critical of the owners' lack of understanding of the transfer window, but is confident any problems have now been resolved.

And, having won the FA Cup and Champions League during his Anfield tenure, the Spaniard aims to win the Premier League and prolong his reign.

"I am quite at ease," Benitez told Sport newspaper. "I would like to fulfil my contract and extend it, if possible.

"My family has settled very well and, to me, the respect and appreciation of the public in England is incredible.

"We are already very close to winning the Premier League. We are now eight points ahead of what we had last year and we have made progress in the Champions League.

"We are in a good position, but others also invest, progress and evolve."

Benitez also played down his row with Gillett and Hicks, and revealed the level of support he had received from Liverpool fans across the globe.

He added: "It has been a little exaggerated. The Americans want the best for the club and so do I.

"The only thing they want is that we sit down and talk because there is a difference in language and a significant distance. I think there must be better lines of communication.

"I am calm. I am confident that things are going to settle and we will succeed.

"40,000 signatures on the internet supported me to continue at the Liverpool helm. The signatures came from Australia or from Asia. Many supporters of Liverpool around the world are supporting a coach who has won major titles for the club."

Teamtalk source

by **kunilson** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:10 pm

luverly jubberly

by **skatesy** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:18 am

Finally something that shows G&H's point of view...

Liverpool experience quite different
Posted 12h 17m ago | Comment | Recommend E-mail | Save | Print |

By Ronald Blum, AP Sports Writer
LIVERPOOL, England — Tom Hicks walked into The Albert pub, and the celebration was on.
His son Alex had just proposed to girlfriend Portia Tuma on the pitch of the renowned 123-year-old ground that's home to Liverpool FC, and the group went off to lift a few pints with the blue jean clad crowd, under a ceiling filled with banners celebrating many of the world's well-known soccer clubs.

A few hours later, it was time for son Tom Jr.'s 30th birthday party, held at a long table lit by candelabra in Circo, a new hotspot near The Beatles Story museum, overlooking the River Mersey. And then, the next day, was the big match against Manchester United, the opener of a Premier League day that also included Arsenal vs. Chelsea down in London and was billed as "Grand Slam Sunday" by British media.

"It was kind of a special weekend," said the elder Tom Hicks, the co-owner of Liverpool, one of three Premier League clubs controlled by Americans. "I had my whole family there."

The fast-paced match was somewhat deflating for Hicks, who wore a red Liverpool scarf around his neck as the crowd sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" before kickoff. Manchester United won 1-0 on a 28-degree Sunday afternoon so raw that many players wore gloves, becoming the first visiting team since Everton from 1908-10 to post four straight shutouts at Anfield.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: NHL | Americans | New York Yankees | DALLAS | Football | England | Premier League | Manchester United | Liverpool | Arsenal | Everton | Tom Hicks | Liverpool FC | Anfield | Rafa Benitez
At the final whistle, with the sky turning a steely purple-gray ahead of the 3:53 p.m. sunset, the 3,000 or so visiting supporters in the Anfield Road Stand, surrounded by police in yellow vests and security in orange, sang out heartily: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to see United win away!"

"I think our team played like they mentally didn't think they were good enough to win, played tight," Hicks said a few days later from his Dallas office, sounding more analytical than critical.

The 61-year-old Hicks has been a well-known figure in U.S. sports since purchasing the NHL's Dallas Stars in 1996 and baseball's Texas Rangers in 1998 from George W. Bush's group. And his profile increased when he signed Alex Rodriguez to a $252 million, 10-year contract before the 2001 season only to trade him to the New York Yankees three years later.

But nothing prepared Hicks for the notoriety he gained last spring, when he joined Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr. to take control of Liverpool in a deal valued at $431 million.

They followed Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer, who bought Manchester United in 2005, and Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner, who purchased Aston Villa in 2006.

With a stadium in the middle of a neighborhood and a fan base that obsesses over its stars with constant love, admiration, condemnation and dread, the club is at the center of Liverpudlians' attention. Imagine the Red Sox Nation intensified many times over.

"There are two forms of ownership: There is legal shareholding ownership, and there's stakeholder ownership," said Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League. "They all feel they own it. And so while somebody may be the legal owner and the person who owns the shares, in a sense you're not really the owners. You're still only the custodians."

Liverpool has won a record 18 league titles in England, two more than Manchester United and five ahead of Arsenal, but Liverpool hasn't finished first since 1990 and has seen Manchester United - its neighbors a 60-minute train ride to the east - win the Premier League nine times since. Although Liverpool has won five European Cups, most among English clubs, just one of them has been since 1984.

Dallas won the 1999 Stanley Cup under Hicks, but the Rangers haven't even made it to the World Series. Liverpool's fans are counting on Hicks and Gillett to spend money for players that will restore the team to the glory days of Ian Rush, Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish.

"I think the fans are very serious fans. They want to make sure Liverpool is a top side, and they're going to be skeptical of a lot of things until we do it," Hicks said.

An American accent is suspect these days in Liverpool, an urban area of 800,000 that will be one of Europe's cultural capitals next year. Several of the locals, known as Scousers for a local stew and their thick accents, ask Americans whether they know the owners and what they think Hicks and Gillett will do.

In late November, manager Rafa Benitez openly questioned whether the club was prepared to spend for players when the market reopens in January.

"They don't understand what the transfer window means in Europe," Benitez said. "They need to understand how difficult it is to sign players."

Benitez was told by Hicks to worry about games, not acquisitions. It became known as "The Rift," and before a European Champions League match against FC Porto on Nov. 28, about 2,000 fans marched from The Sandon pub to Anfield to support the coach.

"They wanted to protect Rafa. That part you have to admire," Hicks said. "We think Rafa's terrific. We put all that behind us."

After the Man. U. match, Hicks, Gillett and team chief executive Rick Parry met with Benitez. Everyone seems to be on the same page now, attributing whatever differences to the distance and language barriers.

"We wanted to see what we could do with the players we'd already bought. We just wanted to see if the team was going to jell," Hicks said. "And he went to a press conference and kind of pouted and answered the same question 20 times, 'I'm focusing on my team.' And then the media made up everything from that point forward. They made up that we were going to fire him. They made up that I told him to shut up. They made up this battle between Benitez and the Americans. It's really funny to kind of watch."

Key to everything is the stadium and how much debt the club will incur to build it.

Football has been played at Anfield since 1884, when Everton was the home team. That club left in a rent dispute and newly formed Liverpool took over in 1892. The current ground, which has a capacity of about 45,300, consists of four covered stands, the oldest of which dates to 1973.

There are the Paisley Gates and the Shankly Gates, named after former Liverpool coaches, with the famous sign, "You'll Never Walk Alone." And there is the Hillsborough Memorial, where fans leave flowers in honor of the 96 supporters who were crushed to death on April 15, 1989, before a Football Association Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest in Sheffield.

The Kop, which rises in 72 steeply raked rows, is the club's soul and gets its name from Spion Kop, a hill in South Africa where British forces lost a battle during the Second Boer War in 1900. Liverpool's Kop once held 30,000, back in the days when fans stood on terraces rather than viewing from seats, but these days capacity is about 12,500. The screaming, singing supporters call themselves Kopites, and the roof acts like a megaphone that sends a wall of sound onto the field.

While Manchester United has expanded Old Trafford to 76,000 and Arsenal moved from 38,000-seat Highbury into 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium in July 2006, Liverpool has been trapped by the economics of Anfield, where there are just 34 luxury suites and few amenities. The club wants to build a new stadium in nearby Stanley Park.

Before the sale, the Manchester firm AFL drew up a proposal that the new owners hated. Then Dallas-based HKS proposed an expensive, futuristic stadium. Both firms are to come back with new proposals and present them to the owners in New York on Jan. 9. Hicks says there will be 110 suites, and team plans to move in for the 2011-12 season.

"We looked to make it as big as 80,000 but I think for our marketplace, probably the right size would be somewhere between 70,000 and 73,000," Hicks said. "That would be the third-biggest in England behind Wembley and Old Trafford."

Its fan base is worldwide. Before the big match, Liverpool had its first million-pound ($2 million) week of merchandise sales - and in England, clubs don't share licensing income.

Matches are beamed to Asia and the United States. Out in California, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane - a Tottenham Hotspur supporter - gets up at 4:45 a.m. to watch the EPL.

"I think I view it as a fan. I view it with fresh eyes. For me, I'm a neophyte, I'm been following it the last few years," said Beane, whose baseball owner leads the group that operates San Jose's new Major League Soccer franchise. "The more you watch it, the more you get an appreciation as a former athlete for the athleticism when you see the best in the world."

Hicks could have purchased Dallas' MLS franchise but decided not to. "In hindsight, I probably made the wrong decision," he said.

There's synergy to be gained with his U.S. franchises - Carlsberg at the ballpark, anyone? - but he doesn't foresee any regular-season matches being moved to the United States, just perhaps another preseason tour in 2009.

Other clubs could attract Americans. Stan Kroenke, who controls the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and MLS's Colorado Rapids, already owns 12 percent of Arsenal. Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said in the 1980s his family was approached about purchasing one-third of Tottenham.

"We should have done it. It was at a time before the big money hit European soccer," Steinbrenner said, adding that the EPL still intrigues him. "I haven't ruled out doing that."

Scudamore welcomes the Americans.

"They bring sort of a fresh commercialism to it, which is always good," he said. "There's a degree of enthusiasm. There's a degree of positive attitude. There's a degree of can do. ... But I think all of them have been very cognizant of the fact that they don't know everything there is to know about football and, therefore, they've gone about it in a way that has been respectful to the other clubs and the traditions of the league."

But in the end, the mark of success will be measured in trophies. That's what the supporters crave. That's what drives everyone from the players to the fans in the highest row of the Kop.

"It is their club," Hicks said. "The last family had it 51 years, and it's been around 115. Hopefully, we'll have it for a long time as well."

The Associated Press

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2007-12-27-3606870323_x.htm[/B]

by **account deleted by request** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:44 am

We wanted to see what we could do with the players we'd already bought. We just wanted to see if the team was going to jell," Hicks said.

So rather than believe the manager who knows about football and what is required, they decided from their vast knowledge of "soccer" to go against his wishes?

by **skatesy** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:53 am

s@int wrote:
We wanted to see what we could do with the players we'd already bought. We just wanted to see if the team was going to jell," Hicks said.

So rather than believe the manager who knows about football and what is required, they decided from their vast knowledge of "soccer" to go against his wishes?

Sounds like they were just hoping for the best? :Oo:

by **KOPMATT** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:41 pm

I've just read the Hicks/Rafa story on todays Sky sports teletext and am totally dismayed by it!!
WTF is hicks upto apparently reigniting the war of words with Rafa?? Is he determined to oust him from the managers job or what? It certainly seems that way to me.
It also seems that Hicks has all the mouth and Gillett appears to just go along with whatever Hicks says as he's not really said alot in my opinon other thatn thefact that he knows how to smooth an arguement as he's been married for 40 or so years! Big bloody deal!
Bout time they put up and shut up as so far other than a few dollars they spent over the summer have practically backtracked over what they promised and try at every oportunity to un dermine Rafa & the team!
This is the UK boys not the Us where the owners do what they want and say what they want.
To be honest they have made us look like fools in the press, as they're having a field day over this.
All the problems that appeared to be there when the Glaziers took over at The Munsters seem like back page news compared to our problems. You don't hear any of the :censored:

that we're having comingf out from the theatre of wet dreams! I'm sick of it!
IMO Rafa is the best man for the job and needs to be allowed to get on with it and not have these two especially HICKS sticking his friggin nose into a topic which from what I can see he knows :censored:

all about!
C'mon Rafa & the boys keep up the good work and prove to the Yanks that must back you, coz you've more than proved yourselves to me!

YNWA!:

by **NANNY RED** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:30 am

Mate just sent me these i found them funny i anyone can think of a good funny caption to go along side

Make it Anti Hicks and Gillette

GIVE ME THE :censored:

MONEY

THE BATTLE FOR MASHERANO

by **LegBarnes** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:51 am

NANNY RED wrote:Mate just sent me these i found them funny i anyone can think of a good funny caption to go along side

Make it Anti Hicks and Gillette

GIVE ME THE MONEY

THE BATTLE FOR MASHERANO

that street fighter one is class lmao ! :wwww

by **Reg** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:39 pm

Nanny posted an excellent Paul Tomkins piece comparing Rafa's achievements to the progress Wenger and Ferguson had made in the early years of their tenure. If you haven't read it, do so before reading this post (see Great Read) trying to put G&H in the same light.

There is so much ill-feeling and criticism towards G&H it clouds all other issues so whilst not having the writing skills of other lads, I'll do my best as, I believe despite the desire to blame all our woes on G&H, it isnt the case.

1. Americans are not Brits, they have a different business culture with a more focused determination and they hold people accountable for their actions. They dont take no for an answer or accept wishy-washy performance. In this respect G&H behaviour patterns are both recognisable and on par for their society. Hicks is a gunslinger and his business associates and management know it - succeed or you're out. On the other hand we are used to paternal David Moores, John Smith, and father like managers - Shanks, Bob and Houllier. We fans didnt see any evidence of accountability or direct management or the pressure to repay the kind of investment G&H have incurred buying into LFC.

2. G&H know exactly what they're doing being professional sports franchise holders and stadium owners in other sports. Whilst the country and sport are different the business model recognises the same issues - global appeal, global revenues, fan base, global brand etc.. so G&H look at the numbers to see whether LFC's accounts reflect the performance they believe the club is capable of, they considered we were underperforming hence the bought in. Lets not pretend these guys dont know how to run LFC. They do.

3. Buying LFC is a commercial venture, not a labour of love. They paid Moores his asking price, they agreed to fund the new stadium which they immediately upgraded and they made gave Rar-far a transfer budget to go out there and splash out on Torres, Babel etc.. OK, here we take the rose-tinted off because the sub-prime mortgage melt down is NOT Tom's fault guys no matter how much you dislike him. I read yesterday that possibly just 1/3 of the actual loses that will come out of this debacle have been uncovered and declared so far. This is a major global financial disaster and even Blackstone couldnt raise a paltry (for them) $1.88 billion USD to buy a GE subsidiary so yes, it is wholly realistic that the club is struggling to add to their indebitedness to fund the new stadium. In all seriousness we couldnt be looking at a worse time to raise funds! In a perverse way this is the same for the transfer kitty and servicing the existing transfer debt but we may see a fall in transfer prices as a result.

5. Looking at the financial situation a little deeper, did G&H buy LFC and make it a subsidiary of their existing sports empires or did they create a shell company called LFC? Is it the already highly leveraged G&H empires that the banks are saying 'Ok lads, thats enough for the timebeing' or is it an under capitalised LFC standalone company that cant raise 400 million quid off its own back to build a new stadium and raise transfer capital? See my point? Either way in the current squeeze both a highly leveraged sports franchise or a standalone football club are going to struggle to raise this kind of money today without making sacrifices somewhere.

6. Public relations. Think back, when they took over it was publicised that G&H like and do walk the terraces of their stadiums, sit with the fans and openly discuss the issues then see objectively whether they are worth further investigation - their clubs and fans confirmed it and little George (who incidently looks like Ali Bongo) started as a PR gesture as soon as they took over didnt he? Fark me - to walk round the Kop today they'd need to be armed with Uzis and flame proof suits!! Nice bunch of fans arent we eh? Hence G&H have backed off thinking to themselves what the BH have they got themselves into.

7. Mistakes have been made as with all new relationships that cross borders and when a new business culture meets a family run business however I dont think G&H realised the fans were so aggressive and partisan to the point of ignoring all reasonable honeymoon period ups-and-downs. The Mancs hated the Glazers and had a far more concentrated campaign against them however with a strong manager to be seen to be protecting the team and fans, the shareholders have got on with their jobs, provided the funds to both buy worldclass players and rebuild OldTraffadil without a lose of rythmn. Looks like the Mancs have calmed down and realised that it can work with low profile Yank owners and a strong local management and team manager. Sound kinds familiar? (If Parry was really cr@p he would have been kicked out years ago lads). The single mistake as I see it is that the son who should have been over here running the club (cant even remember the his name) appears to be more focused on his christmas holiday than running the club. Other than that what mistakes have they made - maybe the stand off with Rar-far but re-read point 1.

8. Nanny's post about Rafa (Great Read) highlights a number of very good issues, the key being that putting a winning team together and finding consistency inevitably takes time, commitment, a lot of hard work and a large element of luck. Just as Wenger and Ferguson took 6-7 years to find the formula so will Rafa. Just as the Glazers took time to integrate into the club, so will G&H. Hicks has no cystal ball to make all the right decisions and Gillett has no golden balls to stump up cash in a credit squeeze either.But it WILL work out.

To round it off if anyone is still reading, I dont see any G&H mistakes since they arrived that warrant firing off the marroon. Its new to them, its new to us and that breeds insecurity on both sides. Rafa has flashed his smile and warned them that despite the sub-prime debacle he needs money. This is light of him knowing at the time (and not us) about the problems raising the stadium cash. Kudos to Rafa for sticking his goatie out.

It needs to be said and let me be the first - I like G&H. In 3 years once they've bedded in they'll be walking the terraces of the new stadium terraces eating meat pies and looking like yanks trying to be scousers. But they DO understand sport, they DO know that the club needs time, money and their commitment to reach its full potential which is why they bought in in the first place.

Time to get off their back, time to give them a break, show respect and stop acting as if WE dont understand the risks they have taken buying into LFC as foreigners. The lack of respect the fans are currently showing is completely uncalled for and out of character. Lets have a huddle in the middle of the field between fans, Rafa and G&H, realise we're all in this for the long term and common good, have a group hug and say we're all sorry and get on with the business of making this club the best in the land again.

Forza Reds !!

by **66-1112520797** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:48 pm

Reg I thought it was harsh to close the thread.

I was the 106 th to enter the thread and about to reply, but I wont bother now seen as its been moved.

by **Leonmc0708** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:55 pm

Bamaga man wrote:Reg I thought it was harsh to close the thread.

I was the 106 th to enter the thread and about to reply, but I wont bother now seen as its been moved.

Its an excellent piece, but it needs to be in here to provide a counter argument rather than in a thread of its own.

Otherwise we would have two threads as follows:

1) Gilete and Hicks Appreciation and understanding thread

2) G&H are knob heads thread

ITs important on a discussion forum to offer both sides.

by **NANNY RED** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:52 pm

Reg you posted an exellent counter argument there mate and for someone who says he is not a writer pat on the back lad.

Of couse your gonna get people who come out in support of Gillette and Hicks like you just said you are one of them and i admire you for stickin to what you believe.

But from day one ive had resevations about these two i have never given them my backing i have always said to people lets wait and see and have been caled all the names under the sun early on for not supportin them .

Lately Reg the thing that bothers me the most is the lies we the fan got told they would not borrow money and put any dept on the club . Well as far as im concerned and ive said it many times i think they have bitten off more than they can chew cause they are borrowin money and we are gonna be in dept.

by **Reg** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:09 pm

NANNY RED wrote:Lately Reg the thing that bothers me the most is the lies we the fan got told they would not borrow money and put any dept on the club . Well as far as im concerned and ive said it many times i think they have bitten off more than they can chew cause they are borrowin money and we are gonna be in dept.

Thanks matey, its good to put yer thoughts down in writing at times.

I think you're bending the truth there arent you? No one has hundreds of millions of quid in cash lying around to finance these deals and if they did, they would still borrow at today's rediculously cheap rates and invest their own money in a higher yielding deal.

Me thinkies they promised they wouldnt sink the club with debt like the Glazers did at Puke Utd but I'm pretty sure they didnt intimate they were going to come in with suitcases full of used tenners. :eyebrow

by **NANNY RED** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:24 pm

Reg wrote:
NANNY RED wrote:Lately Reg the thing that bothers me the most is the lies we the fan got told they would not borrow money and put any dept on the club . Well as far as im concerned and ive said it many times i think they have bitten off more than they can chew cause they are borrowin money and we are gonna be in dept.

Thanks matey, its good to put yer thoughts down in writing at times.

I think you're bending the truth there arent you? No one has hundreds of millions of quid in cash lying around to finance these deals and if they did, they would still borrow at today's rediculously cheap rates and invest their own money in a higher yielding deal.

Me thinkies they promised they wouldnt sink the club with debt like the Glazers did at Puke Utd but I'm pretty sure they didnt intimate they were going to come in with suitcases full of used tenners.

But it looks like were gonna be in far bigger dept than the other lot down the M62 if they pull off this new 350 million there now askin the banks for . We have recouped a lot a money from our sales of out going players and Champions league plus premier league money so what have they actualy spent from there own pockets on players.

Maybe its just me but i dont trust them

by **Kharhaz** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:30 pm

NANNY RED wrote:
Reg wrote:
NANNY RED wrote:Lately Reg the thing that bothers me the most is the lies we the fan got told they would not borrow money and put any dept on the club . Well as far as im concerned and ive said it many times i think they have bitten off more than they can chew cause they are borrowin money and we are gonna be in dept.

Thanks matey, its good to put yer thoughts down in writing at times.

I think you're bending the truth there arent you? No one has hundreds of millions of quid in cash lying around to finance these deals and if they did, they would still borrow at today's rediculously cheap rates and invest their own money in a higher yielding deal.

Me thinkies they promised they wouldnt sink the club with debt like the Glazers did at Puke Utd but I'm pretty sure they didnt intimate they were going to come in with suitcases full of used tenners.

But it looks like were gonna be in far bigger dept than the other lot down the M62 if they pull off this new 350 million there now askin the banks for . We have recouped a lot a money from our sales of out going players and Champions league plus premier league money so what have they actualy spent from there own pockets on players.

Maybe its just me but i dont trust them

A lot of the mistrust has been placed by the press and many people have taken in what they have written and looked at the players we have signed and sold and thought "Yeah, rafa hasnt spent that much!". Is this down to the chairman or down to the fact that rafa wanted rid of these players? Im prepared to give them a chance based solely on my own opinion.

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