10 November 2003
Dear Mr Parry,
We have played 12 matches and I read this morning that Mr. Houllier has given up hopes of winning the league this season. Apparently, the objective now is for Liverpool to try to get fourth spot in the league and thereby qualify for the Champions League. What on earth has happened to this once great club? Why has the Board settled for mediocrity? Why do the Board members believe the manager when he says that things are turning around, or worse, after five years in the job that the team is in transition?
The statistics and results do not lie. For the past YEAR, Liverpool’s results have been poor. We have played the three heavyweights this season at home and lost every one. Last season, of the eight matches played against the four teams who finished above Liverpool, we won once. In fact, if we take these eight matches together with the three from this season, the results are pretty damning…….played 11, won 1, drawn 3, lost 7!! The facts are that Liverpool cannot rise to the occasion and beat the heavyweights. Despite what your manager says, there is a huge gulf in class, performance and results between Liverpool and Arsenal, United and Chelsea.
Some more facts? Were you aware that the last time that Liverpool overturned a half time deficit in the league and turned it into victory was 1999. I think that we have been behind at half time in excess of 40 times during this period and have yet to record a single victory. It is a remarkable statistic and reflects poorly on the manager’s ability to turn things around.
Mr Houllier has been manager for five years. He has brought the club a few trophies, even if some of them were extremely fortuitous (beating Birmingam on penalties after failing to beat them over 120 minutes of football, and being outclassed in the FA Cup Final by Arsenal before being rescued by Owen). We are grateful for these successes and they certainly cheered us up. But even when we were winning the three cups a few years ago, many of the fans remained unconvinced that this could be a platform for bigger things. Those of us who harboured these doubts have been proved correct.
Your manager has taken the team as far as it can go and surely, surely the Board will wake up to what is going on here. The fans are sick and tired of lame excuses from your manager and are perplexed that the Board sits on it’s hands and does nothing. Check out some of the Liverpool Fan Chatrooms on the web. See what the fans have to say. Mr Houllier has become a figure of ridicule which , frankly, he deserves. But he should have been told to go long ago. He could have gone with dignity and our gratitude. Instead, he gets lampooned by fans on radio phone-ins and web chatrooms.
Liverpool fans, generally, are very knowledgeable about the game. And they know that results and performances have been alarmingly poor. I was somewhat upset to see your triumphalism………you, Moores and Houllier, after Liverpool had beaten a wretchedly poor Everton side 3-0 earlier this season. Is that what cheers up the management of the club these days? It is a sign of how far standards have been allowed to slip when the club starts celebrating victories over poor teams like Everton who are relegation contenders.
There are a lot of fans out here who have had enough. Liverpool have not won the league championship for an awfully long time and we are in real danger of becoming a mid-table side. Your manager has had five long years and over £100m to spend to put together a team which could challenge for the title. He has failed. The team which he has bought is simply not good enough to compete at the highest levels and win the major prizes. And the team remains hugely dependent on Michael Owen. Why he bothers to stay at Anfield continues to be a mystery. Surely he wants to join an ambitious club and challenge for the game’s highest awards? He will not achieve that by staying with Liverpool and the current management team.
You and your fellow Board members are custodians of the club’s proud heritage, but you are letting that heritage down by your stubborn refusal to get rid of your manager. If you worked in my line of business, you’d all get the sack for mismanagement, a lack of professionalism and a shocking return on investments. Oh, and a poor product. It is not just Houllier’s failure. All of you are culpable of allowing one of England’s greatest club’s to sink into mediocrity and for standards to fall so far. Liverpool once stood for excellence, both on and off the park. This is clearly no longer the case.
What will it take for you to get rid of your manager and start rebuilding? A relegation struggle?
Yours truly,
Alistair A. Donald