Tom, George and the Two Bankers – Go Now!

Tonight’s spontaneous protest by hundreds of fans at Anfield, organised by those angry at recent events at LFC, shows just how far our great club has fallen under the reign of Tom Hicks, George Gillett and our current board. They have all continually lied to us, broken promises, acted in their own self interests and treated this football club as either a cash cow to milk for all it’s worth or a vanity project of their own.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Their recent actions are the latest in a growing and long line of reasons why the owners and other board members aren’t fit for our club. Leaving aside any football considerations this will be the first time in generations that the Club have dispensed with a manager without having his successor lined up. And they have left us looking for a successor with no transfer budget and in the midst of a sale of the Club – hardly conducive to finding a long term or serious replacement.

They have all lied to us about debt, about building a stadium, and about how we are performing. We have a massive debt of £351 million, crippling interest repayments, and we post massive losses – yet they still tell us everything is fine. We pay £45 million for a few pictures of a stadium and they expect us to swallow the line that it is still progressing. Everything they tell us is a lie.

Although nothing surprises any of us anymore about the mismanagement in our boardroom – this is a sad indictment of just what our club, with a renowned history, heritage and great traditions has now become – an example of how not to purchase or run a football club.

The removal of Rafael Benitez as Manager of Liverpool FC raises many, many questions. Not about the individual, but about how the position of manager is undermined by board members, and how the board have made the manager’s position untenable because of the financial constraints imposed.

No manager can operate under these conditions – just who do they expect to come in and improve the situation, when despite Hicks’ words that there will be a “substantial” transfer budget, Purslow says the opposite. What manager can come in and work under the present regime? Senior sources briefing behind the manager’s back, those same senior sources lacking discretion away from the boardroom and passing on tittle tattle to press and others to make them look more important than they really are.

If all that wasn’t enough, those on the board still continue to treat fans with contempt. Fans are left waiting for season ticket renewals, with an expected price rise to meet the growing debt and satisfy the owners needs to get rich quick. Fans are still being lied to about the club’s attempts to profit from Hillsborough in the selling of Justice shirts at the club shop with the Club consistently changing tack to cover each other’s backs.

And what of those who manage the Club on a day to day basis?

“Lifelong fan” (always a danger sign) Christian Purslow was brought in to find investment, he told us it would be by Easter – he failed.

Martin Broughton has been brought in to sell the club – he runs an airline and is more interested in Chelsea than us. Both Purslow and Broughton are more than likely bank appointments and are effectively unofficial administrators.

The one thing they both have in common is that they know nothing about football. None of the board are football experts. None know what football management is about. Yet they have issued a vote of no confidence to one of the few footballing men left at the club, and with it have further damaged the reputation of our club, with the media feasting on LFC as its main course.

And how do we find out about the manager’s position – as usual through leaks from our boardroom to journalists in an attempt to spin and manage the news.

The fans know more about this football club and how it should be run. Maybe we should take charge. We know what supporters would say if given a vote of confidence in the board.

“They just care about money, they don’t care about fans, Liverpool Football Club is TOTALLY in the wrong hands”