For Sale: Second Hand Soccer Club, Gently Used, Slight Damage Due to Previous Ownership

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If the Premier League were a party, it would be one ruined by a few lude guests. The guests in question, would be clad in the finest suits, with a Liverpool crest pin on their lapels, and speak with an American accent. That’s right, Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s arrival at the party as owners of the storied club would be first greeted with suspicion, then the same disdain reserved for the man who loudly farts in a theatre.

It seems clear now that the Premier League is eager for these two flatulent carpet baggers to be shown not only the door, but the curb that follows it, following their disastrous reign at Liverpool. There management, characterized by the same amount of financial sense as a Lehman Brothers backed sub-prime mortgage has brought ruin to one of the most storied football clubs in all of Europe. No one knows what was discussed in the meeting between the Royal Bank of Scotland, who hold hicks and Gillett’s debt, but it certainly involved a welcome change in ownership. RBS, which is 80% owned by the British treasury, now seems likely to become the owner of Liverpool FC in the very near future as the Americans cannot pay their debt. While the prospect of Liverpool going into administration is a nightmare scenario it seems to be the only realistic way to turn the club around, and the Premier League know it.

RBS’s intentions are not known, but anyone who cares about the Kop will hope the bank calls Hicks’ bluff in his game of brinkmanship, call in the loan, and calls time on a man who has fiddled along as the flames licked at the palace.
No buyer would be willing to pay the ridiculous price that the American’s have demanded for the club they ran into the ground, but will wait until after the October 15th deadline for the loan repayment, and acquire club for closer to what it’s really worth. As well as eliciting the appropriate schadenfreude at Hicks and Gillett losing out, it will conclude an embarrassing situation for the Premiership. If RBS is going to do the right thing by Liverpool, they must work closely with Premier League, and the Kop to find an honest, well-financed owner who genuinely cares about building a future for the club. Essentially, everything Hicks and Gillett are not. If the bank does grab the Americans by the scruff of their necks and chuck them back in the gutter with the other parasites where they belong, the fans must redouble their support for the club, and its players. Liverpool is lucky to have a loyal son in Stephen Gerrard who is, if rumors are to be believed single handedly holding things together in the dressing room and on the pitch. He stands with the club, and the fans, his support for the Kop’s protest after the last match showed that. But if RBS does acquire Liverpool, the fans must stand behind the club and Gerrard more than ever to help find a new owner. The fans must be positive, must work more new investment and deliver the message:

We are Liverpool. We are worth the banks price. We survived Hillsbourough. We never give up. We are special. Do right by us and you will never walk alone.

Written by: Matthew Wall, editor, soccerprose.com