RIck Parry and Liverpool FC's commercial failings

Tom Hick's damning assessment of Rick Parry is spot on, in my opinion.

Parry has long been a figure who I have seriously doubted to take Liverpool from sleeping commercial giants to a global hit.

He has been at this club for 10 years. In that time we have barely increased our commercial activity in terms of merchandising and presence overseas. Our impact in the Far East has risen, but that is only a natural consequence of the Premier League and its international popularity.

In the same time, Man Utd have gone on leaps and bounds and Chelsea, in particular, have shown exponential growth in comparison to us.

Chelsea are a prime example of how to capitalise on their successes. After winning back-to-back Premier League titles it was evident that they were becoming a massive hit in the UK, and across the world. Chelsea blue was everywhere, and their revenues would inevitably benefit.

But, Liverpool won arguably the most prestigious title of them all, the Champions League. The pinnacle of club football and observed by a quarter of the world's population. But back in the aftermath of our victory on May 25th, 2005, all I can remember were a few flags and gimmicks being sold on the clubs online shop, none of which I could purchase because of stock issues.

There was little evidence of us reaching out to the emerging football markets like Asia and the USA—parading our European Champions status that we know full well Chelsea or Man Utd will do, come the final whistle in 2 weeks.

For all our successes in the last 10 years, and we boast more than most (the 2001 treble, CL 2005, CL Final 2007) we are seemingly being left in the wake of our three biggest rivals, whose commercial management is clearly, and undeniably superior.

Before Hick and Gillett bought the club, Hollywoodfilm producer Mike Jefferies claimed that Liverpool FC's market capitalisation was a staggering one-fifth of Man Utd’s, in the speculation surrounding his takeover bid.

Now for the less business minded of you, put simply, that means Liverpool FC were worth one-fifth of Man Utd, which is like saying Steven Gerrard is worth one-fifth of Cristiano Ronaldo. Both are great players and Ronaldo probably does command a higher transfer fee, but not in a million years should it be five times greater.

That was in 2004. Four years on and the figures remain the same. Parry has not closed that gap, despite us winning the Champions League in that time, and being the only English club to do so—well, for the next 2 weeks anyway!

Any CEO of any organization would be sacked if they failed to capitalize on so many opportunities for growth like Parry has utterly failed to do.

Hicks was entirely correct calling for Parry's resignation. He certainly went about it the wrong way, but lets get it right; as a shrewd American he is clearly here to make some bucks, and it is obvious Parry is not the man to make this happen.

I am certainly sceptical of Hicks, but have recently been encouraged, or shall we say quietly confident, that if he did gain full control over our club, he would be given free rein to drive us forward to a position where we belong in the commercial stakes.

Although, DIC would clearly be the ideal candidates to do this.

Liverpool are one of the world's most supported teams. Yet if we don’t capitalize on the global markets soon, we may have missed the opportunity forever.

Furthermore, Parry’s action in the transfer market has been equally poor. His reign has been marked by inflated prices and especially undervalued players leaving.

£5.5m for Biscan doesn’t seem like a very good value, does it? And selling Robbie Fowler for £12m was a crime. O’Leary, himself, even claimed that he would have paid £18m for him.

Let's not forget the Michael Owen saga. How can a club let such a great player, and once European Player of the Year, not sign a contract extension before he reaches that feared last 12 months of his contract? Even then, £8m for him was still a humiliating offer, which Parry accepted.

Any credible management would have realised that they needed to sell such a player sooner rather than later. We could have sealed £25m for Owen a year earlier (although Houllier would have probably blown this on some French and Senegalese duds).

As Benitez inferred, after our Champions League Final defeat in Athens last year, we don’t, or more specifically Parry, does not act swift enough in the transfer market.

David Villa and Daniel Alves are just two names who have slipped through our fingers because of indecisive decision making. And that was when they were relatively unknown, and worth a fraction of their value now.

And how many times have we bought players after the season has begun? It seems an annual tradition that Benitez is still trailing after some of his sought after targets at the end of August.

Rant over…Parry out.

One more thing, and this is slightly important. I say slightly important, but it is probably the most defining moment of Parry’s Anfield reign—he chose the yanks.