Liverpool FC and the Misery at Merseyside: The Culprits

With every passing day, one of the best reputed clubs in world football is taking a step towards darkness, instability and uncertainty.

Taking into account whatever is being reported in the press,the Anfield outfit faces the toughest challenge to remain the competitive outfit that they had always considered.

With the reputation of being the most successful club in England seriously at stake, Liverpool FC is supposedly preparing for a nosedive from their cherished ranks.

However, the source of all these problems don’t necessarily lie with the players. If Liverpool FC have finished at their worst position in a decade, they also finished in their best position only 12 months ago.

Clearly the biggest culprits for the present state of affairs is not the owners but their ex-owner, David Moores. In what he stated as a regret of selling the club to American owners, Moores has tried to state the circumstances on which he took such a decision.

What is extremely surprising is that Moores stated, he gave a lot of weightage on trust. Trust? Well, that means he did absolutely no homework on what was the history of Hicks and his partner in owing football clubs.

Moreover, the takeover was to be a Leveraged Buy-out, so how Moores thought that the club would not be affected is pretty foolish.The Americans were already infamous enough.

What still made Moores trust them seems just a poor cover up of the reality that the deal actually went through just because, the Yanks were paying an extra 8m as compared to the Dubai Investment Group.

Just an extra 8m and consequently one of the biggest names in world football club history was left to bleed.

The next in the line among the culprits are obviously, the Yanks. The Americans did flatter to deceive, though, by letting Benitez spend some good money in their first year of takeover.

What followed that, however, was not only few miserable transfer windows but also a precarious level of debt. Something that has made the total buyout affair of the club much less attractive, when at all it was considered up for sale.

Somehow, even to this date, Hicks thinks that somebody is waiting to give him his 800m for the club and buy the club when realistically, it seems absurd.

Hicks further went to state very recently that he now has the financial ability to set up a new stadium, however, he wants to leave it to some new owner.

With his present baseball team opting for bankruptcy, everybody now knows how great his financial condition is now, and if at all, how willing he is to part with it.

Hicks and Gillette are leading contenders for the “Worst Ever Football Club Owners,” and they may have not yet finished, claiming it could take another 12-18 months for the sale to mature and “substantial transfer budget” of 5m left for Rafa Benitez!

What impact such a process can have is yet to be seen, although a mass exodus of stars and further misery on the pitch seem very likely for the club.

Now, coming to some present happenings, Michael Platini, the current President of UEFA, has put forth some rules for a more stable football club affair throughout the globe.

However, Liverpool would be one of those clubs who would be worst affected by the imposition of such rules.

With a 55m  (+counting) in Red, the club has to not only pull off a seemingly impossible endeavor on the pitch along with some brilliant management tactics off the pitch which would mean that they not only break-even , but also start generating profits in the coming three years time.

Unfortunately the debt would only rise to as much as 700m if the current ownership and management style continues for the same time span.

Honestly thinking forward into another year under the ownership of the Yanks seem likely as Mr. Hicks stated, but couldn’t that mean that the club may well be heading to be a mid-table team by then, and even if the club is sold then, in all probability it would be void of most of its present assets.

After that could the fans really press the then present owners to revert the club to its prime and compete for the best in Europe. Clearly for no reason would the owners be persuaded to spend heavily as they really took over a mid-table team really.

With the proposed “fairplay” rules even “sugar daddies” like those of Chelsea and Manchester City would not be able to spend at losses as they planned to break-even and make profit in the near future.

With just a couple of years at hand and with an average team on offer, such a spending spree would not be possible.

Moreover, the debt would also have to be managed and any plans to build a stadium would be located in the obscure future.

This would be because although the fairplay system don’t put a bar on spending on the stadium, but with priority towards building a better team and managing debt, the plans for a stadium could easily be shelved, or would be undertaken at the cost of the former.

Clearly, Liverpool FC is in a paradoxical state of affairs, the highly reputed fans, players and coach are worried but those who really should be worried to effect a change i.e.,  owners and management seem least interested.

Gillett is mute, and Hicks is seemingly unaware of the world and in his own world of fantasy, just the right time for somebody to remind him that “Zeal without knowledge is a dangerous thing.” However, it would fall on deaf and selfish ears all the same.