Off to watch the Reds tonight

Back from Spain and off to watch the The Reds tonight with the Lady of the Villa.

Looks cold so will be well dressed for a winters night. Looking forward to seeing the group of season ticket holders we sit next to. Especially Mike the taxi driver who will be dressed as Santa and does not need a false beard to look like him (honest).

LFC BOY

How did the Lady of the Villa miss this as a Christmas present for me!
This football-themed licence plate sold at a recent auction for £2,606. It's a great plate. Having it would have been a real bit of fun. For any Liverpool FC supporter.
But then I could only use it, legally, for a maximum of 6 months in Spain.

Not the performance I wanted!

I am sure as sure can be that nobody from Liverpool FC management or players follows this blog. More is the pity as yesterday I requested a ‘good shift’ and a ‘performance’. What did I and the rest of the fans get…. Sweet FA!
There are in my mind players yesterday who should never put on a Liverpool shirt:

• Kyrgiakos – always looking to foul, out of position most of the time and slow.
• Konchesky – journeyman player. Only there cos he has a left foot. Can’t cross the ball.
• Lucas – Can’t pass, can’t shoot, can’t defend
• Maxi – mini effort, mini involvement, just a mini player
• Babel – jury is in. Can’t play to the required standard.
• Ngog – see Babel

Other players need  to boost their play

• Meireles – lightweight in the tackle
• Cole – needs to step up. Maybe only good in a good team. no fight
• Aurelio – needs to be fit

As for the Manager, saying that we had a good game is a blatant lie! Liverpool fans know a performance when they see one! Looked out of his depth on the line. Has a plan A, no plan B. Jury is out, but, it don’t look good!
What can we do before January transfer window? Play the youngsters (not all at the same time). Spearing, Kelly, Shelvey, Ince, Wilson and others cannot be worse and may be better. At least we will know!

A good shift and a good win required.

In the last two weeks, since Black(pool) Sunday, we have had a good rest, we have had the new owners legal saga and now its time to play again.

What we need from the players is a good shift, a good work rate and a passing game with no, repeat no, mistakes.


The players are ‘supposed’ to be affected by the ownership issues and its affecting their playing. I don’t go for this. The club is solvent, the support is still massive and behind the team, the players are still being paid each week, they are still being fed, watered and closeted. Nothing should be affecting them. Nothing.

Lets see a good performance and a win. For two reasons. It’s a local derby, so local pride is at stake. And if we are to get out of the relegation zone we must beat the others that are there. And Everton are one of them.
The players should remember, that They Never Walk Alone, we the supporters walk with them. Win, Lose or draw. Performance good or bad!

Shares in Liverpool?

I have written much about Liverpool ownership in the past weeks and I apologise to an extent. It means a lot to me and it sooths my spirit to write my thoughts in this blog. My only hope of any kind of ownership is through ShareLiverpoolFC.

Here is there latest update (via an email) on progress to date….

Spirit of Shankly-ShareLiverpoolFC welcomes the likely end of Hicks and Gillett’s ownership of LFC, regardless of the current attempts to prolong this process.
At this stage we remain open minded about any new ownership regime.
However our long held view that supporter ownership is right for Liverpool Football Club remains unaltered. The aspiration amongst supporters to become part of the ownership of LFC by investing our own money and to have our interests represented in the running of the club, still very much exists.
Recent experience has demonstrated that meaningful fan representation through democratic supporter ownership is the only fail-safe way that we can ensure that a reoccurrence of recent events never happens again. This requires supporter ownership through a direct equity shareholding in LFC, in partnership with new owners, giving the supporters real and meaningful representation. This is also the best way that the club can rebuild its relationship with tens of thousands of disenfranchised fans who want the opportunity to invest in their club’s future.
We will all be delighted to see the back of Hicks & Gillett, but at one level we are back where we were in 2007. At that time, supporters welcomed the new owners with open arms. This time, we are better informed and this time, tens of thousands of Liverpool’s supporters have demonstrated their willingness and ability to invest their own money in the Club. This time, there is an opportunity to create a unique partnership between supporters and new owners to everyone’s benefit.
We continue to pursue these goals and look forward to engaging with new owners to ensure that they fully understand the benefits of supporter ownership to the club, the wider community and themselves as owners.

Quietly into the Night

And so the media show goes on. Hicks (and Gillett), but mostly Hicks, continue the game in the law courts.
An injunction gained in Texas (the home of Hicks) has stopped any sale of LFC.
Not only have they stopped any sale, claiming that the club is worth many hundred of millions more than is being offered (which planet are they on?), but claiming a billion pounds (!!!!) in damages.
I said earlier in this blog that they wont go quietly. I was, so unfortunately, correct. The next time they can go is 25th October when the court case in Texas is heard.

In the meantime I can see RBS calling in the loan and LFC will be deducted 9 points. Maybe its a small price to pay for Hicks and Gillett to go – screaming out the door.

Chancers and Charlatans

Not so long ago we had Kenny Huang ‘taking over Liverpool FC’ now we have a Peter Lim wanting to own my Club.

Huang was supposed to own all kinds of sporting teams, basketball, baseball etc., as well as being on the board of The Bank of China. None of which proved true, he was always not quite there. In more cases than one. But got his moment in the spotlight and lots of hits on the Internet!

Now Lim has come onto the stage under the super trooper (its a big spotlight). He claims his bid was best, it was, but a week late – no coincidence that it was on the morning of the court case (maximum publicity!). At the selection time, whether we like it or not, the LFC management team selected more Yanks.

Now Lim is in the spotlight claiming all sorts of things. Will he be another Huang, I think so. He will disappear when its time to put money on the table.

At least the new Yanks are quieter!

Liverpool FC Sponsers: A good deal?

Pity poor Standard Chartered the investment bank that sponsors Liverpool FC. At the time, the deal set a new benchmark for top-flight football sponsorships and success seemed assured.
A year later, and the deal is looking like a disaster: The club is engaged in a civil war with American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett; the team crashed out of the League Cup to lowly Northampton Town and have struggled in the Premiership this season. Technically, Standard Chartered have hitched their flag to a club that’s fighting relegation to the second rung of English professional football (although that fate remains unlikely).
Worse, fans have started selling protest shirts with “Standards Corrupted” on the chest and the bank’s logo — two intertwined ropes — represented as snakes.

None of this is Standard Chartered’s fault, of course; it’s merely the sponsor.

Take Care – We bite

Uncle Sam's interest in Liverpool is no surprise. John W Henry can smell profit. It's all about the brand, all about the potential profitability of the badge.
The Premier League, at the moment, allows anybody to ‘buy in’ and  Liverpool are definitely worth the entry fee. It obvious what Henry is at Anfield for. No way did he have pictures of Ian St John or (Sir) Roger Hunt on his wall. No way did he stand in the boys pen. He knows little of Merseyside life and being a Liverpool supporter.  He smells a profit.
He must remember that any promises he makes must be swiftly met, no ‘spades in the ground’ its a stadium we want. He must distance himself from Hicks and Gillett.  He needs a PR campaign to win the hearts, minds and money of Liverpool supporters.
I personally know many supporters, who for them Liverpool is their life. Following Liverpool is a religion, a reason for living. The Kop will see through any sycophancy. However, Liverpool fans will never greet any new owner with open arms because they have been badly burned once and will will see through any false prophets.
How can they win us over, well, the £300 million valuation is a pointer.  It means that £50m would buy just under 20 per cent. If Share Liverpool can get 100,000 Liverpool fans to write out cheques for £500 each they can guarantee they won't be shafted again. And Henry has some money for a transfer kitty.
Those sums may seem ambitious, but I doubt it (I have my £500 ready). But inviting fans to have some financial input, echoing their emotional investment, would get them ‘on side’.
Henry is not buying Liverpool with the same motives as Roman Abramovich at Chelsea or Sheik Mansour at Manchester City. These billionaires have used their clubs as hugely expensive vanity projects. For Henry it is just another commodity deal. The Premier League or better still RBS (before they exit stage left and don’t ever forget they have made a profit!) must get some guarantees from this American that he has the cash for the takeover, the stadium and squad improvement.
John Henry is buying into an iconic name in Football. But f**k us, the supporters, up and we will bite. Defo!

The Liverpool deal

So what is the deal for Liverpool FC from the Owners of the Boston Red Sox?
According to rampant rumour the deal is valued at £300m which incorporates

• £200m to repay debt owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland
• £40m to cover non-banking liabilities
• £60m in debts relating to the planned development of the proposed new Anfield stadium in Stanley Park.

This leaves no room for the repayment of the loans which Hicks and Gillett made to Liverpool, which stood at £144m on 31 July 2009, the date of the club's last published accounts.

What I can't underrstand is what did this £144m get spent on?
 
So with Hicks and Gillett keen to turn a profit from any sale of their shares in Liverpool, the reality is that they are now set to make a huge loss, making it clear why the Americans are so resistant to the deal and are going to court to stop it!

Liverpool FC Update

As I predicated on the 4th October the legal wars have started. The LFC board have selected the new owners, but the current owners Hicks and Gillet are going to court as they think the price is too low. They wa\nt £600 million, a extortionate price!

When can we have our club back?

Liverpool's future

I wrote in August how I saw the immediate future of Liverpool FC. I was broadly correct, no new owners before end of August 2010 and all the chancers (Kenny Huang lol) getting free publicity. But now October is coming up and RBS want their loan repaid. So what do I think.

Well I cannot see the yanks going away without a fight. Not unfortunatly with any fan but in the courts. RBS do not need the publicity, but do want their money back. On October the 6th the loan is up but no doubt there is, in the contract, a clause giving 'extra time' so lets call that 5 working days. So sometime around the 11th of October Liverpool will be 'owned' by RBS. However, positions are being prepared for a lawsuit. Liverpool FC have already engaged Slaughter and May (Coroporate lawyers of London City) and no doubt RBS and the yanks are getting their 'suits' ready.

This will leave my club in total limbo until 'Me Lord' gets to grip with the ins and outs of the case. If the yanks  lose in the UK they will proberbly go somehow else to sue, the USA, if they can.

I cannot see all this being resolved until mid 2011, so no transfer window activity for LFC this time around. No new owners and the threat of a 9 point deduction for going into administration hanging over us. I know the Premier League have said this wont happen, but, if LFC get into any europen place at the end of the season, the clubs below them could challange this ruling.

LFC – To be owned by the State?

if you read my blog entry of 4th August 2010, you can see that I read the situation well and no bidder bought 'my' club before August 31st. Since then we, the supporters, have supported the club in their football attempts so far this season. In my opinion the Euro matches have been well supported, more than I thought they would be.
So were from here?
If RBS decides in October to call in their loan to H and G in October that, as they say, would be more or less that or would it?

Two options strike me immediately.
One. Kop Football (Holdings) would be directly owned by RBS and run as a part of the bank which is itself owned by taxpayers in the UK.  In other words it would be nationalised just as RBS is.  With the American owners not able to provide any more guarantees they would be thrown off the board.  The bank would then deal with the matter directly.
That means that citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will own the club.  We will all have to be vetted as fit and proper persons – and I am rather worried about one bloke in our apartment block in Liverpool.
Two. The courts cases start and LFC go into limbo or more accurately, purdah. G and H will fight RBS in the courts, providing they can raise the money. They will cause all kinds of mayhem, thus depriving LFC from moving on and drawing a line under our American ownership. The courts will take forever to give a verdict and we will be rudderless and more importantly penniless for the remaining part of this season and maybe more.

Whichever way it goes, I can still see problems for LFC at the end of the season. It has been hinted that no penalty deduction will be suffered if RBS takeover the club, however, if Liverpool qualify for Europe next year, in any form, I can see the clubs missing out challenging the ‘deduction ruling’ in court.
Its all going Peter Tong!

Being Sorry is not Enough (Rant Alert)

"Just say sorry and it will all be okay."

So while Uncle Roy, Babel, Jovanovic and even Eccleston trot out their apologies they would do well to remember who they manage and play for.

At Liverpool we don’t expect apologies, we demand performances.  We demand a bit of pride in the shirt they are paid a lot of money to wear.

What are they apologising for? It’s either they didn’t work hard enough or they aren’t good enough.  If it’s either then they shouldn’t be at Liverpool FC. Simple as that.

Everybody knows that until the current owners are removed future prospects are bleak, but that doesn’t excuse the players from putting a shift in for the fans. What has been served up so far this season is dross.  Any hiccups in the next 5 league games could etch some serious stains on a number of people’s CV’s

Liverpool’s domestic season has stuttered: this season Liverpool are struggling to even find the opponents penalty box.

Birmingham away was as dismal as it got, lucky to walk away with a point.  Sneaked past West Brom. at home. And totally outclassed at Man City and Man Utd.

Text Messages

I am not a great texter. In fact when I first got a mobile phone I refused to text on the grounds it was anti social and preferred to phone. Now I have grown up I do from time to time text but much prefer to leave a message.
My brother is a great texter, mostly jokes and mostly about Liverpool FC (he is a bluenose, Everton supporter to the uninitiated). In the press we are always told the number of texts is increasing and recently I was talking to a friend who works in the industry about the increase.
He says its how the companies really add the cream to their profit. They have people who make the jokes up and then send them to the most prolific texters who send it on and so on until it goes around the country and beyond.
Each time a joke is sent (it can be monitored) the creator gets a fee or commission on the text. A fortune can be made! 

New Season New Dreams

A New Season starts for Liverpool today with Arsenal the visitors. Can we win the Premiership. Maybe not this year, however, a few interesting points:

• Young Scottish defender Danny Wilson has signed for Liverpool. He is the only Scotsman in the first team squad for 18 years. Liverpool have never won the First Division without a Scotsman in the squad.
• The young players played well in pre season and in the Europa Cup
• The main players, Torres and Gerrard are still with the team.
• New signings, Cole, Wilson, Poulsen and Jovanovic have strengthened the team.

  I am dreaming I know, but…… is this our season?

Liverpool new strip

A new season, a new manager, a new sponsor and a new hope.


This is the new Home strip for Liverpool FC for the coming season.
At least it is still red, but the sponsors logo is as big as the Club badge.




This on the right is the new Liverpool away strip for next season.
Pinstriped? Will it catch on?

And just to prove that they do not rip the fans off, here is the third strip. Why?

SOS-SL

Received this about the proposed fan buy out at Liverpool FC:
ShareLiverpoolFC and Spirit Of Shankly, the Liverpool Supporters Union, are pleased to announce that we have reached a formal agreement that allows us to push forward as one unified force for supporter ownership of our club. We have already been working closely together for some time but recognise the need for a unified organisation to successfully pursue this goal.

Recent discussions have led to an agreement about how we can work together for the benefit of all supporters. This will see ShareLiverpoolFC re-branded as Spirit Of Shankly – ShareLiverpoolFC (SOS-SL), bringing together the combined resources of both organisations to work on the issue of supporter ownership. By working as one we will be much more effective in achieving that goal.

Using the strengths and attributes of both Spirit Of Shankly and ShareLiverpoolFC, along with the supporters who back them, we will:

• Continue to develop the model of supporter ownership
• Work to secure the funds necessary to acquire supporter ownership of the club, through direct share purchases and the Spirit Of Shankly Credit Union
• Oversee the launch of the share issue to raise these funds
• Promote the issue of supporter ownership through high quality, consistent communications
• Represent 50,000 (and rising) Liverpool fans on this issue, providing a unified voice that cannot be disregarded

SOS-SL will retain ShareLiverpoolFC’s constitutional status as an investment vehicle through which shares can be purchased to take a stake in LFC and will, like the soon to be launched Credit Union, have its own Management Committee. This will comprise members from the current Board of ShareLiverpoolFC and representatives from Spirit Of Shankly. In order to bring greater unity to the supporter ownership campaign SOS-SL will be represented, alongside the Credit Union, on the Spirit Of Shankly Management Committee, enabling us to build one unified campaign.

Working together is clearly the best result for all of us. By combining forces on this issue we are creating a massive organisation of LFC supporters in pursuit of a shared aim. Every single one of us, speaking with one voice, letting everyone know that this is our Club, not only emotionally but financially too. We have to build on the momentum we have now, grow and become stronger, to become truly representative of the entire fan base.

Then as one, working together, speaking together, let's become proper custodians. Let's take back our football club.

Who owns the Football Club?

When I was a lad, admittedly years ago, my club was Liverpool. I thought it as my club. I did not pay any bills or buy players but it was my club although owned with the other 45,000 people who turned up each week.

Much later I learnt of shareholders (at one point I tried to buy one at just under £6,000) and Chairmen and Directors. Now there are such people as Club Owners, Abramavitch, Glaziers and of course our Hicks and Gillette.

However, apart from Chelsea, the real owners are the Banks. Not so long ago I quoted the RBS chairman as saying Liverpool borrowed too much. LOL. I thought they lent too much, but they have made a few million in fees.

Now because of this borrowing the Football club that I support is up for sale. To the highest bidder? Maybe not. To the best qualified? Don’t make me laugh. To the most caring? Never!

So what will happen. In my opinion. Nothing. Why?

Hicks and Gillette want to make money on the deal. They have to. Its an ego thing. Just look at what has gone on across in America to clubs they have an interest in. Will Ken, the Chinese get it? Not at the moment. His deadline of the 16th August is a gun to heads which nobody likes and most important he wants to clear the debt only, leaving the Americans nothing. No way will they go for that. The ‘other’ so called bidders are unknown and if they exist at all, chancers, looking for a commission if they can conclude a deal.

So what then?

I see an impasse until the 31st August when the bidders will disappear and we the fans can get on with supporting “our” team. Later in the football year RBS will take over the Club as Hicks and Gillette cannot repay or roll over the debt and the current bidding process will begin again, but with no input from the Americans.

The Americans are hoping for a lucky break, or a relaxing of the lending process or something. They will take it to the wire. Why not, they have nothing to lose.

Its just another business deal, some come good some don't. They don’t care about the fans who really “own” the club. Football is an industry now, just like automobiles or aircraft. Unfortunately I can only see more of this l coming to more clubs in the future.

Share Liverpool FC

I have been very interested in the Share Liverpool FC scheme ever since it began. I hoped, but never realistically, thought it would ever get a real hearing in the financial world that Liverpool Football Club seem to exist in at the moment. I even had the Lady of the Villa give me the £500 (see below) that is needed to become a shareholder as a birthday present.
So what is this scheme. In a nutshell
Share Liverpool FC are looking to raise £150 million from LFC fans to initially acquire, they hope, a 60% interest in the Club:

• Approximately £10 million to come from the sale of £500 shares in ShareLiverpoolFC on a one person one share basis (this would require at least 20,000 fans to sign up).

• Approximately £140 million to come from shareholding fans acquiring SLFC Loan Stock giving them a return of 2% a year

In addition;

• they would seek one or more commercial partners to invest £100 million for a 40% interest in the Club.

They  would also seek to negotiate with the banks to swap £100 million of their current debt for convertible Loan Stock in LFC. The banks would give SLFC the right to purchase this convertible LFC Loan Stock in equal annual instalments over 20 years. Following acquisition of the banks’ convertible LFC Loan Stock, SLFC could convert it into new shares in LFC, therefore enabling it to increase its equity interest over time to 71%.
The balance of the banks’ current debt of £250 million would be discharged (indirectly) from the £250 million of funds raised above.
These proposals would provide the long term, affordable financing our Club desperately needs and delivers ownership of Liverpool FC to a broad base of fans.
BELOW IS A DIAGRAM WHICH SHOWS THE STRUCTURE

It’s been quite a journey so far for supporters of Share Liverpool FC. The route has changed, for various legal and financial reasons, but its always the same destination: Fan ownership of Liverpool FC. I am all for that. I am ready and I hope they can find another 20,000 supporters to but their £500 in.