Fans set to protest as Liverpool FC owners look to saddle club with £350m debt

Jan 21 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

“The fans want them out, unconditionally,” said Kevin Sampson, of Reclaim The Kop. “It's as simple as that. “They’re no good for us; no good for the club.

“As the world is seeing it right now, Liverpool is the most welcoming city and its people are the most generous hosts you're going to find anywhere.

“But cross us, and that's that. We're enemies, for life. Ask Mackenzie. Ask Thatcher. Ask Boris The Buffoon.

“These two tried to capitalise on our good will and our unswerving love for this club. But they underestimated us badly, and badly underestimated our love for Rafa.

“The moment they confirmed our worst misgivings and admitted they'd been plotting to oust Benitez, they may as well have started saddling the horses.

“That's it. They are finished here. The fans despise them as passionately as we hate any football rival – in fact, at the moment, it's worse.

“Not that they've shown much nous, but if they have a shred of common sense they'll take the DIC money and gallop out of town.”

In the previous 113 years of its existence, Liverpool FC had never been subject to a single demonstration by its fans.

In the last eight months alone there have been three – all of which have occurred while Hicks and Gillett have acted as self-styled club “custodians”.

The first, a display of outrage over farcical ticketing arrangements for the Champions League final in Athens, was anything but their fault and no-one was suggesting it was, either, at the time or since.

But the following two demonstrations – the “Save Rafa” march prior to the Porto match in November and tonight’s – undoubtedly have their roots in public disquiet about the way one of sport’s finest institutions is being run.

In an article in yesterday’s Irish Independent, Leeds United legend Johnny Giles lamented the recent demise of a club he respects unequivocally and spoke of his fear that Liverpool could end up heading down the same road to ruin as his former club.

He said: “It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a club can go from rude health to perpetual crisis, but at no time before now did I ever imagine I would be talking about Liverpool in such terms.

“For so long, Anfield was an antidote to the crass stupidity we witness at many clubs on a daily basis – certainty in an environment that often leans towards chaos.

“But it doesn't take much to lose the work built up over decades. Success at a club is such a fleeting and fragile thing if you don't continue relentlessly to do the basics right from the chairman down to the tea lady.

“This is a sad time for Liverpool and for all of us who looked to Anfield as one of the last remaining outposts of common sense and decency.”

Sympathy is the one thing that Liverpool has never sought before. But today, that is exactly what it is getting.

But if something is not done fast then such sympathy will soon turn to ridicule.

The Kop will speak tonight and it will speak as one. It can only hope that Hicks and Gillett – and DIC for that matter – are listening.