FANSCENE: Ferguson agrees with us – it must be bad!

Jan 25 2008 by Sam Johnstone, Liverpool Daily Post

IT really does spell out how serious things are at the moment for Liverpool when Sir Alex Ferguson agrees with supporters and comes out in support of our manager.

Fergie was 100% correct in his analysis of the way Rafa has been treated and his polite condemnation of Hicks and Gillett was both damning and welcome. For all the differences between our two clubs, all the rivalries and enmities, it’s good to know that the current situation is attracting censure from their manager.

Forget that Rafa’s position might be untenable; how about that of the co-owners?

The protests this week have been vociferous and heartfelt, and if the proposed refinancing of the loan for the club goes through, do the owners feel they can win the fans around? No chance!

I’m not saying we should jump straight into bed with DIC, because there were very real concerns about their original bid, but the message to Messrs. Hicks and Gillett from Liverpool supporters is loud and clear: take your profit and go home.

Commentators may say that the supporter-pleasing soundbites the two came out with following their purchase of the club were canny business moves, but when supporters are lied to it’s damn near impossible to retrieve the goodwill of those that pay good money to support the club.

Money is the root of the problem here. We were promised no heavy debt for the club to burden, and that has turned out to be totally false.

We were promised investment in the playing staff, and though Torres and Babel were bought, this turns out to be via a loan from two banks.

The brilliant new stadium promised will also not materialise thanks to the owners’ refusal to put their own funds into the club.

More importantly to the supporters, we were promised that the new owners would be the right and proper custodians of the club for the future, and this is about as far from the truth as you can get.

The campaign from ‘Reclaim The Kop’ and the federation of Liverpool fanzines has been excellent, but we have to move it up a gear.

Their suggestion that we should hit the owners were it hurts if they refuse to move on is the way we should be going.

By refusing to pay into the new regime, we will nullify the reasons they took over the club.

Whether fans can refuse to turn up to games is another matter, but that’s a matter for the future and for strong campaigning.

We might be a bit hard on Mr Gillett here, but his silence over all this nonsense leads to only one conclusion: he is obviously not the strong partner here, and the way that Hicks has run roughshod over the club and manager suggests that he may have done the same to his business ‘partner’.

Mr Gillett either needs to pipe up and condemn what has been happening, or take an equal share of the blame.

Whatever happens in the next week or so, football has taken a back seat at Anfield, and that’s the most shameful aspect of this episode.

I repeat what the overwhelming majority of supporters are saying: we don’t trust you, we don’t want you, so for God’s sake go.