LFC INSIGHT: Why the Americans got it so wrong

Feb 6 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

On the anniversary of the sale of Liverpool FC to Tom Hicks and George Gillett, chief football writer Ian Doyle looks at how their arrival has played out on the pitch

‘AS ALWAYS, I am focused on training and coaching my team.” It may not be quite up there with some of the fabled utterances of his predecessors, but few phrases can have set in motion such a sequence of events as the one Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez repeated over and over again during his weekly pre-match Press briefing in late November.

Those words alerted the public for the first time to the simmering discontent that had been brewing between the Spaniard and the club’s co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks over future transfer strategy.

It pushed Benitez to the brink of being jettisoned from Anfield and led a Liverpool fanbase suspicious of the American duo’s motives to draw up battle lines and side with the Spaniard.

That continuing support for Benitez and intolerance of Gillett and Hicks has manifested itself in different ways, from a rallying march outside Anfield, banners, chants and stay-behind protests inside the stadium to the formation of a fan group aimed at purchasing the club.

Of course, the reason behind Benitez’s ire in November was the discovery Gillett and Hicks had met Jurgen Klinsmann earlier in the week to discuss a proposal to become the next Liverpool manager.

It was a time when the team, although unbeaten in the Premier League and through to the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, had left themselves needing to win their final two Champions League group games to guarantee progress to the lucrative knockout stages.

Approaching Klinsmann as an “insurance policy” was nothing new. Clubs, Liverpool included, do it all the time. But what they don’t do is allow the information to leak so readily and then come out and publicly admit another party had been approached, as Hicks did last month.

In the event, Liverpool beat Porto and then won 4-0 in Marseille to qualify from their Champions League group, the latter victory coming just days before Hicks and Gillett met with Benitez to discuss their “misunderstanding”.

Hicks later intimated Benitez would have been sacked had Liverpool been eliminated.

SO, compare and contrast that stance with the effect of the high-profile American takeover of another heavyweight North West club.

Within months of the Glazers taking control at Manchester United in the summer of 2005, the Old Trafford side crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage.

It was the first time United had suffered such failure in a decade and led to calls for manager Sir Alex Ferguson to be axed.

The Glazers, however, didn’t flinch, and instead bankrolled an unprecedented spending spree which helped United win the Premier League last year and remain handily placed to do the same again this season.

The arrival of Gillett and Hicks at Anfield had promised similar financial support for Benitez.

Indeed, Gillett himself said: “If Rafa said he wanted to buy ‘Snoogy Doogy’ we would back him.”

That came in the wake of Benitez’s blast after the Champions League final defeat to AC Milan in May, in which the manager fumed at the lack of urgency with which Liverpool were moving in the market.

It’s been a common gripe for Benitez and the crux of his issues with the American owners, the manager often bemoaning their failure to understand the complex machinations of the transfer window.

In mitigation, while Hicks and Gillett have a wide sporting portfolio, their knowledge of English football – let alone the running of a Premier League club – was pretty much zero when they assumed control. Therefore, much of their subsequent actions have been informed by advice largely from inside Anfield itself. When they have got the cheque book out – although it later transpired to be somebody else’s – Hicks and Gillett have given Benitez unprecedented backing.

WHILE Snoogy Doogy remains elsewhere, more than £40m was spent last summer with the centrepiece the club record arrival of Fernando Torres.

A further £6m was splashed out on Martin Skrtel last month – a sign, according to Hicks, of the continued support for Benitez’s tenure – while Liverpool will tie up a £17m deal for Javier Mascherano this week.

More than £20m has been recouped in sales, with further expensive departures expected at the end of the season.

But despite the new signings, Liverpool have again failed to marry their Champions League exploits with a sustained tilt at the Premier League title.

While Benitez must take his share of the blame for that, the off-field uncertainty engendered by the arrival and subsequent actions of Gillett and in particular Hicks have not helped.

Liverpool were unbeaten and within touching distance of the league leaders before the infamous summit with Klinsmann. Since then, Benitez’s side have won just five league games and surrendered the final Champions League qualification place to, of all teams, Everton.

Benitez, though, appears to have ridden the storm – at least for now – and, with Liverpool retaining an interest in the FA Cup and Champions League and well placed to take back fourth place with 14 league games remaining, something can yet be salvaged from the season.

But having undermined Benitez by going public with the Klinsmann revelations, it is likely the uneasy truce that currently persists between the manager and Gillett and Hicks will be tested to the limit once the summer transfer window opens in June.

That’s assuming all three are still at Liverpool. However, given the rate of change at Anfield during the last 12 months, it seems highly unlikely.

SPORT: PAGE 36

iandoyle