Smiling George Gillett was reported after a recent meeting with the Spirit of Shankly supporters group to have told fans to pinpoint blame on to Benitez after ‘record investment’ in Liverpool Football Club.
As reported in today’s Daily Telegraph, Gillett said:
“We have invested more money than our competitors, in keeping with the history of the club,”
“In the last 18 months, we have invested £128m on top of what has come in. That means it should be getting better.
“Now if it’s not getting better, it’s not Gillett and Hicks, it’s the manager, it’s the scouting. You have to make sure you balance out your analysis.
“There was plenty of money, so if you have any complaints, take a look at the ins and outs.”
“The club is in extraordinarily good financial condition. Far better than Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal.
“We have invested massively, we have put more money in than anyone other than Manchester City, with the craziness they have got.”
Like many Liverpool fans I feel personally insulted by his ridiculous comments.
Liverpool had manageable debt of around £45-60M before the new owners arrived. Now that figure has more than quadrupled to around £250M. Liverpool Football Club is paying interest to two commercial banks at a figure of approximately £1M ($1.6M) every 9 days. Between the Chelsea and Sunderland games, under our new ownership, we will have handed over nearly £1.5M ($2.2M) in interest alone for the privilege of having Hicks and Gillett as our owners.
As our figures have already shown this summer, in terms of actual player transfers in and out – in 2009 Liverpool made a transfer profit of roughly £14M. I don’t know of any club that has ever gone on to success after a summer of asset-stripping the playing staff.
To suggest Liverpool are in as strong a financial position as the likes of Arsenal, with their brand new stadium and well run business is laughable.
But above all, claiming that he personally has invested massively in Liverpool Football Club is the biggest insult of all.
George – you are propping up Liverpool with money that isn’t yours but belongs to the banks. You promised us a stadium – you failed. You promised us no debt mountain – you’ve saddled us with debt. The amount we paid in interest alone last year is equivalent to giving every person who attended a Premiership game at Anfield last year their £35-£40 back. (that’s 855,000 people).
Robbie Keane and Xabi Alonso alone were sold for more than Aquilani and Johnson cost. Where was the actual summer transfer budget on top of that? What happened to the rest of the money. What did you do with the Sebastian Leto and Alvaro Arbeloa money? Where did the Champions League qualification money go? The Premier League runners up prize money?
We need more than International Rescue now. George and Tom need to be removed from their control of our proud historic football club. Probably the best supported football club in the world. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the man who transformed us in to the famed football club it is today – these two men are ripping the soul out of our club.
Go. Go now.
If you think that a soccer player actaully makes more money than a high level political operative (heads of ministries/departments and above) in any industrialized nation then i have some bridges to sell you in the swamplands of Florida. Those guys all get greased under the table with amounts of money that will blow your mind. In America they openly admit how greedy and corrupt they all are and the people here still only care about NFL Football, so I can only imagine taht its similar in the UK.
Hhas anyone look at the players wages.I believe the present wage is excessive and obscene.Just look at Portsmouth.When the average player in the EPL earns more than the PM of Britain then something is very wrong.It won’t be long before a EPL club go bust.I’m hoping Liverpool will not be the first.I really sympathise with the long suffering fans who go to the matches every week and have to cough up all the cash to pay for the players obscene wages.
i think they are both to blame.
rafa, no offence ; is not the right man for the premier league
gillette , is greedy like hicks and does not support rafa enough by giving him a decent transfer kitty.
The American’s have been taking us for idiot’s ever since they arrived unable to deliver the new stadium that they promised.Our net spending is well behind the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd but Rafa hasn’t exactly been starved of cash either.
He may have done wonders with Valencia by winning the league a few times but the Premiership is much tougher to win thus a different kettle of fish altogether.You can give Rafa five more years combined with £100 million and he’ll still be unable to win us the league because he hasn’t got what it takes instead if full of excuses.Just like with Houllier’s Liverpool we depend on a few players without whom we struggle to defeat the likes of Leeds Utd.Many fans are losing patience with this obese Spaniard whose tactics are often as amusing as his post-match “Groundhog” Day” comments delievered in terrible English.
I wish the Americans and Rafa would both get out because all three are as bad as eachother,Rick Parry must be laughing wherever he is!!
I don’t think it’s fair to slander the guy like that. OK you’ve got your opinion on his management skills but the character assasination is a bit below the belt. At the end of the day the premier league is tougher to win than it has ever been. Since Roman Abramovich pumped his millions into chelsea only they and Utd have won it. Even Arsene Wenger has a poorer record this past 5 seasons in lge football than Benitez, and fewer trophies to boot. Pre Abramovich Wenger lifted 3 titles in 7 seasons. Post Abramovich he has 1 FA cup back in 2005. Clearly Rafa would have won the title with us if he’d arrived a few years earlier. Our points tallies in 05-06 would have won 5 titles in the prem era and last seasons points haul would have won 7 titles in the prem era. However, each of the titles would have been won in the pre-Abramovich era becuase even our best return of 86 points has not been enough to win the lge in the Abramovich era of the prem.
We have a net spend less than Chelsea, Utd, Spurs and Man City. Our wage bill is less than Chelsea Utd, Spurs and Man City. We only have the 5th largest stadium in the prem. We are a team that only has the rite to fight for 4th or 5th spot and yet we’ve exceeded that regularly. Excluding our roll of honour, we are closer in stature to Spurs and Man City than we are to Chelsea and Utd, so really we punch above our weight.
Are you related to Rafa or something because you’re forever defending him as if he’s your brother!!?.As i say we may have not spent much compared to the likes of Chelsea but he’s not been starved either!.How many chances are people like you gonna give Rafa before accepting that he’s not half as good as you believe for him to be!.Jose Mourinho would win us the Premiership and i feel he can be persuaded to come to Anfield with a bit of smart diplomacy!
Alonso left because of his backstabbing and the team is full of expensive flops like Riera,Babel and Lucas when he could have spent this money on much better quality!.Apart from a few good buys i don’t trust Rafa’s judgement when it comes to making new signings and neither do i understand his pre or post-match comments that are always identical!!!
Calm down. I’m not trying to challenge you. No I am not related to Rafa or anyone else involved with Liverpool F.C. All of the top managers make bad buys. However, I truly believe that when Rafa has spent larger sums of money he has generally bought quality players. Some of the players that haven’t worked out have been gambles. In many cases Rafa has ended up with an alternative to his preferred transfer target. Take Pennant for example. Rafa wanted to bring in Simao, however, he proved too expensive so we gambled on a much cheaper option.
It’s clear Rafa has been searching for a right full-back to take over from Steve Finnan for years. Finally he’s got his man in Glen Johnson, however, for a long time the preferred choice was Daniel Alves. Nobody grumbled when we signed Morientes. A world renowned player with a proven track record, but the guy just didn’t do it for us. Let me guess, that must be Rafa’s fault too. The players have to take some responsibility for their failings. For example, Babel has got ability, he just needs to show it more often. You can argue that Rafa doesn’t play him enough, but when the choice is between the ever reliable and hard working Dirk Kuyt and the unpredictable Babel, who do you choose when you’re under pressure to win games. I know who I’d go for. As for Riera and Lucas who you mentioned, ell neither were expensive by todays standards and it’s hardly fair to call riera a flop considering the extra dimension he added to our play last year.
More recently it’s been the most open secret that Rafa has coveted David Silva and David Villa. Villa we may never get, but Silva should hopefully be within our range. Once again no deal has been done. Gareth Barry is another one. Do you think our squad would look much healthier, not to mention our starting 11 if we had Alves, Simao and Silva in it as well as Gareth Barry. If we were really lucky you could even add David Villa’s name to that list. Still don’t trust Rafa’s judgement? What about the way he picked the likes of Sissoko,Arbeloa, Skrtel and Agger out of relitive obscurity and got them all for peanuts. Those mentioned that are still with us are an integral part of our team, a team that nearly won the title last year. Those no longer with us have been sold on for a profit. Really the whole transfer thing isn’t as bad as it seems. OK perhaps he may have wanted to get rid of Alonso the season before last, but so what. Alonso performed as well as he has ever done in a red shirt last term so maybe he needed the kick up the backside. At the end of the day it was Alonso’s choice to leave. He wasn’t pushed. Doesn’t Rafa deserve credit for getting such an extortionate fee for him?
Finally, it is clearly harder to win it now than it has ever been, so you can’t even compare Rafa or the current side to those that we’ve had in the past. You can only compare Rafa to the men he is directly competing with now. Managers that have spent similar sums have done no better and in many cases much worse. Some have spent more and done worse. Those that have won more have clearly more advantages.
As for Mourinho, well we will never get him, not that we would want a manager that goaded our fans and called us a little club. We cannot lavish the guy with a big transfer kitty and he would not join a club with a warring boadroom so forget tabout that one. There are no special ones at Liverpool, there never has been. That is who we are. Things will go backwards before they go forwards if Rafa leaves and in this boom and bust game that football has become, that step back may be unrecoverable. At least now we’ve got a fighting chance.
Arsenal fan in peace-
Interesting reading your comments about the owners remarks….The first thing I would say is that it would be nice to see the full interview with Gillett, as we all know how newspapers love to pluck quotes and piece them together to give a false impression. I did read that in the same interview, Gillett called Rafa a genius, so it is hard to know for sure.
Having said that, I believe in whatever context he said it, its utterly disgusting for the owner to criticise the manager. Its disrespectful, and undermines his authority in the dressing room. Totally counter-productive and very stupid.
Im not Rafas biggest fan but tactically he rarely gets it wrong, and is good at man-management on the whole. I think his only blind spot is the transfer market.
But Rafa doesnt have much to do with it really – the owner has shown his amateur approach and disloyal nature, and as a result, does not deserve to be associated with LFC.
Best of luck for the rest of the season lads.
Yes this man is right the yanks are ruining the club and are a bunch of liars but fingers crossed the saudi’s do take over perhaps its time for a new manager cos no one can argue saying rafa has not had money to spend over the time he’s been here and he has brought some bad like Morientes, Gonzalez, Josemi, Itandje, nunez, lucas, crouch, cisse etc. Allthough alot of that is from the sales of others but he has spent and with the likes of city taking over we need to act fast and with the threat of spurs on the top four aswell, i know im being negative here but seeing the way sunderland are play we could possible lose the next two games but i hope im wrong because of our title dreams and i hope rafa does pull it off. Y.N.W.A
ps
If it does go wrong (IF) what about carra as manager with the help of king kenny???
By the way if they do go we might see that new stadium!!!!!
I hate to say it but Gillett is spot on with what he has said. Benitez has wasted millions on players who would struggle to get a game in my local sunday league team. I am not a fan of the Liverpool owners but for once I agree with Gillett.
rafa wont be given any money, end of story. the excuse for not building the stadium! the diggers went in to stanley park when there was no economic crisis. and stopped when there was no economic crisis. and they wont start when it ends
Change of owners and managers. D.I.C need to come in along with Jose Mourinho
I agree with Geoff above. Gillett must be out of his freaking mind if he thinks anyone would elieve a sack of s**t like him or any of the lies he has been spouting. Gillett and Hicks have done nothing but saddle the club with a massive debt mountain since the day they arrived. Not one of the promises they have made or one of the statements they have made has ever been true. Its also quite clear that despite assurances to the contrary Hicks and Gillett have done everything possible to undermine Rafa in the hope that they can dismiss him and then bring in some lackey who will never say boo to them. This is a very sad period for our beloved club. There is no way this club can be successful with these two idiots at the helm.
SS you sound like Gillett – people who brought shame to Liverpool FC.
KZ – you sound life Rafa. Empty vessel makes the most noise. The thing is I’m ahead of my time.
Your ahead of your time? That’s funny, I thought we were talking about George Gillett and Rafa not you? Will you be installed as Liverpool’s next manager should he leave then?
Better me than u.
“The full interview with Gillett suggests the £30million from Alonso hasn’t been touched yet – which means we’ll have it available in January.”
Hahahahahahahahahahaha! In your dreams.
Rafa needs to go. I’m afraid the mindless loyalty of the Liverpool fans to such a poor manager only shows their lack of understanding of football!
Justify your description of ‘poor’. 2 CL finals, one won, one lost, a lege cup final an FA cup win, 2 close battles for the title and CL qualification every season.
Last season: We won more points than any other season for the last 21 years (86, which would have been enough to win seven of the previous 16 league titles); We won a club record 13 away wins, scored more goals than anybody else in the land and had better goal difference than any other team
Despite finishing second, we had a points total that has never been bettered by any runner-up and fewer defeats for any team that didn’t win the league in its 121-year history.
Yeah you’re right Rafa is shit isn’t he. To quote our manager ‘FACTS’ don’t lie. If you can think of any manager that would come and work for the yanks with no money to spend and do a well as Rafa has done, you should be aplying for a job at the club. And you accuse loyal supporters of lacking understanding?
Compare with what Ferguson has won. Yes, Rafa is s**t. You please wake up.
It is people like you that keep that fool Rafa in a job.
Jesus, how old are you? Compare Rafa’s 5 years, with Fergie’s first 5 at Utd. Then tell me who’s done better.
Taggart won nothing in his first 5 years, you are talking s***e.
The statement posted here so far showing least understanding of football is this one.
Remember there is only one Einstein, but many with mediocre brains – the rest of you
I think this could be it. If one of the clubs owners comes out and publicly criticises the manager then clearly this is not good. It may only be a matter of time until Rafa walks. Congratualtions to all those so called supporters who’ve been calling for Rafa’s head in recent weeks. All this despite the fact he took us the closest we’ve been to the title in 20 years. Hopefully you’ll get the Sam Allardyce or Ian Holloway that you crave, because lets face it, no top manager will come and work for those pricks with no money to spend.
Redzoo, you can just say that. Its an opinion! And one that I personally agree with. Suggesting viable alternatives is a pointless exercise because of the amount of work that goes in by the club, current owners, any potential owners before any buyout can take place. That said, I will give it a go… Ronald McDonald!
You see my point?
The current owners are ripping the heart and soul out of Liverpool Football club and what makes that even worse is that they are doing so in the most public of ways!
For the love of god, please G&H be mindful of what you say in the press because every time you open your traps, you make LFC seem more and more like the laughing stock of the premiership, WHICH IT ISN’T!!
These guys are all about greed. That makes them predictable and this latest outburst from Fishfillet falls in line with that statement.
We need a solution that will work. Don’t you remember all the fans singing Hicks and Gillett’s names from the stands when they took over because of all the amazing promises they were making? We got let down and I don’t want someone else to walk all over us again.
Do i need to paint pictures here?
Why would the rich Arabs be any different to Hicks and Gillett? They’re investors, just the same as the Americans.
I too dislike H&G and wish there was a way out, but there’s this asumption that things will be brighter if we were owned by a different investor. I fear we could end up going through the whole thing again with new owners. And why not.
You have said what thousands and thousands of true reds are thinking! Even if the figures don’t quite add up your probably not far off the mark. If the £30m from Alonso is still available why wasn’t it spent on Silva? Because lets be honest, Rafa wanted him and we needed him. I really fear for our beloved club under the ownership of these money grabbing yanks. YNWA
Absolute nonsense mate!, that’s what they want you to believe. There are many Arabs around the Middle East who are desperate to buy them out but won’t work with them at all, the Kuwaiti Royal Family had a representative at the Chelsea game. Would anyone buy into their chaotic partnership?, they need huge security just to attend a game here so what is the point in going on with this farce.
I hate to break it to you guys, but if these owners do not leave within 12-18 months, I will guarantee that this club WILL end up like Leeds United. Totally bankrupt, roster fire sale, new owners, and then a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG, SLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW recovery back to the Premier League. Thats what youre looking at here if you dont kick these two crooks out.
You can’t just say, “Hicks and Gillett OUT” – you need a viable alternative which fans aren’t coming up with.
All this public slander of H&G will completely put off any potential investors as their reputation is definately on the line if they get involved with Liverpool FC.
But then I don’t have an alternative idea either.
Who know’s what to believe anymore?, It’s so tiresome now that we don’t really want to hear this all of the time. It’s vital that this is brought to some conclusion sooner rather than later, maybe becoming more militant in the protesting?. How about our players going on strike and refusing to play unless they sell-up?, Or us fans leaving the stadium empty at half-time?. How about both of these options?????????????????????????????????
we need gillet and hicks, out ASP. laurel and hardy who the word lie means sfa, the yanks who wear 10 gallon hats on 2 pint heads. lets hope next time gillet is at anfield he gets it megga . they ars a insult to intellagance, the sooner they go the better for all . go THE USA NEED YOU WE DON,T…
Oh, and, what they really need is someone like David Silva along the wings. They have good fullbacks now, so now they need a true blue burner along the wings – I’m talking about a track star type – to cause havoc along the flanks. This team has lacked that for years and years. Its the one real blind spot they have no addressed. I also think Mascherano is GONE in maybe even as soon as January but guaranteed hell be gone in the offseason.
Unfortunately, as an American this seems to be the New American Way. Just come in and buy something you cant afford with money that isnt yours and saddle the burden on the supporters and people who get gouged at the concession stands and at the gates (or taxpayers, etc. in other realms). Then, when everything is failing and crumbling around you just….SAY – without a shred of evidence at all – that everything is ok and that anyone who thinks that something is wrong is a wild lunatic.
These guys are basically criminals, more or less, and they are not alone in business or governent in America and proably are not alone in the UK or anywhere else in the world either. I mean, you know its bad when you WANT a bunch of slick oil Sheikhs to come in and buy your favorite soccer team. From across the pond this looks really really bad, I can only imagine how bad it is to watch unfold from up close. I feel bad for the people who pay their hard earned money to suffer through this soap opera. I have NO respect for businessmen who rack up debt and slap the burden on other people to make short-term profits, and that is ALL that Gillett and Hicks are doing, and that is all they ever were going to do. Look at the teams that they own, whens the last time they have won a Championship in any sport in any part of the world? They are not those kinds of owners, theyre the bad kind. The kind who will spend enough to be competetive and make money at the gates but never enough to win anything.
I think you are going to see a takeover within 12 months. I also think that if Liverpool are out of the Top 4 in the Premier League table and get bumped out of the Champions League early then you WILL see a firesale ahead of the final takeover of the club. Probably the only 4 guys who are safe would be Johnson and Aquilani (because they just arrived), Gerrard (legend, he wouldnt even leave Liverpool if he was offered some insane amount of money by Real Madrid (now that is a bad debt problem there, wow), Torres (because you want fans to still come to the games). Other than that, they could sell off most of the teams top remaining talent and just throw a bunch of kids out there until they sell the team.
Unfortunately, it has gotten that bad that they WILL be forced to sell the team in the near future and unless you get a new ownership group with a massive war chest the team will have to sell off many assets to control costs during the sale. I just hope they can sneak through the Champions League again and win that because unless they start miraculously spending money on Premier League style players to support their stars they have almost no chance of winning the Premier League, again.
Well said. I am sick to death of the deluded individuals blaming Benitez for this situation. yes he has spent a lot, but so have every other top 6 club and we have spent the least out of Man city, spurs, united, chelsea and even teams such as Sunderland seem to be out performing us in the transfer market (Turner). When Benitez arrived we were 30 points from winning the title. last season we were 4. What is needed is stability above, funds for benitez to actually go for players he see’s fit and not having to look in the bargin bins for world class players. when he spends big money rafa rarely gets it wrong. Keane alone stands as a failure and to be honest no one thought he would fail. If Rafa walks i wouldnt blame him, i also wouldnt blame, torres, reina, mascharano, and gerrard to follow. If that happens god help us.
Those t***s need to be removed from any form of running our club. They have done nothing but continue to put LFC into a hole which it should never have been near and now they have the gall to try and pin the blame on Rafa? F**k them and the horses they rode in on. Time to bring in some quality owners to handle things and put us back on track to where we belong, at the top of the table.
WELL SAID THAT MAN!!!! ynwa
Although these figures don’t add up, and I’m not defending George Gillet, fans tend to forget that a number of Liverpool players were given pay rises this summer. Johnson is reported to be on over £100,000 a week alone and that Benitez has never said he doesn’t have money left over for spending on transfers or extending contracts.
Torres was given a pay rise without definiate contract extension this summer! It was a tactic by Benitez to ensure he didn’t leave us for someone with big money like Real, or even United. The full interview with Gillett suggests the £30million from Alonso hasn’t been touched yet – which means we’ll have it available in January.