Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has launched a staunch defence of the conduct of Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who will find out in the coming days whether an attempt to prevent a takeover and cling onto the club has proved successful.
However, Hicks and Gillett claimed they changed the board, removing Ayre and Purslow, and have mounted a legal challenge to block the sale of the club for £300 million - a fee they feel undervalues the club and will leave them with losses of around £144 million should the sale go through.
However, despite their toxic reputation amongst Liverpool fans, Redknapp says the two Americans should not be blamed for the current crisis at Anfield and that the players should take responsibility for the club being in the Premier League relegation zone.
"It's not often you'll hear a manager stick up for a chairman or chairmen but I'd love to know what the two Americans have done that is so wrong," Redknapp wrote in The Sun.
"In all of this, I have utmost sympathy for the Reds' owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
"All they seem to have done is plough a fortune into the place and they stand to lose a fortune when they sell it. But, for all that, all they get is grief week-in, week-out.
"It's not their fault the expensive players who have been brought in are not performing as they should be. The Liverpool team is full of world-class talent and some costly flops.
"Hicks and Gillett wrote cheques for star striker Fernando Torres and Dirk
Kuyt, a member of Holland's World Cup final squad. Alberto Aquilani cost £20 million and has been a disaster - but is that the owners' fault?"
Piss off 'Arry. You know damn well what they've done, this is just your chance to get a dig in at our expense at the moment.
If you were forced to sell players in order to buy players and then the money from the sale disappeared into an interest payment you'd have problems running a team too.
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"In all of this, I have utmost sympathy for the Reds' owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks."
What the F is Redknapp smoking? Why on earth would you spout such utter tripe as this? What does he have to gain except earning a pile of nasty emails coming his way (and they will come given Reds fans passion against the two dickwads.)
His son, an ex Liverpool captain no less, has spouted off about all things Liverpool in recent times so his father decides to get in on the act too now. The Redknapp name is going to be none too popular on Merseyside.
I think he was just sticking up for Jamie who got some flack for his comments about Torres
"It's not their fault the expensive players who have been brought in are not performing as they should be. The Liverpool team is full of world-class talent and some costly flops.
I think he was just sticking up for Jamie who got some flack for his comments about Torres
"It's not their fault the expensive players who have been brought in are not performing as they should be. The Liverpool team is full of world-class talent and some costly flops.
thats basically what Jaime Redknapp said as well
Yeah, but Harry cant possibly be so thick as to think this is all on the players. Or, his reputation as a 'Wheeler Dealer' is in serious jeopardy with comments such as:
Quote:
"All they seem to have done is plough a fortune into the place and they stand to lose a fortune when they sell it. But, for all that, all they get is grief week-in, week-out.
Because if he thinks that, then hes an idiot who knows nothing about finances. H&G barely spent a dime on Liverpool. Thats the problem, they put up little to none of their own money. They borrowed almost every cent, and then used the club's operating income to pay the interest on the borrowed money.
So in essence, they didnt 'plough a fortune' into the place. Furthermore, while its true that they signed the cheques for Torres and Kuyt, the actual money came either from loans, the debt, previously sold players (ha! yeah right) or the club's own operating capital.
Again, didnt cost the yank basterds a dime, contrary to what 'Arry thinks and says.
While it is true that those players are underperfoming, and it is again true that the players have to take some responsibility for that, 'Arry once again goes off half cocked as to why. Perhaps motivation and uncertainty have something to do with a lack of performance? A lot of these guys were promised additional investment in quality talent to round out the team, and yet H&G are scratching and clawing trying to hold on to this club that they effectively didnt even pay for. Not to mention, quality players are being sold to save the team on wage bills, and then transfer income is being used to make interest payments rather than invest in on-field talent, thus making every other player's job more difficult and depleting the overall quality of the team.
Why should the players give it their all when promises were made and broken and likely to broken some more. Not to mention, the club is in turmoil, the players have to think not only about the club, but themselves, their careers, their futures and their families, all of these things will be affected by the maelstrom of confusion surrounding the club. And then are forced to see quality players shipped off for debt servicing payments on top of it all and are then told to go out and achieve at the same level they had previously with a vastly depleted squad.
H&G are there for unearned money. 80s style corporate raiding at its finest and if 'Arry cant see that, then Spurs fans had better beware that hes writing cheques he cant actually cash.
Harry should have kept his mouth shut, regardles of what Jamie says. Jamie can put his big boy underpants on all by himself now, and so he has to stand behind his comments without ol' 'Arry always coming to his rescue.
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Royal Bank of Scotland has secured an injunction preventing Tom Hicks and George Gillett from removing independent chairman Martin Broughton or any other Liverpool board members ahead of Tuesday's court case.
RBS said in a statement: "RBS in its capacity as lender to the Kop group of companies received the benefit of various contractual undertakings from Mr. Hicks and Mr. Gillett in relation to the corporate governance arrangements that Mr. Hicks and Mr. Gillett agreed would apply to the Kop group of companies with effect from April 2010.
"Those undertakings provided for the appointment of Mr Broughton as chairman of the board and the appointment of the chief executive and commercial director of LFC to the Kop boards.
"As is well known, Mr. Hicks and Mr. Gillett purported to make changes to those corporate governance arrangements on 4 October. This was in breach of those contractual undertakings.
"In light of that purported breach of contract RBS sought and obtained on Friday 8 October 2010 an interim injunction against Mr. Hicks and Mr. Gillett until a further hearing scheduled for tomorrow [Tuesday].
"Among other things, that interim injunction prevents Mr. Hicks or Mr. Gillett taking any steps to remove or replace Mr. Broughton from his position as chairman of the board of the Kop companies or from taking any other steps to appoint or remove any directors from the board of the Kop companies.
Liverpool's High Court showdown with Tom Hicks and George Gillett begins on Tuesday and the American duo might find it an uncomfortable ride with questions about how they ran their financial affairs.
ESPNsoccernet can reveal that prospective new owners New England Sports Ventures (NESV) are unhappy about some issues following their financial inspection of the club's books.
The owners of Boston Red Sox are not directly involved in the litigation, which centres around the legality of the board to sell the club without the co-owners' consent, and are naturally guarded about precisely what cropped up in due diligence that raised eyebrows.
When Hicks and Gillett attempted their own refinancing deal in the summer - which would have mortgaged the players, stadium and training ground against the extra borrowing - Broughton's board vetoed it 3-2, and lawyers Slaughter and May ratified their power to do so.
The new owners will save £24 million when Liverpool oust Hicks and Gillett as they will not need to continue servicing the debt repayments.
As long as the bank legally had the right to hold the board together, it sounds pretty good. I'm gonna see if I can even sleep tonight....maybe go to bed at 7, wake up at 3:30am?
__________________
"Correction, it's not your leg son. It's Liverpool's leg" - Shankly
And Peter Lim, a Singaporean billionaire has been named as the Asian bidder. He's worth around 1B by himself(NESV worth 1.5) and he owns a bunch of Manchester United bars around Asia.
Most see this as another Kirdi, except this time the man has money and isn't an ugly ogre put in a suit.
Well from what I gather the NESV thing is a done deal, and the court case is about the legitimacy of Purslow and Ayres being members of the board(causing a 3-2 vote for the sale) against Hicks JR and his financial advisor or whatever which would cause a 4-1 vote against the sale).
Lim is saying that NESV cut a deal with RBS to pay off some or all of the 40MP deal, that he didn't get the opportunity to(which he says he would have paid).
This just allows Hicks to say there is a better option on the table for RBS and himself.
That one's over. RBS has won the case, and Hicks did not have legal right to modify the board in any way. While there's more to come, right now that seems to mean that the 3-2 vote in favour of selling to NESV would hereby be legitimate and legally binding would it not?
Either way Mr. Lim, bad timing....and how would it be a better deal for RBS and Hicks? If they allow the team to go to administration, the bank can collect more as they are the "owners". If they don't, the bank is only entitled to the balance of the loan + interest and all that are they not? I suppose one of the parties can potentially benefit. However, with the latest, it seems that the NESV deal can be considered "officially" approved.....Christ I just want this to end.
__________________
"Correction, it's not your leg son. It's Liverpool's leg" - Shankly
"Liverpool have moved a step closer to being sold to new owners, with New England Sports Ventures hoping to have a £300m bid accepted by the board. Mr Justice Floyd ruled in the High Court that current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett had no power to block the sale to the Boston Red Sox owners."
NESV is going to be ing boss as owners. It's come out that the VP was at Istanbul, and it's well established they can run a franchise, especially an historic one on hard times.
Now to get Rafa back - who has commented on this before Hodgson. The man is full of class, and was the first to raise the alarm.
Following Wednesday's judgement, Ayre and Purslow will remain on the reconstituted board and a takeover can be formally approved. Hicks and Gillett stand to lose £144 million from the sale of the club that they purchased in 2007.
Eat it you heathen basterds!
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
