The chaos behind the scenes that the two American owners have created at Anfield continues to stifle our ambitions and our hopes of moving to the next level, that was promised when Hicks and Gillett swooned over Anfield.
Just over a year ago I wrote an article criticising the American owners, suggesting they had misled Liverpool fans over their intentions in the club after they invested one of the lowest amounts in summer signings in recent years.
Back then it wasn’t even dreamed of to dare criticise the new amazing owners, and most Liverpool fans gave me a good verbal bashing. I was accused of being ‘another never happy red‘, of committing ‘sensationalism at its worst‘, somebody told me to ‘take a holiday‘ and another classic response was ‘Aren’t we moving to a bigger and better stadium in 2010 thanks to Tom & George?‘
That last one still makes me tickle when I look at the barren Stanley Park these days.
A couple of months ago when the Americans cunningly landed the club in to a few hundred million pounds worth of debt, the sweetener was that around £40 million had been handed to the Anfield summer transfer fund.
But the fact remains that already this summer we are £7 million in profit from our transfer dealings and we have removed some big wage earners and replaced them with lower wage earners. Some estimates suggest that so far the wage savings will be in the region of £8 million per year.
I make that £47 million we still have to invest in players.
But hang on – the entire Gareth Barry deal has been dependent on Xabi Alonso leaving for a roughly identical price.
When David Moores sold up we were promised substantial transfer investment year on year, but all we have been left with is substantial debt payments. Around £30 million per year just to pay for a loan that isn’t being used on a stadium, and isn’t being used on new players.
What is worse, is that Liverpool fans appear to have resigned themselves to the misery. Debates are no longer about these two clowns who are damaging our club, but over the pros and cons of selling Alonso to pay for Barry.
You know, and I know, that this is not the way it should be at a club that has been to three European semi-finals in three seasons, regularly sells out of match tickets within 24 hours of going on sale, and is one of the best supported football clubs on the planet.
The names that have been on everyone’s lips this summer – Robbie Keane, David Villa, David Silva, David Bentley, Gareth Barry, Berbatov – these are the kind of players that should be training in Switzerland with Liverpool Football Club RIGHT NOW. We shouldn’t be forced to choose one, and we shouldn’t need to sell one of our finest midfielders to fund the deal.
I’m convinced more than ever that there are only two individuals holding back Liverpool FC’s development – two very greedy Americans who promise the world but deliver nothing.
You may have resigned yourselves to this pathetic carry-on, but it’s not good enough for me. Not by a million miles.