The Fans View

From Houlding to Hicks

118 years ago Liverpool Football Club was founded by a man named John Houlding. Without him, this great club wouldn’t exist. Fast forward to the modern day and this great club, our club, is well past the point of disaster – we’re heading for extinction.

The summers of thinking “which trophy are we gonna win this season” have long gone, now our biggest worry is “will we still have a club next summer?” Those days of League Championships, classic European nights and regular visits to Wembley have become distant memories for us now. And they don’t seem to be returning any time soon and that’s because the club is being run into the ground by not only the owners, but their shithouse, gobshite board members as well.

What John Houlding did was create a football club, he created the greatest football club in the world. Tom Hicks and George Gillett have ruined that club. They’ve tore it limb from limb. But the heart of the club still beats inside every one of us Reds. We will not, we can not, allow our club to die. Once the owners tear the heart out of the club, once they tear us out of the club then it’s over.

John Houlding didn’t manage to see his own dream through of us being the greatest football club in the world. But what he built was enough for the likes of T.V. Williams, John Smith and David Moores to build us even further. Success came with a list of legendary managers and Liverpool Football Club was the benchmark of every other club because not only were we the best on the field, but also off it. The Liverpool Way it was called, any problems happened in house.

But Tom Hicks, George Gillett, Christian Purslow and Martin Broughton are tearing down the building that John Houlding started to build. They’re tearing it down at such a rate that there may not be a building anymore to call Liverpool Football Club.

I plead with every one of you Reds who reads this, not to allow our club to go under and go bust. Hicks and Gillett want money, that’s all they’re here for so please do not give them any more of your money. If they realise that they’re not getting the money from the fans, then they will have to sell the club. They will have to leave.

Hopefully somebody in authority will also get through to the banks to stop constantly refinancing them. That’s been our biggest struggle, that every time a deadline comes up they get further time to pay. John Houlding didn’t build this club for banks to refinance the American owners. Bill Shankly didn’t build this club to a bastion of invincibility just so in the future the banks can refinance the American owners ruining his empire. Bob Paisley didn’t build this club into European Cup winners just so the American owners could play with this club like it was a toy while banks refinance them.

No this club was built for us Reds to have something in life that we live for. If this club, the most successful club in England, goes extinct then what have we to live for? How empty would your life be without Liverpool Football Club? I couldn’t start supporting any other club, no matter what I just couldn’t. I’m a fan of Liverpool Football Club and I fear for my club’s future while Hicks and Gillett are running it. We bleed with this club, we cry with this club yet we still don’t turn away from this club. That’s what it means to us, those yanks don’t understand or appreciate that.

To us it is not a plaything or a franchise but rather our life. It was the life of John Houlding, T.V. Williams, John Smith, David Moores and so many others. It’s a money making scheme for Hicks and Gillett, well do not give them your money for the good of your club. Banks, do not give them any more money for the good of our club.

And, in time, maybe we will have security over our club’s future. Maybe we’ll all get a few more peaceful nights knowing our club will still exist tomorrow. And maybe we will return to the benchmark of all other clubs.

That can only happen if we give them “Not A Penny More“.

12 comments on
From Houlding to Hicks

  1. With all due respect to u moores haters i am sure that all of u were smiling and exicitedly watcking sky sports news with the revelation of foriegn investment. How could he have known what the yaks were planing?

  2. I see it as Gillett / Hicks thought there is lots of money to make by being given bad advice. They did not understand the passion of the club until European nights, thought it was great but still took the cash. However to finance anything that big you have to borrow cash, so the greedy bankers get involved. Then crash! Gillet and Hick need to be out before they lose money the banks don’t care. We lose, Moores gained. He was never a businessman, lived off his family. We have to carry the can.

  3. …for millions of pounds simply to retire rich and greedy men and the fact that they still refuse to admit that they failed on basic due diligence when finding new owners refusing and ignoring better offers for the club only so they could hold out for a fatter paycheck, just infuriates me every time i think about it. Those two are just like Gillete and Hicks in my book and always will be.

  4. “What John Houlding did was create a football club, he created the greatest football club in the world.” ….Sorry but that was SHANKLY ! Houlding was a great man who made a football club but Bill is the reason fans all across the world still talk about it,He made our dynasty. That being said you’ve made a bigger gaff in including David (Judas) Moores in the list of those who loved the club and built it up (what an insult to say) He along with his Ventriloquist Rick Parry fleeced the club

    • Shankly did not create Liverpool Football Club, John Houlding did. Houlding made the club, what Shankly did was make the side that would go on to be the greatest club side in world football, something Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish also did.

      As for Moores, yes he sold the yanks which is something we’ll never forget. But things people do forget is what Moores did do for the club, he pumped millions in this club. Money that went into the Academy and funded huge transfers.

  5. Powerful stuff Billy. I think you are a little to pessimistic though. I would be more concerned if we had got another foreign manager who does not know what the club means – other than its trophy history.

    What we have to be careful of is starving the club, and not just the owners,of money. Of every shirt sale, more money will go to the club than the owner, same as ticket sales – I have just renewed my season ticket – reluctantly, but on that basis!

    I worry more about the banks support though!

  6. how can you say it was the life for david moores when he fucked us over and give the club to the yanks without even checking what they were like. moores is as much to blame for our current plight as the americans

  7. Very interesting article. But I disagree that LFC was the life of David Moores. David Moores pocketed an extra 8 million pounds from the sale of the club than if he had sold it to DIC. All David Moores wanted was cash, and this was compounded with the incompetence and utter stupidity of Rick Parry as his right-hand man. It’s about time he came out and made a public apology for selling this club, OUR club, to the devil while laughing all the way to the bank.

  8. Broughton has publicly confirmed that Barclays have been appointed by RBS to oversee the sale process and have removed the existing “owners” right to veto suitable offers from interested parties. Consequently the sale value of LFC will be set by the banks and will be based on the value of the debt (c.£350m) and the fair value of the club (c.£500m). Hicks’ “valuation” of £800m is merely a tactic to inflate the price. Rest assured, LFC’s situation is nowhere near as bad as Uniteds’

    • Sorry to sound unconvinced but where are your facts coming from ? Do you have a link to where you accumulated said knowledge so that I can look it over as well ?

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