I haven’t posted on the takeover for some time, and for a variety of reasons - chief of which was a growing feeling that the information provided was actually helping Hicks and Gillett work out where the threat was coming from and concentrate their efforts on digging the dirt and launching a fightback. But today has been a woeful end to a depressing week and amid all the gloom I feel that people should know that all is not lost. Nonetheless, I won’t believe Hicks and Gillett have gone until their names no longer feature in our club profiles, so I’ll keep this as informative as possible without being specific. As ever, take it at face value or bin it. And as has always been the intention, I’ll spill the beans, fully, when it’s safe to do so.
Firstly, huge respect and support to the groups and individuals who continue to fight the good fight. There is no doubt that the campaigns work, and we should continue to keep on with the emails, petitions, adverts, T-shirts and all other forms of protest and direct action until Hicks and Gillett are gone.
But in no particular order, here are some things that are still worth knowing. The Rocket was launched. It scored a direct hit. Most of the regular posters on this forum are decent and humane people who take little pleasure in the suffering of others. Knowing that George Gillett has retreated to his mountain hideaway, shell-shocked, punch-drunk and waving the white flag will no doubt distress the many who have come to view this jovial old devil as one of our own.
Hicks and Gillett entered into a “Joint & Several” arrangement when they re-financed the time before last. That means they’re responsible for one another’s LFC obligations if one or the other defaults. As a result of the direct hit, George Gillett has been bankrupted and stands no chance of paying his share of the RBS debt by 6th October. Tom Hicks is now legally obligated to pay Gillett’s 50% of the debt. So the obvious danger arising from Gillett’s demise is that if any financial institution were insane enough to lend Tom Hicks the money, he now has the right to buy out Gillett’s 50% of the club.
That’s scary. But a more agreeable way of looking at it is to imagine Hicks and Gillett handcuffing themselves to each other on that fateful day they entered into that Joint & Several pact. Gillett has now given up; he’s jumped off the pier. A horrified Tom Hicks realises he’s still cuffed to him. He clings on by his fingertips as his former partner sinks, his dead weight dragging Hicks closer and closer to the edge. Hicks, wild-eyed, is pleading to the merchant seamen who pass by, begging them to grab his hand and haul him back from the brink. One or two of them come over for a look, but recognise Hicks as the man who killed their trade in Brazil, or Texas… it’s just not worth them getting involved with a man like this. He’ll always shaft you in the end, so they turn a deaf ear to his pleas for one last chance. If Hicks can’t get someone to throw him a lifeline, he’s going down with Gillett, and soon.
Just as Kirdi was in all likelihood a stooge created by Gillett, for the precise purpose of wheeling him out as a stalking horse whenever an offer came in for the club, it’s equally likely that the Blackstone bombshell is Hicks’s last gamble; an empty bluff from a poker player who doesn’t have a hand. But from the RBS’s and from a legal point of view, it’s still complicated. Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre are not the enemy. They are carefully and skilfully navigating a path through a minefield, keeping a keen eye on what needs to happen (Gillett and Hicks out) and the strict legalities and procedures for bringing that about. To give just one blunt example, a recent report about Hicks’ refinancing fiasco stated that Martin Broughton is “open minded” about the prospect of Hicks staying on. He can hardly state otherwise, can he? Any suggestion, let alone confirmation that Broughton was not acting in the best interests of the owners would only lead to another hiatus as Hicks stalls and sues and refuses to go. Equally, the supposed Purslow Smirk after today’s game is much more likely to be “if only I could tell you…” rather than “why should I care”. The U.K-based element of the board have gone through a lengthy and diligent legal process to ascertain what they can lawfully do to prevent Gillett and Hicks from re-financing. They’re hardly going to blow it now by playing to the crowd.
Me neither. That’s all for now. Go to bed knowing that it’s not over yet. But neither is it Over.
