Ordered the book. Looking forward to reading it. I hope that this thread stay open long enough for the debate to continue, because though we have moved on and it was an ugly saga, it was an important one. And some of the effects of the regime are still being felt today.
I don't think I can accurately discribe my emotions reading the three extracts. Anger, frustration, finding the whole thing laughable, disbelife, anger again, sadness, a great deal more anger, and relief.
Three things have struck me.
The general incompetence of Gillett and Hicks. I mean, I think I have given them too much credit. For a while I thought they were evil masterminds, horrible capatilist driven, money grabbing scumbags. Then as the regime grew longer, their incompetence grew more and more apparent. I cannot remember who, but at the SOS Independence Day Rally, I remember one of the speakers referring to them as the "poorest billionaires in history". But the idea that they were running around grabbing choc ices, falling out over who had the best scarf, and offering one of Europes finest tacticians a treadmill as part of his transfer budget, they sound mentally ill.
They should never have been allowed anywhere near the football club. Incompetence extended to theose responsible for the deal. Parry and Moores should be fucking ashamed of themselves. A google search as we later found out couold have told us a hell of a lot about these cowboys, but for fucks sake when handing over the family silver as they so eloquently put it, just trusting someone on the character and credentials of a person is as inexplicable as it is unforgivable. I hate the pair of them.
Empathy, more love for Rafa, and frustration at what would, could, and should have been with him in charge.
The fact that press were being briefed about him being mentally ill? You have to take into consideration that English isn't Rafa's first language, and he is having to have conversations with men who are offering him players in the draft. He must have been as confused as hell. That people use Rafa's politiking as a stick to beat him with is a disgrace. Look at Ferguson at Man Utd, he has sat back, ensured his job security, and allowed the Glazers to rack up the debt into astronomical sums, and whilst the true supporters (much like our own) take the fight to the gobshites he has told them to pipe down and told the world how great the very people raping over their club are. You can tell why he has aged so drastically, it happened pretty much from the summer after Athens. He was forced to take sides, switch sides, trying to consolidate a transfer budget for us, and laterly trying to prevent them asset strip our squad. Without him speaking up we would have been in the dark for a hell of a lot longer.
I have said it before and I will say it again. Rafa's biggest mistake at Liverpool was falling in love with the place the way he did. How many offes did he have to go elsewhere in his time here. Juventus were after him. Real Madrid came knocing on more than one occasion (his boyhood club, his dream job) and he stuck by Liverpool FC, whilst the bellends in charge were offering him draft picks, saying he was mentally ill, chatting up Jurgen fucking Klinnsman, and laterly had an MD who decided he knew better than the European Cup winning manager of Rafa's stature and started making plans of his own. From the cold hearted, calculated Rafa Benitez standpoint he should have fucked us off before that Porto match, but no he and his family stuck with us.
I don't care if this makes me look like a tart who loves Rafa too much, and should move on. We were lucky to have him, and this only reaffirms this fact.
And finally, I don't care if this makes me the worst Liverpool fan in the world, a Rafanista (because apparently in some quarters not ebing happy with their actions equates to being a conspiritor and being a member of a cult), a knobhead. Gerrard and Carragher should have spoke up but they didn't. They are shithouses.
If they said, we just didn't understand or we didn't realise how bad it was until we were in court, then I could just about accept it. But when Reina and Torres were putting themselves out there and opposing the ownership (not just supporting the manager) it was the duty of the captain and VC, the "heart and soul" of the club, "Mr Liverpool I and II" to do the same. I share the view of Pepe on this. They didn't have to back the manager they just had to oppose the ownership. To speak out now, talk about how tough it was for them, and then lump Rafa and Hicks and Gillett in together as part of the problem, is unnacceptable. Will still support them as players but this above any rumblings about their role in Rafa's departure has IMO sullied their legacy.
Fascinating book this will prove to be.
