If you want to see a flip bigger than Lua Lua’s you need to check out Jim Boardman’s blog. In the space of three short months he has gone from calling for the removal of both Hicks and Gillett to just about the biggest friend Hicks has got on the blogosphere.
A Selection of Article titles and extracts from AnfieldRoad.com - January 2008 - on Hicks and Gillett.
Huge interest payments will cripple Reds
“Tom Hicks got his PR firm to confirm last night what we’ve known all along - Liverpool Football Club will be paying the interest on the loan he took out to make himself richer.
Under these owners the club is in a mess, the future of the club is on a tightrope.
We’re gambling on Champions League qualification, and even then on relative success in the Champions League. Without it, we are in serious danger of following the same path Leeds followed. And don’t for one moment think “it can’t happen to us”, because it can.
And the chances are that Hicks and Gillett will have ridden off into the sunset long before it gets to the Leeds stage - they’ll transfer the debt onto the club’s assets, pay off their own loans and disappear.”
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“We’ve got to get behind the players and the manager; they need us now more than ever. Those dissenting voices on phone-ins and message-boards who think we’re going to be alright under Hicks after all need to sit back and think about what’s really going on.
The owners will bail out as soon as they see a threat to their existing assets - we’ve got to do all we can to bring that threat forward.”
Be wary of Hicks spin as he fights for Reds support
“Liverpool supporters need to be careful in the coming weeks that they don’t fall for the PR spin that will undoubtedly be served up by Tom Hicks as he aims to get Liverpool supporters falling for his stories and promises once again.
He’ll use the promise of a fancy stadium and the so-called £17m signing of Javier Mascherano to boost his claims that he cares about the club, hoping that we soon forget the lies and deceit of the past few months in particular, but that have been there since the day he first spoke of his plans for the club nearly a year ago.”
Hicks admits past DIC talks despite past denials
“Three of Liverpool’s last five matches have seen the Reds score an own goal, but it’s the joint owner, Texan millionaire Tom Hicks, who seems to be scoring most own goals.”
How Reds owners mislead fans over transfer funding
“Liverpool’s owners borrowed £298m to take the club over, of which they spent at total of £218.9m on buying the shares and paying off the debt. There are few clues as to where the other £79m went, or what the extra £52m they are trying to borrow now will go to.”
Hicks laughs as refinancing draws nearer
“The Tom Hicks propaganda machine rolls on relentlessly as he moves closer to getting the loans he needs to continue with his unwelcome control of Liverpool Football Club.”
Hicks excuses fail to convince, time they moved on
“Tom Hicks has today made yet another bungle in his long list of errors and misjudgements since taking over at Anfield with the nowadays silent George Gillett.”
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“The owners’ plot included wining and dining both Klinsmann and his wife Debbie, Klinsmann being told he’d be the perfect for the club should Benitez either leave the club or be fired.
Hicks admitted that an offer was made to Klinsmann - but claims it was purely an “insurance policy”. He now says that Benitez has his full support. Unfortunately his word means very little these days.
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"This time they’ve gone too far. Already there is deep-seated anger from more and more supporters at the way they are handling our club. And already fans are discussing ways of making this known to the owners. It should also be made known to the financial institutions the owners are speaking to, because they need to know that the owners are not what they make themselves out to be. They’ve not got a clue how to run a football club, and there is a serious risk that the club’s status will fall under their ownership."
All in all these owners stand to ruin this club. It’s only a matter of time before they remove their rubber masks to reveal they are actually Neville Neville and Norman Whiteside."
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"Time they left. Time the financial institutions were warned - there’s a vote of “No Confidence” in Hicks and Gillet.”
Desperate Hicks makes desperate claims
“Tom Hicks has gone off on one again, or so it seems. Gone off into one of those wild fantasy worlds where he vehemently denies something or other to do with his ownership of Liverpool Football Club. All around him are great big pointers to whatever he’s denying being actually true, yet he stands there and says it isn’t."
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"One day we might laugh, maybe, if these dark days ever end. One day we’ll probably laugh at him, as we come to terms with whatever was left behind when he does finally leave. It seems doubtful we’ll ever laugh with him. For now his attitude causes anger and the kind of resentment that meant his son Tommy was unable to sit in an English pub near Anfield and talk to fans.”
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There was more of the same in February but in March he decided that in fact he had been conned. What will be noted from all of the above is that Boardman’s anti Hicks and Gillett sentiments are virtually exclusively based upon actions or statements attributed to the two owners or their PR people.
Incredibly in the passage of merely a month Boardman claims that he now considers himself to be have been misled by lies and spin from DIC when writing in January. He has decided that doubt must be cast on all of these (his) nasty slurs against Tom Hicks who might, after all, be Liverpool Football Club’s saviour if only he can get the (still nasty) George Gillett to sell him his Shares. DIC, he reckons, must be viewed with the gravest of suspicion because they want to buy the club so badly they are prepared to pay more to George Gillett than Hicks can afford. DIC are also unwilling to come clean, says Boardman, with all of their corporate strategy and future plans for the club?
Conned??? Jim Boardman by DIC or us by Jim Boardman? On a postcard please.
1 comment:
Is half of this article missing? I can see all the attacks on Hicks you said would come but you've not told us what he's saying now that means he's done a complete u-turn.
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