Bizarro World

Remember the old Superman comics when he went into a parallel universe? That's how I feel reading the new rash of posts on various sites saying perhaps we have to settle with Hicks. None of them actually makes a case for Hicks. What they do is show how Parry Moores and Gillett are the real villains and DIC? Well what do we know about them? They might borrow they might not keep Rafa, the sheikh might not be a real fan etc. Its like because they have not given assurances on these matters they must be planning the worst. Weird logic or what?

It's an altered reality. In this “reality” to blow the whistle is more heinous than the lies and wrongdoing being exposed. Where David Moores and Rick Parry after months of dignified silence finally speak. Moores in exasperation at the circus he sees playing itself out daily and Parry in the face of appalling public humiliation yet on some sites their deciding to hit back in kind is ridiculed and condemned as hypocrisy over the “Liverpool Way”.  

Even today from the Echo we get more reinvention of history. Remember the “Gillett is the bigger villain campaign” by the Hicks crew, weren’t we assured that the Klinsmann business was down to Gillett already knowing him and that Tom was just along for the ride? Now we find that Hicks was the one to hold the in depth one-on-one session with Klinsmann at his home and further that he has been seeking Klinsmanns’ input on LFC team issues since. Yet on the blogs the emphasis is on who let the cat out of the bag and why would they do that? Not on the lies and backstabbing nature of the “lesser of two evils”. And all this is a way of doing business that we must resign ourselves to? Why? because a case is made to prove the others are Hitler we should settle for Mussolini because he makes the trains run on time? As I said an altered reality!

Another Day, Another Leak, Another Crisis

If it was happening at any other club we would be in fits laughing. But it is our club that is providing entertainment for our rivals on a daily basis. as hard as Rafa strives to get something worthwhile out of the season so the clowns above him work just as hard to undermine all he achieves.

This current revisit of the Klinsmann business seems a simple enough matter of Hicks retaliating for Parry's defiance in going into work and garnering support from both Gillett and Moores. The leak of the fact that Parry attended the talks with Klinsmann could only hurt Parry in the eyes of the fans and Rafa. So to me it is a no brainer as to where it came from. As the CEO at the time Parry would have been told to attend the meeting. To refuse to do so would have cost him his job. How do we know it wasn't Parry or someone close to him who leaked news of the approach to Klinsmann to Rafa back in November when the whole circus kicked off. Think about it, Rafa found out that Klinsmann had been tapped up up but there was no mention of Parry. The source of the leak either did not know of Parry's involvement or was protecting Parry and simply wanted to warn Rafa of what the two owners were up to behind his back.

This is a real crisis for the club and a time when all fans need to make there support for the manager and the squad known. regretably we still have posters complaining that time is spent "moaning" about the mess these americans have gotten us into and why don't we concentrate on the team etc. Its like, your only supposed to use one brain cell at a time and can't do both. At the Man U match I was sat in the main stand and at half time the guys around me were discussing then ownership mess. One guy sat there reading his paper until just before the second half kicked off and said "You people don't have any right to go on about our owners, the club belongs to them end of. Anyway nothing can happen without the FA's approval so what are you worried about" We were gobsmacked. 

These people are like the idiots who never vote in a general election but moan like f*ck when the country goes down the pan. Of course there are fans who just want to go to the match on Saturday then go home and forget about football until next week but when posters come on sites trying to stop more involved or concerned fans expressing their concerns then that only helps the likes of Hicks who only wants yes men around him at the club and sucker fans who pay any price to watch the match in a shiny new stadium.

Liverpool 3 Blackburn 1

A comfortable win and Rafa will be pleased that Blackburn presented such a feeble challenge after Tuesday's exertions. Another fine 90 minutes from Skrtl and it is a tribute to him that Jamie Carragher now seems to have total confidence in him. Arbeloa and Aurelio are Rafa's preferred choice when we need to add an extra attacking dimension. Stevie and Torres are the form attacking duo in the Premier League just now and today was a gilt-edged show from them especially in the second half.

We seem to have suddenly discovered how to take set pieces. We threatened from all of the ones awarded to us but maybe that was down to the poor opposition. Babel still cannot get the trip which is odd in an athlete his age. Whatever, it was the right substitution at the right time and that is another departure from Rafa's norm, earlier in the season he would have waited another 10 minutes or so. Benayoun played well in the time he was on and as usual Kuyt more than earned his corn. 

Almost a training game really, the drama was introduced by the referee. How many times have we seen a ref bottle his first big decision and have problems from then on. I had to laugh at the commentator at half time talking about a disallowed goal - the flag was up, the whistle had gone and reina simply allowed the shot to pass him!

Management for Dummies, by T. O. Hicks. Chapter 4: Performance Appraisal

Conventional management wisdom has it that a performance review of a CEO should be carried out at Board level in private with the employee (CEO) present to discuss his/her performance against benchmarks, targets and competencies. I don't think this gets the job done and I will demonstrate the method I advocate by means of a case study:

Liverpool Football Club

Background: The CEO was hampering club progress so needed to be canned asap.

Form of Appraisal: Issue a letter affording the CEO the opportunity to resign.

Venue: No need for a formal meeting. Leak the letter to the media so that it's terms are in the public domain before the individual can react.

Performance against Benchmarks: As detailed in the letter 

Performance against targets:        ditto

Competencies: Ignore as you wouldn't be getting rid if he/she had any

Comments by jobholder:     of no particular relevance

Keep Your Eyes on the Ball not the Trouble in the Crowd

There is one issue preventing our club moving on from the current mess, Hicks won't sell. We need to focus on making it impossible for him to maintain that position. Recrimination about Parry, Moores and the rest of it are merely a sideshow. Gillett wants to sell but not to Hicks and by thwarting Hicks he is acting as an ally. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" never was more apt than in this situation.

I guess that the sustained enmity of the majority of fans against Hicks is a factor in his inability to convince anyone to help him raise funds to offer to buy out Gillett. Proof of that lies in the obvious attempts of his useless PR people in infiltrating the various websites with pro-Hicks posts. This has backfired spectacularly and there are signs of desperation, as the days count down, in Hicks lashing out at Parry. The counter-coup is gathering strength and Hicks knows he is losing his grip on our club.

Those fans tiring of the whole business and wishing it would settle down should recall what this week means to us. What more contempt could be shown for our club, our history and our fans than to plunge the club into more controversy at the very time we wanted emphasis to be on our fallen fellow fans and their grieving families. 

Nineteenth Hillsborough memorial

Sobering to think that this was 19 years ago and yet those heartrending scenes are still fresh in the memory. Turbulent times right now for our club pale into insignificance at the scale of the loss of loved ones in such circumstances. In being at one with those grieving families I also remember the support and sympathies of those outside of and even of rival clubs, Evertonians in particular. The emotional occasion at Anfield this season when Z-cars theme was played and Rafa’s embrace of another grieving mother also attest to the spirit these tragedies should reinforce in us. RIP YNWA

Moores Hits the Right Notes

The interview in the Echo today was fascinating in that David Moores came down firmly on the side of both Rick Parry and Rafa whilst soundly castigating both the warring owners. It could be asked why he waited until his main ally in the club became embroiled in the morass before speaking out after all the fans have been suffering this circus since the Rafa/Klinsmann business came out last year.

I would also argue that to bleat about the old "Liverpool Way" is a bit pointless after months of all sides using the media to influence events. Surely David Moores isn't claiming it would have been better if all this nonsense had been kept behind closed doors. None of it would ever have happened had a proper due diligence been done on hicks and Gillett. According to Doug Ellis it only took him a phone call and a quick google search to establish that Gillett didn't have the finances for Villa. It appals me that Moores can say even now he knew little about Hicks even whilst handing the club he loves over to him. Did he take Gillett's word on Hicks? Was that the "Liverpool Way" to hand over our club to strangers?

Having had my moan I do say that with this frank interview David Moores is coming in from the cold. He covers the main issues openly yet behind his words I get the message, these two have to go asap and we should worry about who comes in once they are on the way out of the door. It is obvious to me from the way the order of battle is shaping up that most people at the club are desperate to see the back of both of them but that Hicks in particular has shocked them with his plans to bleed the club dry.