The Debate: do Liverpool's owners know what they're doing?

Poor Rafa. Not only were Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr sounding out Jurgen Klinsmann as a potential candidate to replace the Liverpool manager should Benitez do the dirty on them, but then Hicks told the Liverpool Echo that they went behind the Spaniard's back. Do the actions of the Liverpool owners make sense? Were they right to attempt to take out an 'insurance policy' should Benitez leave? Are their very actions inclined to make Benitez want to leave? Vote in our poll and share your comments on the situation at Anfield.

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Comments

[Julian]

Dear Times,

No offence but "Do Liverpools owners know what they're doing?" has got to be the most dim-witted question The Times has ever asked... or maybe it's rhetorical?!

Nuff Said!

[mulder]

Dont understand what Jerry Breslin is going on about, when Rafa was rotating and we were winning, their was no complaints then !!! the off the field activities is causing on field crisis.........simple.

[Pat]

Give Rafa the freedom, stability and cruicially the funds to manage the team he wants and the results will follow. Come on Redmen!

[Ken Hall]

Kevin Keegan gets a blank cheque.
Rafa Benitez gets blank looks.

[seamus]

they don't need to know what they are doing its there toy to play with as they please the own the whole thing, they rightley do not have to answer to anyone

[Alan Heaton]

Supporting a football team in the Premier League these days is like supporting a highly leveraged hedge fund. Like the hedge funds they will soon run into financial difficulties.

[Paco]

How many titles won Liverpool before Benitez in the last 10 years?

As far as I remember, he has won a Champion's League and reached the final of another one.

I'm reading some comments saying that Benitez should have been shacked before... incredible, hope they aren't Liverpool fans.

Football is stability, team and patience. There are 4-5 teams on each european league that want to win the title.

Should Rijkjaard be sacked because Barcelona is not playing so good on the Spanish league this year? Another stupid debate.

The only problem with Benitez is that he is clear with what he says. And he clearly said that the team still need more players in the winter transfer window to win the league.

In Spain, the problems with Valencia begun when Benitez said "I asked for a table and they brought me a lamp". Even tough, he won the Spanish league.

Same thing.

At the end, it seems to be a question of ego. Chairman should always haver the last word... and this is the problem. Do you really believe that Hicks & Gillet know anything of football?

If yes, they should be the managers. If not, as I think, they should just listen to the experts and try to help.

Benitez is a great manager. If he is sacked very big clubs of Europe will be fighting for their services.

BTW, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter, Juventus & Milan expend each year more than 50 million pounds and some years they don't win their leagues, neither their cups (last 5 years neither Real Madrid or Barcelona in Spain), and winning a champion's is the hardest task... in Madrid, they dream with the 10th since some years ago.

Football is Sport, not business. If we allow businessman to manage sport, nothing to do.

That's my sincere opinion: consider Benitez a great manager, that of course he is, give him stability and watch out how titles arrive.

Cheers!

[Ian]

Do half of the people commenting on here have a clue about football? Call yourselves Liverpool supporters, you have got as much idea of The Liverpool Way as Messers Hicks and Gillett. Klinsman as manager, he's got no track record in club management.So all you lot who want Rafa gone go back to what you were interested in a couple of years ago,we don't need your sort of support (have you even been to Anfield?)Either that or you are pretending to be Liverpool fans and actually support somebody else.Keep the Faith, YNWA.

[sen]

The only thing out of all this is money issue.The americans dont have a penny and are squeezed with loans and liverpool cant really compete to higher level anymore under their command now .In a certain way they are feeling the pressure from fans and media.rafa for instance is here with a c.v and had done much during his liverpool career .Needless to say that now liverpool is facing one of the most difficult time of his existence where manu -chelsea have definetly been very much backed up by their owners so the yanks is desperate to find someone who would dance in their tunes which means we dont have much to expect now from our team for the coming years.unless someone else is willing to buy liverpool.The real issue is money and with that squad its impossible to think further and discuss ...its a dead end.

[phil howells]

parry and moores should hang there heads in shame for the mess they have put us in, They hawked the club around the world looking for a buyer stating "you only get to sell the crown jewels once and we need to get it right" obviously they didnt.

they sold out for a couple of quid a share more. if we had gone with DIC the ground would now be half built and investments would have been made in the team DIC only do quality investments look at there track record.

parry looked after his and moores interests keeping his job and lining moores pockets.
as the banner on the kop tonight said DIC SOS YANKS OUT!

[Arni]

No, cause obviously the yanks do not have any people skills. I seriously doubut that they have the financial backup aswell.
So they do not have a clue.

[Jason Kohler]

If you support Rafa or not one must admit that H&G are freaking clowns who can only bring us closer to Newcastle and Spurs, not United, Chelsea, and Arsenal.

What can we supporters do but refuse to buy tickets and merchandise until they sell the club.

[christopher quinn]

Firstly i would like to point out that rick parry and david moores have wasted years searching for credible new owners and this is whom they brought in!Benitez has frustrated me this term with team selection or rotation, however we must realise that we are shopping at aldays whilst chelsea ,utd and arsenal have been purging in harrods for years now .We need to be realistic rio ferdinand cost 27 million how many years ago ? and we have just broken our transfer record for a defender at 6.5 million .so were is the money ? you guessed it we still have none, as these guys have none, infact they don't even have the money they are borrowing to fund the new stadium .Rick parry i think you are in danger of bieng linched by the very people who pay your wages (the fans).please do us all a favour and leave swiftly and take the bullshitin yanks with you, they are not welcome at britains most sucessful football club (round ball football)

[A Syed]

That's a weird question. It should be "No" because they should have sacked him earlier, when quality managers like Capello (and Klinsmann was not approached by Bayern) were available. They were trophyless last year and after spending over £50m in the transfer window, they have the same points as Villa in the league, almost got knocked out by Besiktas & Marseilles at Champions League (eventually finished below Porto), knocked out of the League Cup and struggling at staying at FA Cup against "owner-less" Luton. Underachievement? You bet! However, the "No" might be deemed as the owners have no idea and are wrong at sacking Fat Rafa, which is obviously not the case...

[John]

If it weren't for 9 amazing minutes in Istanbul, Rafa would have been fired long ago.

The perception of his ability as a manager in England has been radically skewed since Dudek saved the final penalty.

[Daniel E. Vergara]

Interesting debate. Could you please direct me to the page where as many people discuss in as great a length the alleged human rights record of Manchester City's owner? If Henry Kissinger or George W. Bush bought a Premier League club you would all (rightly) rise as one in fury, and you would all (rightly) boycott anyone and anything associated with said club (as would I). But when the alleged victims are a different color, and really far away, then it's not so important, is it? I can't help but notice that the corresponding article AOTG linked is titled "Americans to feel Liverpool fans' fury". Not "owners", not "incompetent businessmen" or even "clueless", but simply "Americans". That seems to be the qualifying attribute about these men. I am to the left of all of you, and nobody is aware of the jaw-dropping stupidity of the average American more than I am, but I'm pretty sure the tone of this conversation would be different had the owners come from the right side of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, said tone would also be different if the owners had arrived from Sudan or Burma. Oh sure, Monsieur Platini and all of you would say, they love the game.

[Andy Jay]

i think it is sad that Rick Parry who knows Liverpool is allowing this whole situation to spiral out of control! we are not like chelsea where all our business is splashed across the papers, we do things privately as it has always been done! Rick parry should know better and take control of the situation, he should be teling the americans that this is not the way Liverpool is run, telling all these storys and then sitting back and watching the mayhem unfold!

Benitez does not always get it right, but he is the man that will take Liverpool to glory in the premiership! i think we need to just get all the press off his back, the owners and parry need to start backing the manager and taking the spotlight off benitez!

[Kellogs]

I would have loved Klinsmann to have come here I am sick of Rafa's over-cautious approach to every game. He is obsessed with defensive midfielders, we have now FOUR first team players in that position (even though Lucas Leiva is one of the most exciting young brazilian attacking midfielders in the world) 1/4 price of Man Utd's Anderson twice as much talent & potential) he plays him as a defensive player!!!!
2 in midfield 1 up front alone at home to Wigan!! Houllier was the same maybe/anybody who can A) sign a decent forward partner for Torres B) sign a decent winger C) try to win games w/o killing any decisive attacking football welcome at Anfield (or whatever we name the new ground!)

[Will H]

Rafa couldn't have made it clearer that he wouldn't go unless sacked. Hicks and Gillett want him to resign so they can play innocent and not come off any worse than they already have. If they had quietly looked into other options then there isn't a problem, it's still business and they have every right to shop around, but to come out and announce it is unacceptable. Just a blatant power play that further undermines a team that is struggling a bit on the field.

They promise cash, they don't deliver. The team's run to the CL final and the selling of players allowed for the summer signings. They promise a stadium. they can't deliver. The promise to be owners, but can't even pay their loans. They can't even muster the basic footballing knowledge, and the reasonable fee, needed to know how good Mascherano is and sign him.

Hicks and Gillet and Parry, don't have a decent notion between them. We'd be better off plucking someone from the stands to run the team, at least they know a bit of the game and care a shred.

If Rafa leaves it will be a big step back and frankly a large part of a return into mediocrity for a club has been getting better and better over the last three years.

They will turn Liverpool into a club like Newcastle and Tottenham. All hype, promise, good support, and shocking management from top to bottom.

[Jerry Breslin]

I think H & G know exactly what they are doing. Rafa's insane rotation policy means that he fields teams that are strangers to each other, instead of being team-mates who know each others game inside out. A consistent team using this squad is good enough to win the premiership. H & G know this.

[John West]

Benitez - three European Cup Finals in four years with Valencia and Liverpool plus one FA Cup. Klinsman - nil.
The Americans should back the winner they have and stop looking for a 'yes' man.

[King Fox]

Hopefully Hick's comments were made to put all the cards on the table but I doubt it.. It was at best a naive move or at worst intended to undermine Rafa's position.

The fact that they were lining up Klinsmann as a potential manager really sums up their lack of footballing knowledge.The semi final achievement aside (on home soil), he has no managerial pedigree.

Liverpool have made a lot of progress under Benitez. He inherited a woeful squad from Houllier (bar a couple of obvious exceptions)and during his tenure has spent no where near the amount that Ferguson has. The one occasion he has been allowed to spend like United or Chelsea, he has signed one of the best players to arrive in the premier league in years (Torres).

Liverpool may not win the league this year but little has been made of their injuries and the amount of under performing players like Riise,Finnan,Kuyt,Crouch,Benayoun and to a certain degree Carragher (although I am reluctant to include him). Both Agger and Alonso are huge players for liverpool.

The board should back Benitez not only this season but next season,regardless of what manager they feel is more qualified, Benitez has more of a chance of winning the league next year with the foundations laid in the previous 4 seasons.

[matt]

do Liverpool's owners know what they're doing?

CLEARLY NOT!!!!!!

[nick]

One hopes Rafa will be equally open and honest if he is approached by another club.

Somehow I doubt it though.

[Sé]

The yanks (and Rick Parry and David Moores) are all second - raters. Say what you like about the gangs in charge at Chelsea and Manchester, but they do know how to run a smooth ship. The yanks (and Parry) have been spectacularly unsuccessful in raising funds and making plans. The uncertainty surrounding the stadium is past being funny. Likewise, their failure to give proper support to Rafa in the market. Any club worth its salt would have Mascherano sign immediately. Parry, Hicks and Gillett - listen and listen good - Out, Out, Out - and good riddance to all three.

[Izzy Khan]

We should have taken the offer from DCI. Gillett and Hicks brought Liverpool with there own best intrest at heart. A club with such history seems to be in turmoil under its new owners. In rafa i trust!!

[Bill]

Rafa's days have been numbered ever since he went public with his criticism of G&H last year. They've tried to line Klinsmann up; he's turned them down, so they'll stick with Rafa until the summer. Even they're not as useless as Ashley - sacking someone mid-season with no alternative in place.

[Black Lightning]

I think the owners having a back up plan should Benitez walk makes great business sense.

The fact that they came out and admitted it is an honourable gesture and shows they want all cards on the table.

I would also expect Benitez to be angry after the initial disclosure but come to his senses when he realises what they did made sense and they have been honest.

I would like to add that Benitez is the right man for the job and I hope he stays and is given the chance to continue helping Liverpool progress. He has laid the foundations for something special and needs more time for the long term plan to come to fruition!