Good riddance to Hicks and Gillett?

Oliver Kay has exclusively revealed in The Times that George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks (left), Liverpool's American owners, have granted Dubai International Capital (DIC) permission to examine the club's accounts with a view to making an official takeover bid.

Welcomed as saviours a year ago, the Americans' stock has plummeted with Liverpool fans after taking the club into debt - something they said they wouldn't do - but also for talking to Jurgen Klinsmann about replacing Rafael Benitez  as manager behing the Spaniard's back. Furthermore, large-scale plans for a new stadium revealed in July were later dropped because of spiralling costs. And only this Saturday, Tom Hicks Jr, who was invited to join the board by his father, got a bum steer from some supporters in a pub near Anfield after the victory against Middlesbrough. 

So what do you think - will you bid good riddance to Tom and George? Or have the Amercians copped most of the flak for the shortcomings of Rafael Benitez - his rotation policy and under-performing squad? How do you feel about a possible takeover by DIC? Will they run the club any better? Have you changed your opinion about foreign ownership of Premier League clubs? Whatever your opinion, share your thoughts with us.

Comments

[karen]

What is it with you lot and liverpool?. Is it jealousy or what?. I've never seen so many comments from none livepool fan's.Let me put it this way, if DIC or i should say when they take over watch out. Chelsea and man united will be pauper's compared with these guy's. I'm not a liverpool supporter but have to wonder why mainly united and chelsea fan's have this obession with liverpool.

When the liverpool fan's say other fan's are jealous of us, your all making them sound right!!! Consentrate on your own team's and stop this unhealthy fixation with liverpool, it's really sad and disturbing.

[Chris]

As an Everton fan, I would be more than happy to see Benitez stay at Anfield. Under his reign Liverpool will continue to stutter, have false dawns etc.. Admittedly The FA Cup and Champions League wins were incredible (although both on penalties), but as long as he is there, their will be no League success. Most of his transfers have been failures, and he has a worrying trait of not being able to get the players motivated for any game apart from the big Premier League and Champions League matches.

[Dan]

Edwin - engage the brain before commenting please. To pick up directly on your words:

Cisse - bought by Houllier and Benitez at least got a decent transfer fee for him from Marseilles despite his injuries/poor scoring record

Kuyt - yes

Voronin - free

Bellamy - sold at a profit

Crouch - good return and will be sold at a profit

Torres - great signing

Fowler - free

Babel - great signing

Also, don't forget Benitez also had to sell Owen as his first act as manager, and has also sold Baros etc for decent prices.

So net Benitez has spent £30 million on the attack in 3+ years (including Morientes), and we now have a strikeforce that includes Torres, Kuyt and Babel. And yet people like you still imply Benitez has not been good in the transfer market!

[Edwin, Netherlands]

I can't believe the blindness of these red's supporters. "Give Rafa money and the title will be for us!" As if Benitez wasn't given money at all! Cisse, Kuyt, Voronin, Bellamy, Crouch, Torres, Fowler, Babel,; he simply can't decide which strikers to play and you call it a "rotationsystem"?! No goals, no title.

[burrator, france]

We must always remember that these 'investors' are not buying up the premier league for the benefit of the clubs.They are doing it to make a lot of money! The clubs will continue to be merely brands for aggressive marketing and profiteering.

[Dicky]

Whether we/you like it or not, it's a new world. Stadiums cost £500MM+, an annual top club wage bill is £150MM+ and a decent transfer budget is £50-75MM+...and that's if you get it right on all your major buys. You are bonkers to think a big club can live without debt (never mind build a new stadium-check out Arsenal's debt) and crazy to think owners shouldn't have contingency plans with regard to management....think Mike Ashley gives a damn Hicks spoke with Klinsmann....guess it's OK for him to bring in Keegan's replacement before he's been on the job a month....give us a break?

So far, there's only one Roman A. Good luck with your new sugar daddy - or better yet, take over the club yourself - and once you raise the first £500MM, then start working on the summer transfer budget and the stadium over-runs.

I can understand you expect more from Liverpool...supporters spitting on the owner's son....good God...when will sanity return to that corner of English football.

[Nelson]

Why don't we go ahead and call the owners what they are: scapegoats. Liverpool simply doesn't have the finances to compete with Arsenal, ManU or Chelsea. Have you Brits forgotten where the Torres money came from? Where the stadium financing came from?

I lived in Oxford for two months and every time I was in a pub, some random person felt the need to berate me because I was American. I want to come to Anfield for a game, but now I'm worried that I'd have to be a mute if I did for fear of showers of beer and spit. I'm a hardcore fan. Should it really matter where I'm from?

I seem to have rambled. Anyway, don't fool yourselves into thinking that DIC will leave you alone with a big pile of cash. They have more dirty laundry than you would ever care to see.

[J. Davis]

Yeah. The yanks failed to score during their striking partnership.

And they picked the wrong players out of a poorly assembled squad.

Always someone else to blame!

[azhar khan]

The takeover by DIC will only be good for Liverpool FC if they keep Rafa as manager and also give him the funds he needs to buy the players he thinks will help us win the title. For years he has cried out for a proper transfer budget that can help us put up a challenge for the title and for all the success the club has acheived under him he deserves a chance to show that he was right in asking for a large budget and that he can bring us the title. I have always thought that Liverpool can not challeng for the title if we can not challenge in the transfer market and hopefully we can compete properly. It is a sad state of a affairs nowadays but the reality is that the title can only be bought nowadays.

If DIC keep Rafa at the club and give him the funds he wants we WILL win the title.

[John]

The fact that anyone would take the British press seriously is laughable.

[nicki, california,usa]

i am an American who loves football;
being watching World Cups since i was 7 years old. These American owners, unfortunately, do not under-stand football business nor enjoy the game; this was a quick buy and now, a quick sale. Worse of all, their attitude, treating fans and team as prisoners of war. Good riddance!!!!

[Gavin O'Neill]

I am a liverpool fan for the past 25 years and I am just so saddened by the fact that the inner most dealings of the club are open fare. This is not the club I grew up supporting, this is the biggest problem I have with the current owners. Yes they lied about the debt, yes they talked to another manager behind Raf's back etc etc. But it is just not acceptable to have the clubs 'dirty linen' aired in public like this! Also I am unsure of the intentions of DIC which worries me considering what has happened to the club in the past year. For instance any move to oust a manager who has brought us only forwards since Gerard Houlliers reign seems foolish. Back the manager in the transfer market where he doesn't HAVE to sell to buy will only improve the quality of the squad as a whole and that is what we are lacking. Our best 11 can beat anyone on a given day, but injuries and fatigue required better squad players over a full league season.

[Andres Prica Pesic]

I really don't understand some of the comments I see about Rafa Benitez here. Being a Liverpool fan since the 80's when I first visited England, it is clear to me, as it is to most true LFC supporters, that Rafa is the one that has brought our club back from oblivion. Just forget his controversial rotation policies, and your own amateur oppinions (including mine) that are easy to make afterwards and from the sidelines, and think for a moment about his track record, Spanish Primera title holder x2 (undoubtedly the most difficult league in the world), UEFA champion, Champions League finalist twice and once winner, FA cup, etc... If we remove RAFA, who has also injected new qualities into the premiership, who are we going to bring in his stead? Rafa is, also according to his colleagues, one of the best in the world. Very few Managers of his callibre are available, most of them currently unaproachable, leaving as the only true realistically viable option Mourinho - the arrogant, boastfull, pushy, and downright outrageous former Chelsea Manager that no one in Liverpool, except maybe Everton fans, would like to see coaching our legendary club. As I always say, its easy to be Wayne Rooney, but its hard to be Zinedine Zidane. Its also easy to be Mourinho, its bloody hard to be Rafael Benitez. DIC know this, Im sure, and if they do anything at all, other than building a new stadium and congratulationg themselves on buying a piece of English history, it will most definitely not be hurting the club by firing RAFA THE GAFFA.

[Jmd]

bye bye

[C.Elder]

Just as in many historical situations(WW1;WW2;Kosovo etc)the Americans show up and save everyone's bacon,then the ungrateful wretches they save show no gratitude and vilify them unjustly.I am glad they are leaving as it takes away the last excuse the scousers have for years of underperformance.

[Dave]

After the 39th gane proposal it was in one of the papers that people in Dubai wanted to buy a premiership club and move it to Dubai to play their permiership home games.
People from Dubai now look to be buying a premiership club what next I wonder.

[Mark]

I'm glad it looks like the Americans will be selling soon (although with Hicks you can never be too sure) but I won't be welcoming DIC with open arms. I think desperation of a new regime meant that Gillette and Hicks were given hero status at the beginning for just showing up - DIC will be treated differently and assessed more objectively on what they achieve at the club.
I don't know whether DIC will be our saviours and how much they'll invest into the club but at least I can take some comfort in the fact that they have a huge pool of wealth behind them that should at least keep the club stable and secure.