Flight

We can't hit the profits. He knows we are amongst the most committed and dedicated fans through good times and bad. He will exploit that as far as he possibly can, beginning with sectioned ticketing and increased prices, as soon as he can get away with it. This sort of protest is one of the only things I can see working - hurting his reputation and highlighting his business practises. Feel free to offer practical suggestions on alternate ways of making our protest clear, instead of sitting on your a*** doing nothing.

/applaud

Couldn't agree less. Stupid post.

Hicks relationship has broken down with Rafa. Hicks relationship has broken down with Gillett. Hicks relationship has broken down with Parry. Hicks relationship has broken down with Moores. Hicks erlationship has broken down with Foster Gillett. I don't know, maybe you are right; maybe Hicks isn't the one at fault in all of this .........

Can't argue with that, but as a CB he that isn't part of his game. It was all poor distribution, poor passing and lots of hoofing, for much of the match. Contrast that to Skrtel who was constantly looking to play it on the ground and keep possession. Very early for Skrtel, but if he can build on todays display him and Agger would complement each other superbly.

Sadly, I thought Carra once again showed his limitations. If Skrtel builds on todays solid display I can see Agger and Skrtel being first choice CB next term. Kills me to say it. Has a heart as big as Souness and red through and through.

Shooting his mouth off while covering the Sunderland match. 'We shouldn't be talking about this protest, they've (Hicks and Gillett) come in and put money into the club, why don't the fans just let them get on with things?'. 'All the fans should just go home; they are making it worse.' Good player for us; total g*******.

I agree about Lescott. He has been s*** hot on Champ Manager for years; how could he have passed everyone by.

Damn. Elisha said ..'makes up an outrageous rumour'.

Have to say its totally obvious to all of us that Hicks plan the past few months was to undermine Rafa. Why be surprised if we have performed poorly on the pitch if the owner(s) have been trying to destroy our manager and his credibility ? Hicks is on the way to getting what he wanted and what he planned to do. Just be aware that he is far more interested in profit, with next to no investment, than he is with success.

Got to agree, Hicks has totally undermined Rafa and cut his authority apart. Ferguson had a bad season with the Mancs, in what was going to be his last season - yet he was far less undermined than Rafa has been. I believe Rafa can come through this, but he will need Stevie to man up and back him. Regardless of Rafa, what I'm really trying to underline is not to lose focus on Hicks and his plans for our club.

Just one more to back that up : The Rangers have finished LAST or next to last for almost an entire decade now, yet attendance has actually been pretty good. Attendance isn't a problem with the Rangers, never has been, and likely never will be. Hicks knows full well we are the best and most committed fans in the world. And he will exploit the heck out of it. Not only will we take it up the ass, we will apply the Vaseline and bend over backwards for him.

Hicks fields a very average team, drastically cuts payroll, and annually raises ticket prices. Sounds like a good business model! "Removing Tom Hicks" "I would be all for a strike/boycott of the Rangers until Hicks sold the team to get his sorry ass out of here and get us a real owner." "I would agree that Ranger administration, if winning games is the object, has not done well over the last third of a century, or so. " "How much better would those teams have been if they'd had access to more funding for starting pitching?" "Since I'm as big a Liverpool FC fan as I am a Rangers fan, I couldn't be happier. Hicks and Gillette are already becoming hated men in England" "They want his personal cash over there. Is this why our Rangers always get the crumbs? Maybe someone should offer some money for the Rangers so he can keep Liverpool, or have the Liverpudlians already figured out that angle ALREADY!" "I think if you look at what resources Hicks had, he may be the worst owner ever. " Angry Rangers Fans "there is frustration with losing and frustration of the Hicks tenure." "I think most every Ranger fan has been disappointed in the on-field performance of this team for a number of years. " I could go on for hours posting quotes like this from that one forum. Feel free to bury your head in the sand, but I guarantee you this : Hicks is only interested in making as much profit, with as little investment as possible. Don't miss out on that 'as little investment as possible'. He is not interested in on the pitch success.

He does not need, and isn't planning for, success on the pitch. Here's a fabulous post from coct3au on RAWK; IMO this should be posted and stickied on the front page of every LFC fan site out there, so we can keep our eyes on the real danger facing our club : Exhibit A (link to full article) "The Premier League [...] announced it would earn a staggering £1.7bn from its live domestic TV rights in the three seasons from 2007-08 onwards. The League's TV money is allocated in three ways: 50 per cent is shared equally between the 20 clubs, 25 per cent is spent on prizemoney depending on finishing position and 25 per cent is used for "facility fees" depending on how many of a club's games are televised live." Exhibit B1 (link) Exhibit B2 (link) Exhibit B3 (link) Exhibit C1 (link to full article) "All of these teams have become businesses in the past 20 years," Hicks said. " ... This business has to do with fan affinity and brand devotion. It doesn't necessarily have to do with winning." That fan base, like the 100-million-plus associated with Hick's new Liverpool FC football team in England, is a prime target for advertisers, who Hicks said are paying increasingly larger amounts of money in efforts to reach them. "New media is the big push these days," he said. "Today you can watch a ballgame from anywhere in the world, except Dallas-Fort Worth, on MLB.com, or you can get on your Blackberry or other handheld device to check game stats or news." And increasingly more corporate partnership and co-branding opportunities are presenting themselves, Hicks said. For advertisers, Asia is becoming a large target, he said. Liverpool FC, in fact, plays its games during Asia's prime time hours in an effort to capture that audience. Exhibit C2 (link) "How does a team build brand recognition and brand loyalty without winning? I'm not sure how that's supposed to work." "Maybe look to the Cubs for that answer? The Cubs are very unique and their fanbase is highly overrated as loyal. First, Wrigley is a major tourist destination. Very few ballparks have that distinction and all the teams that do have high attendance figures [...] the #1 reason people take fake sick days is to go to Cubs games. It's a culture thing there, you blow off work to go see the Cubs [...] You go there and get tanked. It is not called the World's largest frat party for no reason. [...] They are loyal to blowing off work, getting tanked, and seeing the "great" Wrigley Field." Exhibit C3 (link) "Building brand loyalty is about business practices and business practices, as we in the newspaper/dotcom business know, is no longer about long-term investment, but about maximizming in the short-term. There isn't a for-profit business in the world that doesn't try to maximize its profit given its current revenue. And that is what it appears Hicks is saying. He's going to try and build his business with the assets he's got."

Some folks need to be careful what they wish for. Hicks has a history of sacking managers and replacing them with dross. That gives him a free hand to do what he wants. In summary : 1. Hicks is not interested in success on the field. The only thing that motivates him is as much profit as possible, with as little investment as possible. 2. His history with sport is bleeding dry institutions he is associated with. 3. If Rafa leaves it will strengthen Hicks position immeasurably. He will put in place a coach who will not cross him. Hicks is not interested in success on the pitch. His business plan is to build a stadium, incurring massively more debt, then bleed the fans dry with large increases in ticket prices, which will be structured. He will implement that as soon as he can get away with it.

No change there then.

The alternative is to bury our heads in the sand. Nero fiddling while Rome burns. I agree, a very sad day in our clubs history, but we have a responsibility to make sure our future lives up to our past.

Haven't heard much discussion or in the press about yesterdays decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It drastically reduces how much compensation players have to pay if they walk out on their contract, once it is unprotected. They will now only have to pay the wages they were due for the remainder of their contract. It overruled and critized a precedent set by FIFA in the case of Andy Webster, when he walked out on Hearts, reducing what had to be paid from 625,000 to 150,000. Ronaldo, Fabregas and Torres, for example, would all be able to walk in two summers time and pay just 12mill. Anyone know any more about this ? Found the Independent article on it here : http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/footbal...pen-776041.html

I agree with nearly all of that. The one thing I'd ask of him at the moment is to man up and back Rafa. If Stevie is the captain we need he needs to take a couple of leafs out of Roy Keanes book and kick some a*** when things are bad, instead of sulking like a Jessy waiting for an arm around his shoulder. Rafa is strong minded and stubborn the way Taggart is. Its a huge quality that not many managers have. If folks don't like that I suppose we could ask Uncle Roy back and have half the team out on the piss every night. You've criticized Rafa for asking for passion from the players, but he was right to do so. Most of the players needed slapping around the face after last night. though not Stevie. If Rafa stays, he will get it right and make us challengers again. But, he will need the captains backing to do so. If Rafa leaves we will be confined to mid table before you know it; Hicks will have the license he wants to bring in yes men and spend f*** all.

Great post. If it was shorter I'd use it as my signature. Seems a lot of folk need reminding of this on a daily basis. And Arsenal last season and now this is a great example. Same as Ferguson taking 7 years to win the Prem, coming in 11th, 7th, 5th, 11th in prior seasons and breaking the British transfer record twice on the way. Seems some people don't support the owners (thats fair enough), don't support the manager and don't support the players. Just some ideal about what we were 20 years ago. As for the Chavs, they had a succession of managers who each progressed the club on the pitch and the squad, prior to Maureen. Rafa had to pick up the pieces from Roy and Ged. Mourihno isn't half the manager Rafa is and it would break my heart to see him come here.

Has Babel started many (any) Prem games this term ?

No-one is making excuses for Hicks; I despise the man. All I am saying is : i) the jury is out on Gillett, until he makes his position clear; ii) any disagreement between the owners on how far to take the debt has to be built upon. For all we know Hicks and Gillett might be playing a good cop/bad cop routine.

I've no doubt Parry leaks stuff to the press, which contain 'inaccuracies'. Whenever there are events happening that could throw doubt on him, we see a different story appear in the press. Transfer negotiations, DIC, Rafa... there are dozens of individual examples. The story we got through the press was DIC stormed out of negotiations in a huff, making demands of immediate decisions. Later DIC released a largely overlooked statement, that highlighted Krusty and Moores ineptitude. I know which side I believe and its not the bloke in the comedy tie.

Great post Wayne.

Good luck Momo. Hope everything works out well for you and your family.