Rick Parry interview

[Cunny]

there is an interview with Rick Parry on The Times The Game podcast this week

available from itunes or times website

 

sorry if romario

[Will]

Interesting few veiled digs at Chelsea in there

[growler]

anyone able to summarise key points?

[Will]

anyone able to summarise key points?

He spoke a lot without saying very much - although he said there would be more news on the investment by the middle of the week, intriguingly. Ballague then claimed it was a done deal.

[Maldini]

Danny Kelly and Gabriele Marcotti are awful g*******s.

[liverbird04]

they claim to be talking about what could be the biggest story in the next 12 months which is Liverpools take over ,joined by rick parry.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,31329,00.html

Denny kelly ,gabrielle marcotti ,Guillem balague

 

discuss whether its a good or bad thing

 

Hows it going?

lot of work goin on ,tremendous amount of effort going into it by DIC so we look forward to that coming to a conclusion asap

 

Whats the time frame for that ? don't know .will have a better understanding by the middle of the week

 

Its no secret that liverpool have been looking for investment? whats been your brief and the specifics you have been looking for ?

 

rick-Main priority in funding for the new stadium ,a project thats been worked on for 5 years ,a huge capital commitment from the clubs point of view and not one which we wanted to take on board by simply borrowing ourselves so we've been looking for a partner who can help us with that but first and foremost it had to be a partner who understood the traditions and values of Liverpool whilst at the same time taking us forward

 

At the turn of the new millenium there wasn't one premiership club in overseas ownership ,if liverpool deal goes through and there seems to be a good chance there will ,is that a concern?

 

rick-It has happening quickly that tends to be typical of football ,the pace of change increases all the time ,the game never ever stands still and its changing at an increasing pace ,I think providing the owners are coming in with the right intentions and the right motivations then the nationality isn't important ,although if they have the wrong intentions and simply want to make a quick buck then again it doesn't matter what the nationality that can't be right

 

marcotti - the old style owners wanting to break even and put the money back into the club are being phrased out ,the primary investors now want a return on their investment ,is that a concern ,having owners who want to make profit?

 

rick-If you leave abramovich to one side ,its extraodinarily difficult to invest the amounts in that are required certainly in our case in building a new stadium ,the amount you have to invest in the team of course is increasing all the time so I don't think its a case of owners being content to write out ever increasing cheques ,the pressures are just too extreme and I also think clubs have got to be self sustaining and stand on their own feet as thats the way to preserve 100 years which is important to us .So I don't think there is anything inappropriate .

we are whether we like it or not are businesses now, we still passionately believe we are a football club ,thats what we revolve around

 

denny kelly- that is correct everything you say but liverpool fans might be alarmed when you talk about financing the new stadium as you need to be investing in the next 1 and 2 years in a better squad of players to make up the tremendous points gap between Liverpool and the clubs at the top.

 

rick - Thats true we accept that and rest assured we will carry on investing into the team ,but what we are doing in investing in a new stadium is making sure we keep pace with our rivals , we are millions of pounds behind manchester united before we even kick a ball becos of their extra capacity , thats vital , that of course will bring new revenues streams which will of course be reinvested into the team .The stadium isn't about building a momument its about building a better facility that will generate more revenue which will be reinvested into the team ,the team will not be neglected in the mean time ,thats precisely the reason for seeking investment and resources becos we simply cannot afford to do all the things we need to do

 

ballague: the fans seem to be excited about whats happening but there is a line of thinking that is concerned about being run as a company so they won't be throwing money around straight away ,they'll just have to see how things go as there is the debt and the stadium to be paid etc ,there is a second line of thought that liverpool might get 20 million now and a further 200 million next summer if neceassry to improve straight away (think thats he said )

 

rick: if we did know about that we certainly wouldn't broadcast it, becos the last thing we would want is to broadcast our budget but I can assure you those are wildly speculative but I would say to the fans that are prospective investors recognise our values and traditions and winning things that really came from shankly ,our heritage is all about trophies and they understand that and thats what they are buying into and the cycle that works best in football is the virtuous cycle ,success on the pitch generates further revenues that can be reinvested into the team.

 

 

denny kelly -its going to be an enormous deal for english football, people used to say we need to be more like liverpool , how do you see liverpool doing things in 5-10 time? how do you want to be like?

 

rick- we still want to be like liverpool ,doing things in the liverpool way

 

denny kelly- except winning the premiership? (snide c***)#

 

rick-that is the liverpool way of course is to win premierships ,thats where we want to get back to ,the highest possible priority ,The thing we dream about more passionately than anything else is to win trophies but in the liverpool way and to be respected by others even if not loved by everyone .Winning silverware is the only focus ,we are in changing times as ever and when people look back and talk about tradition they forget that shankly was the biggest innovator of the lot ,I have read a few stories and strange comments lately that shankly would be turning in his grave ,well shankly was the great innovator the club was going nowhere before he arrived and he was always one to bring about change

 

denny kelly- theres different type of takeovers you can be lucky ,you can get an abramovich or end up with poor communication and cultural differences that crush the club, I watched american football and the experts were speculating on the future on the coach of the tampa bay bucanner coach who 3 years ago was winning the superbowl and whose team is now doing appalling the american press said they wouldn't sack him becos they can't afford to pay out his contract as they needed the money for manchester united ,isn't that the world turned on its head? ,a large investment in english soccer constricting what they do in america cos they need to finance man U with dough.

 

 

Marcotti - if we had more time I would have loved to ask him when they were talking to the prime minister of thailand there were people saying 'oh no human rigths abuse blah blah, here even though DIC are the investment company of the dubai royal family ,lets be clear about this , a bunch of people who by accident of birth dominate a country which is not a democracy ,where there is very little limited free speech and has been cited by anmesty international and one of few countries to recognise the taliban ,these people will now own liverpool football clu

 

ballague -I don't think parry could say it but the whole deal will go through on 1st or 2nd of january ,the dubai people went back on friday last week and they said it was done and dusted ,it won't be like west ham dragging on and secondly I insist on this its not the royal family buying Liverpool but a corporation run as a company (gotta love balague )

marcotti - a 100 per of their shares are owned by the maktoum family ,what company is that ?

ballague - its a company run as a company ,its not as a company like abramovichs companies getting where money getting into the club like nothing

 

marcotti- the people who own this company are the royal family of another country

ballague- it worries me when people assume that foreign going to be a problem ,if people ran up a debt as is being quoted at liverpool of 80 million then it wasn't run up by foreigners.

 

denny kelly - we aren't worried by foreigners but worried by the foreigners they are.

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note

 

how seriously did barcelona take the world club championship?

 

ballague -very seriously ,you should have seen the face of deco and ronaldinho ,after the match they were destroyed, the same face we will see at anfield when they get knocked out in the champions league .

 

arrogance from barcelona the same arrogance they showed when they were drawn with Liverpool ,all laporta could say was 'sing beatle songs' he started singing beatles songs and said 'its brilliant and I'm going to the cavern and I'm going to matthew street' will that be after a defeat at anfield?

 

 

 

 

yes I was bored when I wrote that ,I had nothing better to do.

[growler]

mate, so glad you were bored. thanks for doing that.

[Michael]

Thanks liverbird04, much appreciated.

[fyds]

So...according to kelly and Marcotti - all inherited money, no matter how seperately or wisely invested in a number of different ventures = bad

 

All money made by siberian crooks in dodgy and corrupt political deals and ripping off original workers and shareholders and using your friendly ex Spetznatz commandos to intimidate dissenters as long as a club you like benefits = good.

 

Hmm...

[kacangpool]

Thanks liverbird mate. I'm getting to like Ballague quite a bit. The way he supports Parry and the club, more and more in fact.

[David Hodgson]

" ballague : there is a second line of thought that liverpool might get 20 million now and a further 200 million next summer if neceassry to improve straight away (think thats he said )

 

rick: if we did know about that we certainly wouldn't broadcast it, becos the last thing we would want is to broadcast our budget but I can assure you those are wildly speculative but I would say to the fans that are prospective investors recognise our values and traditions and winning things that really came from shankly ,our heritage is all about trophies and they understand that and thats what they are buying into and the cycle that works best in football is the virtuous cycle ,success on the pitch generates further revenues that can be reinvested into the team. "

 

 

These are the key bits for me. He's all but admitting that there will be (relatively) massive new investment in the team.

[honourablegeorge]

You have to laugh at an American criticising another country for having limited free speech and committing human rights violations.

[fyds]

You have to laugh at an American criticising another country for having limited free speech and committing human rights violations.

Well, many people have said irony is not really their thing...

[kacangpool]

These are the key bits for me. He's all but admitting that there will be (relatively) massive new investment in the team.

 

Massive comparing to what Rafa's been getting at the very least.

[bazz]

" ballague : there is a second line of thought that liverpool might get 20 million now and a further 200 million next summer if neceassry to improve straight away (think thats he said )

 

rick: if we did know about that we certainly wouldn't broadcast it, becos the last thing we would want is to broadcast our budget but I can assure you those are wildly speculative but I would say to the fans that are prospective investors recognise our values and traditions and winning things that really came from shankly ,our heritage is all about trophies and they understand that and thats what they are buying into and the cycle that works best in football is the virtuous cycle ,success on the pitch generates further revenues that can be reinvested into the team. "

These are the key bits for me. He's all but admitting that there will be (relatively) massive new investment in the team.

 

Agree completely. I think we can safely assume that DIC are going to put some serious investment into their new business in order for it to be profitable (both on and off the pitch)

[McBain]

" ballague : there is a second line of thought that liverpool might get 20 million now and a further 200 million next summer if neceassry to improve straight away (think thats he said )

 

rick: if we did know about that we certainly wouldn't broadcast it, becos the last thing we would want is to broadcast our budget but I can assure you those are wildly speculative but I would say to the fans that are prospective investors recognise our values and traditions and winning things that really came from shankly ,our heritage is all about trophies and they understand that and thats what they are buying into and the cycle that works best in football is the virtuous cycle ,success on the pitch generates further revenues that can be reinvested into the team. "

These are the key bits for me. He's all but admitting that there will be (relatively) massive new investment in the team.

 

I think that can interpreted either way depending on the person reading it

[Herbie von Smalls]

Danny Kelly and Gabriele Marcotti are awful g*******s.

hallelujah!

 

i'm always aghast at the extent of the praise for danny kelly. he's patronising beyond belief.

[fyds]

I think that can interpreted either way depending on the person reading it

Is true, but intriguingly he doesn't deny ballague's claims, rather skirts around them.