The Yanks Have the Money, But We Have The Scousers

Is the Rafalution coming to an end?
By Eric B. Utheim - 27th November 2007
http://englishfootballpost.com/news/2007/11/27/is-the-rafalution-coming-to-an-end/

Gillett & Hicks - Is the honeymoon over?When Liverpool got new American owners this spring, a lot of Manchester United supporters questioned why the Liverpool fans didn’t protest against the move more stubbornly then they did. Having arranged massive protest against the similar overtaking of their own club by the Glazer family, they didn’t understand how the Liverpool fans could greet their new Yankee owners with such celebration. Now it looks like those questions were justified.

Yes, Gillett and Hicks played the PR-game perfectly at the beginning. Coming out with all the right noises, all the right sound bites. But now, Liverpool’s American honeymoon is over. Reality is setting in. And for the first time since they seized control of Britain’s must successful football club, George Gillett and Tom Hicks find themselves under fierce criticism from a vast majority of the Liverpool fans. It is the serious broad sheets that are leading the way; it isn’t the Sun or the other tabloids. Serious papers are writing that Benitez will be out of a job sooner rather than later – and no statement has been released, yet, where the owners show their support for Benitez. If you want the Rafalution to continue, it doesn’t look good.

Americans beware the wrath of Kopites!Many newspapers have over the last few days written that Rafael Benitez has picked a fight he cannot win. Because, as Jose Mourinho found out, in modern football it is the men controlling the purse strings that now control the game. Well, by going against the Liverpool supporter’s wishes, it looks to me like it is the Americans who have picked a fight they cannot win. Sure, they can sack Benitez, but at the same time they will lose the vast majority of Liverpool Football Club’s main asset: the fans. I’m not talking about day-trippers from Bury St. Edmund, Trondheim or Donegal, but the loyal match going Reds, the season ticket holders from Bootle, Dingle and Huyton.

Liverpool fans will never forget what Rafa did for themIn this conflict, I cannot avoid thinking that the two Americans are seriously underestimating the Kopites. If the unjust sacking of the manager who brought Ol’Big Ears back to Anfield on a permanent basis goes trough, the before mentioned Manchester United supporter’s protests will seem like a San Francisco hippie love in from the late 1960’s. Yes, Benitez should have kept his criticism within the club, and not so actively used the press to get his point across. And yes, this is one of those conflicts where it is not black and white. None of the parties involved can claim to be 100 per cent right, none of the involved parties can claim that the opposition doesn’t have valid arguments. The two Americans anger at Benitez’s public outbursts are understandable, and it is unworthy of the manager of a gentleman’s club like Liverpool to use the kind of tactics that Benitez has used over the last week or so. But at the same time they should handle football related criticism from the man that is paid to decide on the football matters at Anfield, and that should always be the manager.

Rambo - Super but not the lightest!Frustration at the Liverpool suits’ slowness in transfer negotiations is nothing new, and is something that existed long before the two Americans arrived. Remember Simao Sabrosa? When it comes to negotiating - and more importantly, going through with – transfer deals, Liverpool aren’t exactly moving like Ian Rush onto a Kenny Dalglish through ball, but more fittingly like Neill Ruddock giving Jan Molby a piggy back ride.

So it is understandable when, according to reports, Benitez is close to a few cheap deals, but isn’t allowed to seal them because Mr. Hicks and Mr. Gillett wants to wait until they arrive in England just before Christmas, that Spanish frustrations run high at Melwood. Benitez hasn’t lost his temper because Hicks and Gillett have refused to sanction a big money move for some International superstar, but rather because the green light isn’t given to what can be described as minor transfer deals, and because the mighty Liverpool FC – one of the major trademarks in the World - is run via e-mails and a fax machine in Texas.

Kakha Kaladze of AC Milan a Liverpool transfer window targetApparently Liverpool have been close in recent weeks to clinch a £4 million pound deal for AC Milan’s Kakha Kaladze, wrap up a couple of Bosman player’s for next season, and sign a few talented but cheap South American youngsters. But all this is put on hold until the two Americans arrive on Merseyside for the game with Manchester United on the 16th – thus putting it all in danger as other clubs are hovering over the same targets. The transfer window means that you can only sign players in January, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t necessary to get all the groundwork in, in advance.

Personally, my main beef with the American owners is their lack of involvement in the day to day running of the club. I cannot help but think that Rafa feels the same way. Hicks and Gillett visit Liverpool around every two months, all the major decisions are made through e-mails and phone calls across the Atlantic. Mr. Gillett’s son Foster, who is supposed to be at Anfield to run the show together with Rick Parry, has apparently been spending more time back home in the States lately, than in Liverpool. The new American Liverpool seems to be like a car with the engine in England, and the steering wheel in America. The main course of concern for me, is Rafael Benitez’s boldness. Has the situation gone so far that Benitez feels that he now has nothing to lose? Is the fact that Benitez now uses the media as his outlet a sign that he feels himself that his time at Anfield is running out? Or even worse, is Benitez using this as a tactic to speed up the process of his own departure, because he sees that it will happen sooner rather than later anyway?

I think it boils down to one headstrong and stubborn Spaniard, who knows how Liverpool FC works, and who knows where the chink in the Americans armour is: Their lack of history in the game of soccerball, and their lack of historical knowledge when it comes to Britain’s most successful soccerball team. Rafael Benitez hears his name being chanted at every game, not at least so in the last outing at St. James’ Park. He is well aware of his own popularity, and I believe he attempts to use this as a stick to beat the Americans. Or rather, he gives the stick to the Kopites, so they can swing it for him.

This is NOT the NFL - It means much more than that!When Liverpool face Porto and Bolton later this week, Gillett and Mr. Hicks will see what fans’ passion is all about. This isn’t hockey, baseball or the NFL. This isn’t bowl shaped stadiums filled with middle-aged rednecks sitting still, sipping their Budweiser while they punch the air and let out screams of “Yeah!” every five minutes or so. This is real football, real feelings and real fans. By picking a fight with Benitez, the two Americans have also picked fights with the Liverpool fans. Perhaps seen by the Americans as nothing more than “customers” in their new soccerball business. But this will not be an American dream for George and Tom. If they do sack Benitez, it will turn into a nightmare, because as a poster on a Liverpool forum wrote here the other day:

“The Yanks have the money, but we have the scousers…”

Lifted from another forum