American's are out to spoil our game

For all the blame that has been labelled at woeful ‘McClown’ and the awful display by the England football team last week, I am blaming the Americans.

Yes the Americans. Whilst this may lack a degree of rationale, my anger is partly borne out of my frustration at the American owners of my beloved Liverpool and their public spat with manager Rafa Benitez.

Not content with digging up our national football stadium with the joke that is American football, (the reason the Wembley pitch was so bad was because they ‘ploughed’ American football there the week before) Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have set their sights on wrecking our great football club. Their lack of knowledge about the English game and the Liverpool culture is already at odds with the manager and the fans. They have yet to understand the depth of the passion and the place our club occupy in my hearts and minds.

Many people saw these shortcomings coming with the Americans at Manchester United who, having promised that they will not sink the club into debt did so pretty immediately by borrowing against the club assets. The American duo at Liverpool also promised much the same yet it now seems that their financing of the new stadium will be through further borrowing against the clubs jewels. I have resigned myself to this debt in the hope that the new stadium will help propel us to the same league as Utd and Arsenal, in the stadium stakes of course!

Just when it seems that we may be on the brink of breaking the 17 year old duck and win the top league in English football, our ‘soccer’ bosses seem bent on maintaining that drought through their ego battle and manager Rafa Benitez. With the air thick of uncertain smoke, there is already talk of the ‘Arrogant One’ that is Jose Mourinho heading the owners wish list to replace Rafa.

I am angry because I don’t find anything Rafa has said that is or would seem unreasonable to any owners. He has asked that discussions start to take place with agents about possible January transfer targets and to make the deal for Xavier Mascherano a permanent one. I have further verified this and other public statements made by both the manager and the owners with the friend of a friend who is a member of backroom staff at the Reds Millwood training ground.

Liverpool has always been a private club. It has never paraded its dirty linen in public. The recent exchanges between the manager and the owners has been both worrying and embarrassing to witness. This is not the way we do things here. Hicks and Gillett need to understand that our private affairs need to be dealt with in private.

Benitez has made justified demands given what he has achieved and all Liverpool fans are behind the gaffer. He has proved himself by winning the Champions League and then followed it up with a date in the finals the very next year. He has won the FA cup and so far this season, we are unbeaten and well placed to seriously challenge for the Premiership. Against such a backdrop, it will be suicidal to sack the manager.

There is no place for egos at Liverpool. We have always prided ourselves at being the best, humbly. Unlike other teams, we have an air of arrogance about us that does not make us hated like it has Utd and Chelsea in recent years for their success.

If Hicks and Gillett think they will win us over with their brash and uneducated football tactics, then they have brought the wrong club. We are Liverpool and they need to get that in their system sharp, otherwise, they will not make any friends here any time soon.