Oliver Kay
Win tickets to the ultimate village fete with welly wanging and more
It was the mugshot that did it. As the long-awaited interview with Tom Hicks drew to a close, he was pictured drinking from a Liverpool mug that looked as if it had come straight out of the box. What he was forgetting, though, was that the bona fide Liverpool supporters are not mugs and that this latest attempt at spin, like so many others, would not wash.
Some of those Liverpool supporters may go farther and call Hicks’s interview with Sky Sports News “a disaster”. That was the phrase that he used to describe Rick Parry’s tenure as chief executive at Anfield and, given that all or some of the interview in Dallas was recorded on the nineteenth anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, as a result of which 96 Liverpool supporters died, accusations of insensitivity were inevitable.
Yes, he had sought to avoid such accusations by delaying transmission until yesterday morning, but using the d-word was a crass error from a man who seems unable to open his mouth without offending those he aims to win over.
“There were huge numbers of supporters grieving for loved ones,” Neil Atkinson, of the Spirit of Shankly group, said. “It was a time to be respectful and understand what this football club is all about. But Mr Hicks seems to have no respect for anyone. He didn’t say anything on the day of the service, but straight afterwards he is up and running again.
“Tom Hicks has got no respect for football or this club. The man cannot be trusted at all. He said there would be no debt on the club, but that is not what has happened. The situation with Rick Parry is really an irrelevance. He is good for one thing only and that is his vote at board meetings to keep Hicks at bay.”
Parry knows that he cannot survive at Anfield if Hicks succeeds in buying out George Gillett Jr, his co-owner. Hicks denounced Parry’s record as chief executive — ridiculing the club’s attempts to exploit their brand worldwide, a failing to which David Moores, the former chairman, reluctantly admitted when he sold the club 14 months ago — but, as with just about everything at Liverpool at present, the root of it is personal.
Hicks believes that Parry was guilty of impertinence when he said recently that it was time to “stop washing the club’s dirty linen in public” and from that moment there was no way back — at least not under Hicks’s sole ownership, if such a thing ever materialises. Hicks tried to paint a picture yesterday of a Liverpool that would thrive under his ownership and he is right to suggest that he has a better relationship with Rafael Benítez, the manager, than Parry or, indeed, Gillett can claim.
Again the Texan distanced himself from the attempt to line up Jürgen Klinsmann, the former Germany coach, as a replacement for Benítez in November, saying that Gillett was the instigator of their two meetings and, more damagingly, that Parry “had already been talking to Jürgen for three hours alone before George and I got there”.
The intention was to expose Parry as an anti-Benítez force and thus an enemy of Liverpool supporters, but even as he hangs others out to dry, Hicks comes no closer to winning the trust of the club’s fans.
He has decided that the embarrassing Klinsmann saga serves as a useful stick with which to beat his enemies (Parry and Gillett), but with every mention of the German, he undermines Benítez.
He calls it honesty, but if that is truly what it is, he is honest to a fault. And a majority of Liverpool supporters are not convinced that honesty is the motivation.
Honesty, though, is in short supply at Anfield at present, with even Benítez succumbing to the spin, counter-spin and agenda-driven, self-serving comments that are the order of the day at a club that was once a byword for stability and unity. The Liverpool supporters, though, see through it all. They are no mugs.

Have you bumped into a famous footballer on your summer hols? Send in your pics to adorn our wall of fame
Follow our three athletes' progress in their preparations for the London Triathlon, and pick up training tips and more
Enjoy screenings of all the classic films you love, plus take advantage of two-for-one tickets
We explore leisure activities that are safe and suitable for all of the family
Times Online's new TV show helps you make the right decisions for your pet
Read our exclusive 100 Years of Fleming and Bond interactive timeline, packed with original Times articles and reviews
The latest travel news plus the best hotels and gadgets for business travellers

The Fantasy Season starts here. Sign up to win

Find a course, arrange a game and save money



in The Sunday Times, Times and Times Online
2002/02
£59,995
The Midlands
F/1989
£36,000
Hollingworth At Ombersley
2007/57
£35,000
South East England
Great car insurance deals online
90K plus bonus plus options
Confidential
London
To £28k
Barclaycard
Various (outside London)
£
£40,000 - £50,000 + benefits
Lloyds Pharmacy
Coventry
£38k
Barclaycard
Various Locations
Live in One of London's Most Vibrant Areas
From £249,950
Beautiful Gardens w/ stunning Thames Views
Studios £33K, 1 Beds £60K, 2 beds £79K
Mortgages, bank acc & money transfers to help you buy abroad
Explore mystical Jordan
From £1030 for 7nts 4*
to USA's Most Cosmopolitan City; San Francisco!
£POA
Book Now for Winter 08/09 and Get 10% off!
Great travel insurance deals online
Contact our advertising team for advertising and sponsorship in Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. Search globrix.com to buy or rent UK property. Visit our classified services and find jobs, used cars, property or holidays. Use our dating service, read our births, marriages and deaths announcements, or place your advertisement.
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701. VAT number GB 243 8054 69.
Adam Clarke,
Don't know about David Collins letter making you laugh but when I read yours, I fell off the seat with laughter! The line that got me was, "the city is ours and always will be ours".
Then I saw where you live! Huyton Knowsley. As far as I'm concerned mate, that makes you a woolyback, out of towner!
Is that the same Knowsley that Kirkby is in? If Everton do move to Kirkby, maybe you should start going there. Surely it must be cheaper staying in the borough of Knowsley than incurring all those airfare, hotel expenses visiting the city of Liverpool.
Anyway, it's Saturday night here and I'm off for a beer with a couple of Kopite mates and what makes it even funnier. is the buggers are from Kirkby!
If only Micky Finn could've been this funny, he would've become a legend.
David Stewart, Perth, Australia
David Collins thanks for the laugh. Typical Bluenose perpetuating the bitters myth that all Liverpool fans are out of towners. Wake up soft lad and look around you. It's as near as makes no odds down the middle now. Still never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn. It's the Everton way.
I mean it's not as if you don't get your fair share of out of towners at The Pit is it? I must have been dreaming when I saw David "the saviour" (no sniggering now) Moyes whining on about how the Everton fans from Ireland would be inconvenienced by Thursdays game against Chelsea. As usual tailoring anything to suit their pathetic little grudges against Liverpool FC.
.
Now I feel bad about myself, falling into the Toffee trap and baiting the neighbours instead of concentrating on what really matters. Still in for a penny and all that. Perhaps you're feeling a bit tired, living in the dark of our giant shadow as you do. Enjoy your time in Kirby. The city is and always will be ours.
Adam Clarke, Huyton,
Who cares?
Good isn't it? The club with the most vile supporters in the premiership are ripping themselves to bits. What league are Milwall in> - that's probably the best place for LFC!!!
Robbo, Guildford, Surrey
Hey David, when are you moving to Kirby?
Gerry, Liverpool, uk
Liverpool fans weren't 'happy' with these two at any point really, Chris from London. Remember that they came in saying all the right things. They'd already bought it when they started dropping clangers like calling the club a 'franchise'.
We had virtually no time to assess them anyway as it was all so last minute because of the switch from DIC.Most of us knew we needed new investment and hoped the board had got it right with these two. obviously they didn't but it's not the fans' fault and there's very little we could have done in any case.
Dave H, liverpool, uk
i was going to scribe a scathing rebuttal to you david, but seeing that you are from liverpool, and do not support the most successful british team of all time, then you obviously support one of the lesser teams, not used to success or winning anything, and no doubt very bitter about your team's mediocre existence.
damn it, i couldn't help myself.
back to the article, it's been a shambles since they took over. with gillett unwilling to sell to hicks, it's very likely that DIC will wait till the end of may to make their move on his stake.
rex mundi, london,
The same Liverpool fans who were happy to let the two Americans buy the 'franchise' in the first place?
No Mr Kay, not mugs at all!
Chris, London, UK
i like him, yer have to admit he's made for liverpool, an out of town beaut who has'nt got a clue about football, like most of their fans really
david collins, liverpool,
I must admit being a manc this situation would be farsical if it werent that we also couldve been in a similar boat, luckily our Americans seem happy to leave Gill and Fergie to run the team.
For all the loathing between the two teams and the stupiditty of certain members of both sets of supporters even a manc can see that Hicks was crassly insensitive to the families of the Hillsborough victims by not letting the remberance of those who died pass without dragging the club through the mud.
Im sure there are fellow manc's who will disagree but even Liverpool dont deserve Hicks and Gillet, I hope you get rid of your Yanks and we'll see you in Moscow.
Chris, Forres, Scotland