23 Aug 2019 02:37:24
I found your article on Parry and to a lesser extent, Moores, Hicks and Gilette, to be an excellent read and very informative, Ed001, thank you for taking the time to put it together.

It's such a shame that those buffoons (Hicks, Gillette and Parry) were the ones calling the shots throughout Rafa's time at the club, Rafa is an excellent tactician and has a great eye for talent and without Parry's incompetence and H and G's greed obstructing him, it's hard to imagine that we wouldn't have been far more successful. It's testament to Rafa's ability as a manager that we actually managed to win anything under H and G's ownership.

I ruefully imagined what our 2009 team would've been like with the additions of Villa/ Aguero, David Silva, Ronaldo and Dani Alves and some depth and it's safe to say that Parry cost us dearly. It just makes you appreciate even further the way we're being run today, both in the transfer market and commercially as well too. Klopp is allowed to do his job to the best of his ability rather than being stifled by incompetent clowns *cough cough* Parry and greedy owners *cough cough* Hicks and Gillette. If FSG and Klopp hadn't come along, I'd still be rueing what could've been if that leech Moores had acted in the best interests of the club rather than himself and sold us to proper owners rather than greedy clowns.

Reading all of that just makes you appreciate FSG even further. They saved us from bankruptcy, have stabilised us financially, are helping us catch up commercially and have already kept their word re expanding the ground and are looking to expand it even further. Them seeking to expand Anfield rather than knock it down and build a new one, also shows that they get the club. They don't take money out of the club and run us in sensible way financially too. They may not be perfect but they are certainly good owners.

{Ed001's Note - thank you Lemuel. 7th time lucky was that? Don't worry I won't tell if you don't. It does make you wonder you are right. Could Rafa have actually gone one better than second with the right CEO alongside him?}

1.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 04:59:30
Lol Ed, you're being generous there, probably closer to 20. I think we'd have definitely won the league during Rafa's tenure as manager, if we'd have had proper owners and a proper CEO, who got Rafa the players he wanted; even with all the different factors in play we still only finished 4 points behind them in that fateful 08/ 09 season.

{Ed001's Note - it is a shame we will never get to find out.}

2.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 05:32:20
I believe he could have. Rafa always had the tactical measure of Alex Ferguson and Fergie knew it, which I think partially explains the (public) animosity towards Rafa.

Ed, one thing I’ve always thought hindered Rafa’s time with us was his tendency to stock up the squad with low-quality players every summer. You spoke about it in the Parry article about the Pennant vs Alves debacle, but is that the same reason why Rafa seemed to always pile high the Latin no-names our squad forever seemed to be infested with?

{Ed001's Note - it certainly didn't help that Parry wanted cheap players and so encouraged Rafa to look for bargains.}

3.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 09:41:19
First of all loved the article it gave a great insight into the shambles thay was being run and set up. Re:rafa piling up on the lower quality would it be him signing more to hope one might come good?

I do wonder what would have happenend if we got the arab money or even some of them mentioned players.

Would we buy the wrong players with money aka city at the start.

Would said players reach the potential they did if at Liverpool?

{Ed001's Note - Parry would have been out on his ear if DIC had bought the club, that is something that can only have been a good thing!}

4.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 10:33:33
Ed01,the notion of DIC booting out Parry, could be one of the reasons why he helped scupper the deal cos he knew they would get rid cos these guys were clearly serious people who were not messing about. And with serious people, they can smell arrogant incompetence (a dangerous combo) from a mile out and Parry prolly knew that too.

{Ed001's Note - exactly the point I was making in the article when I referred to H&G clinching the deal by offering Moores and Parry guaranteed jobs. Though the multi-million pound bonuses would have helped too.}

5.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 11:30:21
Brilliant article, really makes you appreciate the owners, CEO and structure we have now. We are finally catching up commercially, the squad gets the right investment, Klopp's relationship with the structure seems good and the stadium development and training ground redevelopment are progressing nicely.
Good owners/ CEO/ structure/ management = success in all departments.

Still to this day I wonder how far we could have gone if we'd signed Aguero, Silva and Simao.

{Ed001's Note - thank you mate.}

6.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 14:36:36
What was your opinion of Tom Hicks Ed? He seems to come across as a bit more sensible than George Gillette on the podcast.

{Ed001's Note - he had a bit more idea of what he was doing, but he was still only like the Glazers, looking to cream money off into his own pocket. He just wanted to have the club make more money so he could take a bigger cut. However that is better than Moores, who just wanted to sit on his fat arse and take take take.}

7.) 23 Aug 2019
23 Aug 2019 20:26:28
Hi Ed001, thank you for writing such an insight article! Feel sorry for Rafa, he's a top manager and he's often got shafted. I look forward to reading more of your articles when they are released :-) have a good bank holiday weekend mate!

{Ed001's Note - thank you RH, you too mate.}

8.) 24 Aug 2019
24 Aug 2019 12:40:28
Kieran to be fair you’d have to factor in the context of the immediate after-effects of Hillsborough mate.
There was a real need for the club to be seen to give back to the fans and the city and, in hindsight, this hindered the commercialisation of LFC in the 90s.
The club just couldn’t be seen to be as brazenly commercial as it is now, it would have been wrong and unacceptable.
Having said that, as Ed001 said, that was the time for David Moores to have become the saviour in developing / rebuilding the ground - Celtic managed to do it back then so Liverpool should have been able as well?