[Rashid]

Rick Parry
Chief Executive Officer
Liverpool Football Club
Anfield Road
LIVERPOOL
L4 0TH


5 May 2005

Dear Mr Parry,

It is great sadness that I feel compelled to write for the first time to you and the board of Liverpool Football Club. I would like Gerard Houllier removed as manager and placed elsewhere within the club – here are my reasons.

We at Liverpool are not renowned for sacking managers and I too hold this dear to my heart, but what do we do? In the last 2 seasons GH has presided over:

1. Worst Run in 50 Years
2. Worst Home record in 50 years
3. Worst Style of Play ever at Liverpool.
4. Most excuses ever in one season (Referees, Injuries, Plateau etc)
5. Recent purchases that have been so poor it beggars’ belief. It can be argued that GH simply cannot get the best out of some excellent players. Would the same players perform this way for Arsene Wenger?
6. 35 odd points behind the leaders – an amazing statistic.
7. Closer in points to the bottom club than the top one.
8. Total lack of fight and passion on the pitch despite our plight.
9. After 6 years in charge we are going for a league position that was ‘not good enough’ for Roy Evans.
10. After 6 years in charge we are still chasing a Champions League ‘place’ as our holy grail.

Fact - The midfield that started on Sunday against Boro was the same one that stated the 2001 Cup Final the defence that started was only missing Babbel, which explains just how far we have come since then – not far at all.

Indeed some of what has been said by the manager has been nothing short of an embarrassment to the club of our size. As a member of G18 I am sure you appreciate what would have happened to GH if he were manager of any other club in that group? The answer is that he would not have survived last season let alone this one.

Many match goers home and away are torn between keeping the club’s good name and making it clear that they would like GH out. Indeed we are in a terrible position because we are finding it difficult to distinguish between supporting the manager and supporting the team. Cheering the manager after disgraceful graffiti and death threats does not mean we are backing him as the best man for the manager’s job. We are backing a decent man against some thugs who have nothing to do with most of us.

I appreciate what GH has done for us, he transformed us behind the scenes and bought us up to date and won trophies – he did the same at Clairefontaine and with the France youth teams but it wasn’t until he was removed as manager of France that the French team really began taking shape and winning the trophies that mattered. The same should be applied to Liverpool Football Club.

This summer will see many excellent managers come onto the market, the likes of Capello, Hitzfield, Mourinho, Deschamps, Lippi, and maybe even O’Neill. Never before have so many good ones been available.

We have great traditions at the club and we need a great manager, a title winning manager, a man who will not accept mediocrity and will not accept 4th place as “Massive Achievement”.

I am sure you know the merits of Jose Mourinho by now, he has stated numerous times that the thought of managing Liverpool would be a dream – a challenge that he could not turn down. We are a club in desperate need for a dynamic manager who wins things (He has won a Treble including the league, got to the CL final as we speak, and won another league) and is the most wanted manager around and we turn our noses up at him and continue with the mediocrity being served up at Anfield? Chelsea seem desperate for him, yet he seems desperate for us judging by his interviews – yet we seem desperate to not change – amazing. Most clubs would give their right arm for Mourinho to want to join them.

You have stated many times that 4th place isn’t good enough, but then nothing is until we get 1st or at least challenge, we have challenged once in GH’s 6 years here – is that good enough?

Like many fans we are so upset by it all we are losing touch with what Shankly gave us – spirit. We need our spirit back, we need our club back, we need to be back amongst the elite of Europe and at the moment we are also-rans in our own country.

In my opinion one man will help us do that, and like the many fellow reds, I urge you Mr Parry to not ignore the merits of Jose Mourinho as manager of Liverpool Football Club.

Please do not ignore the fans for we are the life blood of the club. This summer could be a new beginning or maybe the beginning of the end.

In my opinion Gerard Houllier has totally divided the fans, please don’t let the board go the same way. Be decisive this summer irrespective of where we finish.

Thank you very much for listening, I await your reply.

Yours in hope.