Christ, and I thought our press was economical with the facts....
Star-Telegram.com: | 02/03/2008 | In defense of Hicks, as a soccer owner, he is not that bad
In defense of Hicks, as a soccer owner, he is not that bad
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
Star-Telegram staff writer
The Liverpool Reds won Saturday, convincingly actually, and fans still staged an angry and -- just guessing here --
probably drunken protest afterward.
They despise local whipping boy Thomas O. Hicks and, yes, since you are wondering, way more than angry Stars and Rangers fans. And they want him to sell, fly his butt back to Texas and exclusively screw with his local teams.
Nor is his co-owner, George Gillett, exactly Mr. Popular in spite of his best efforts to position himself as Glenda the Good Yank Owner.
Liverpool fans hate both of them with a passion equal to that of 15 angry Stars and Rangers fans. They are not simply mad as hell; they really are not going to take it any more.
What started as message-board rants about "money-grabbing Bush lovers" who they believe "promised their U.S. fans cash from Liverpool FC" has morphed into a campaign to have fans buy the team. They even have a Web site at
Share Liverpool FC.
Just a quick point of interest: Anybody who actually believes Liverpool cash is being pumped into the Stars or Rangers needs to check the starting rotation and the Stars' scoring wings to be disabused of that theory.
They are not exactly listening. Nor does anybody here seem to be listening.
Of course, in local precincts, this cross-pond hatred of Hicks is somewhat predictably being spun forward as proof he is indeed the worst owner in the free world and needs to sell. And why exactly is everybody listening to a bunch of bloody idiots?
Because the truth is Hicks is not a bad soccer owner, not by a long shot, despite what is being circulated at home and abroad.
Did you know that Liverpool finished ahead of Arsenal last season, outspent it this off-season and is currently way behind it in the standings? Or that he is helping build Liverpool a new stadium?
It sounds like the Reds have a coach problem and possibly a player problem, with greedy owners coming in a distant third. If the Liverpool fans want to see a team where frugality is a problem, there are plenty of good seats available at The Ballpark in Arlington.
I say we buy them tickets.
They, by the way, have a name. They call themselves the Sons of Shankly. Bill Shankly is Liverpool's Tom Landry, from what I can tell, and they are rallying in his name.
They have this crazy idea that they are entitled to a winner. They are sick of -- and write this down, Coach Wade -- being told how good their team played in a loss. They are of the belief that a team with its history is judged by wins and losses, period. And they do not want to hear money talk from rich owners.
And if this is not enough to convince everybody a Texas branch is needed, the Sons of Shankly hold their meetings in bars. No, seriously, 300 people showed up to a local watering hole in Anfield this week to gripe about what was wrong and plan protests and figure out how to oust the Yanks.
And they did not have to put up with John Hart as GM, The Ho as an ace, or Ladislav Nagy as a scorer.
If anybody should be getting together at a bar, calling themselves the Sons of Gainey and Daughters of Fergie, it is the Stars' and Rangers' faithful.
But they won't, even though they have a right to be mad. The Liverpool fans will, and I'm not so sure they have the right. So all in favor of the Daughters of Fergie telling those Liverpool fans to get in line, say aye.
Aye.
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7760
