Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Why we must rally to make a difference

Something else that sums up the problems nicely:

Stand to.. and prepare for a long-un…

Rest assured that WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

There have been several articles in the media about the email/letter campaign. There’s the Bloomberg article Kinny posted in #420 and there was an article in the Echo today.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news//tm_headline=royal-bank-of-scotland-turn-up-the-heat-on-liverpool-fc-owners%26method=full%26objectid=26697601%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

The headline reads: “Royal Bank of Scotland turn up the heat on Liverpool FC owners”
… yet there is in fact, absolutely nothing in the article that does actually suggest that RBS is doing anything…
… in truth it is just a short article wrapped around their email response to the letter campaign.

But at least it is media coverage of the situation… and RBS won’t do anything unless it gets a lot more coverage.

Look forget all the smoke and mirrors lads. Businessmen love to make simple things look complicated.
It creates an isolated world where the money that is out there can only be had by a few instead of by everyone.
But basic business is really rather simple and our current situation really comes down to a simple maths equation.

G&H have put NONE of their own money into the club.
They purchased the club with a loan from RBS.
They then refinanced that loan for a larger amount.
They used the club as collateral.
They have siphoned off money during their tenure.
RBS does NOT make money when the club is sold or the loan is paid off.
They make money when the loan IS NOT paid off… …every day it isn’t paid off.

£110,000 per day, every day the loan IS NOT paid off. 

That’s £110,000 per day, every day the loan IS NOT paid off. 

One more time… £110,000 per day, EVERY DAY the loan IS NOT paid off. 

A quick sale therefore, in spite of their claims, is NOT in RBS’s interest.

£800 million is a joke, and NOT realistic.
But The Yanks know this!
(by the way most American Reds I know call them the Yanks too, so it isn’t a derogatory word towards all Americans! Its called “context” people.)

Contrary to popular myth, G&H are NOT stupid, idiots, morons, etc.
G&H know £800 million is a joke, and NOT realistic.
They KNOW this!
Its smoke and mirrors bullshit so people are talking about that and not the REAL figures of debt involved, and the nature/structure of that debt.

£800 million is the starting price for negotiations so they don’t get low-balled.
“I’ll give you 5 quid for your bike.”
“Nah I want 15.”
“Alright I’ll give you 7”
“Make it 12”
10 quid and that’s my final offer”
“Deal!”

G&H will be looking to clear as close to £500 million as they can (since the debt is actually closer to £461 and NOT the continually ill-reported £271m)

They’ll make a few bob on the sale, at that price, but like RBS, G&H are MAKING THEIR MONEY EVERY DAY the club is NOT sold…
… by virtue of a loan made to the club, by their parent holding company Kop Cayman. 

The longer the “sale process” drags on, the more money G&H make, and the more time G&H have to siphon more money off the club.

So it is also NOT in their interest either to effect a quick sale.

Martin Broughton is a Temp.
He’s probably getting paid by the week, or month, with a bonus on completion of task…
meaning he makes more money if the sale process takes LONGER… not if it happens quicker! 

Purslow is a G&H appointment (and also possibly on a temp contract if some reports are correct,) but either way… there is a very good likelihood that any New Owner would want their own man at the helm.
So it isn’t in his immediate interest to see a quick sale.

The players… well… simply put… the players will be plying their trade… on lucrative contracts … somewhere… regardless of how all this falls out.

That just leaves US…
…the Fans.
The ONLY one’s whose interest IS promoted by a quick sale.

So that is a really long-winded way of saying…
… anything we can do to put pressure on RBS to effect a quick sale…
… should be done.

“But why would they sell quick, if as you say, they are making money every day the club is NOT sold?” I hear you say. “Why would they listen to us?”

Well, as their “press release” indicates, they wouldn’t… coz there is no negative effect on them as a financial institution if we complain, then take their fob-off explanation, and then do fuck all.

BUT… if we continue to put pressure on them, we can perhaps affect their bottom line.
Government run they may be, but they are a business, and a business is about the bottom line. 

If RBS senses they can continue the current arrangement unaffected, they will do so. 

If however, they stand to lose money elsewhere (via people pulling their accounts) or suddenly find themselves the target of a negative media, or even being publicly painted with the same brush as G&H, then that can affect their bottom line (perhaps other businesses pulling their affiliations with them?)

THAT is the only way we can make a difference. 

And THAT is how we could have made a difference when G&H took over.
But the simple facts are… we all wanted a sugar Daddy.
Nobody (well very few,) were accepting of the status quo and there was a clamor among the fanbase for a sale to new owners.

Hell… at one point, we didn’t even care that some fucker with a list of human rights violations pending against him was the go-to-guy!

The Yanks were largely welcomed with open arms…
… and no one wanted to know about Corinthians and such…
… and that information was raised, but largely… near completely… ignored.

Remember when the Klinssman rumors surfaced?
The fans marched en-masse?
There was a public outcry and better than 75% of the fanbase vocally supported Rafa.
THAT is why G&H backed down.
It is the only reason.

It was simply easier and more cost-effective for the expedition to continue through the jungle with the thorn in their side, than remove it and risk the lions smelling blood!

Arthur you say, fans couldn’t have done anything about G&H taking over…
… but had 75% of the fanbase marched on Anfield in opposition of G&H, as they did over Klinssman…
…it would have created an atmosphere where two thoughts, just might have, sprung to the front of the mind…

The first in the addled brains of G&H…
“Fuck this. These fuckers aren’t passionate, they’re mental. This shit is more trouble than its worth.”

The second in Moores and Parry’s pea-sized-brains…
“Fuck this, let’s go with DIC, or we might not get out of town alive.”

But the fanbase welcomed G&H, in spite of the “franchise” and the “global brand” and the “brand loyalty” slip-o-the-lips.

We heard what we wanted to hear “custodians of the club” and “spade in the ground” …
…as we were looking over our shoulders at the Chavs and Scum disappearing over the horizon…
… and, either not noticing, or completely ignoring, the pale skin, the blood stained shirt, or the slight stench of death, we said “we don’t give a fuck who you are and we don’t require a background check, just come on in.” and invited the Vampires into the house.

When G&H ousted him, 50% of the fanbase had grown anti-Rafa…
… but that 50% (aided and abetted by a very anti-Rafa media,) made its voice heard as though it were 75%.

That 50% almost completely ignored the circumstances of the last 5 years and certainly the circumstances of the last year.

There was a building frustration… And it provided the atmosphere in which G&H could do, what they’d been wanting to do, since the day they took over.

Fire the Mexican help!

It was what they’d been waiting for…
…that is why FS takes the position that those in the vociferous anti-Rafa camp are complicit…
… and I’m sorry if you were in that camp, but whatever your reasons for being there, you were in some measure complicit, because of the simple failure to understand that being pro-Rafa, (for the last 6 months,) really meant being pro-LFC and Anti-Owners.
(and by that I mean strictly having the forethought to be anti-current-predicament.)

…but that atmosphere was created…
… and it released G&H from the only shackles that held them from doing what they wanted…
… and make no mistake…
… one of Purslow and Broughton’s primary objective’s was “find a way to get rid of him.”

… it remains to be seen where that leaves us all…
… but our actions or inactions…
… our Unity… or lack thereof…
…… WILL play a part…

…… how big a part?
… well, that’s up to US. Each of US. ALL of US!

Aitch@Kopblog

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