The Spirit of Shankly group, for one, has done a lot for the voice of the fans. With Tom Hicks commenting over the weekend that the fans groups are ‘a noise that we are dealing with’, so it is clear that the owners, press and those that matter are well aware of the fan’s opinions and how organized the ‘resistance’ is. However, as organized as these groups may be, they will ultimately have no say in who owns or runs the club. Reading a post on the RAWK forums this week, from the Spirit of Shankly fan group, I was struck by the tone of self-importance from the writer, requesting that NESV should engage in direct dialogue with them, and other fan groups before any sale goes through, to make sure that their aims are in-keeping with ours. John W. Henry and his cohorts, nor any other potential owner are going to do this; there will be no ‘dialogue’ with fans’ groups because, in all reality, this is a business and they are in it to make money. There should be no illusions that NESV are not in it for just the same reasons as Gillett and Hicks. We can only hope they are a more honest bunch and realize that before profit there is investment, and that means investing their own money, not the banks’. We are talking in terms of hundreds of millions to billions here; of big business and corporations, and people whose fortunes are on a different plane to anything we can imagine. To these people we are just as Hicks described: background noise. Sure, they should realize that we are ultimately responsible for those profit margins, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to actively discuss their plans with us. And demanding that they do is simply delusional, and hurts the fans’ reputation as a whole. We have a reputation as being intelligent, informed fans and it would be beneficial to us if we kept it that way.
In forming these fan groups and actively protesting week-in week-out, Liverpool fans have shown their unity; made clear that they will not sit quietly by while the club is raped and pillaged. The organization and rallying to the cause has been impressive to say the least but there needs to be some perspective here and I believe the time has come for the most vocal and pro-active fans to take a few steps back and let proceedings happen. We have done all we can; we have stated our case, made our views clear. It is now up to the courts to decide what our clubs’ fate will be.
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