The good news is that one of the properties his Texas Rangers directly profit from, MLB.com, is apparently closely monitored in the United Kingdom.
The bad news is that after hearing some of Hicks’ recent remarks, many Liverpool fans would like to see him torn limb from limb.
One the same day the relationship between Martin O’Neill and Aston Villa’s American paymaster was described as far chummier than the rapport between Rafael Benitez, George Gillette and Hicks, Liverpool’s overextended owners were pilloried by the Guardian’s Barry Gledenning and Paul Doyle.
It turns out the foreign billionaire investors they presumed to be more special and different and cuddly than any other club’s foreign billionaire investors aren’t so great after all. And now that dead-eyed co-owner Tom Hicks has insisted he will not sell his 50% stake in the club to Dubai International Capital, they’re up in arms. “I’ve not received any offer to purchase the club from DIC or anyone else, much less accepted any such offer,” he brayed. “Nor do I have any intention of doing so.”
Unsurprisingly, this statement of intent from the American baseball franchise owner (who recently told MLB.com that “people are worried that I might take money away from the [Texas] Rangers to build Liverpool – it’s just the reverse”) has pleased Liverpool’s notoriously chippy supporters no end.
“The fans want them out, unconditionally,” Reclaim The Kop’s Kevin Sampson told the Echo, shortly before turning into Chuck Norris. “Liverpool is the most welcoming city and its people are the most generous hosts you’re going to find anywhere. But cross us, and that’s that. We’re enemies, for life. [Hicks and the Other One] tried to capitalise on our good will and our unswerving love for this club. But they underestimated us badly, and badly underestimated our love for Rafa.”
There was a time not so long ago when Liverpool’s fans told anyone who’d listen that “you can’t buy [insert number between one and 117] years of tradition”. Now they’re waiting anxiously for it to go up for sale..