This story has a somewhat happier ending than James Dolan exchanging pleasantries with Knicks fans in New Orleans. From the Guardian’s Andy Hunter :
Tom Hicks Jr was made painfully aware of the ill-feeling towards his father’s ownership of Liverpool on Saturday when he was abused and spat at after the club’s victory over Middlesbrough.
The Liverpool director made the foolhardy decision to meet supporters in the Sandon public house, near Anfield, where drinkers rounded on him. Hicks Jr, son of Liverpool’s controversial co-chairman, Tom Hicks, arrived at the bar in a car with minders and discussed his father’s troubled reign with a few supporters drinking at the bar but, once word spread of his presence, the mood became hostile.
One Liverpool supporter spat in his direction and he was showered with lager before his minders rushed him into the waiting car and drove off . It is believed Hicks Jr ignored security advice not to visit the Sandon given the animosity towards his father and George Gillett.
Calling Hicks Jr.’s appearance, “a display of bravery beyond the call of family duty or crass stupidity and insensitivity, depending on your point of view”, The Liverpool Echo’s Tony Barrett has further details :
It isn™t exactly difficult to spot a sharp-suited American in a pub full of Adidas Samba wearing locals after all “ and word spread around the boozer quicker than news of a goal against Man United.
Polite questioning reflected the shock that someone so closely connected with the least popular man at Anfield “ apart from Gary Neville “ would have the chutzpah to turn up in their midst.
A volley of protest songs “ aired with increasing regularity on the Kop in recent months “ rang out throughout the pub and the venom being directed at Hicks junior was plain for all to see.
All of a sudden, his smile was replaced by a grimace of concern.
And as the volume was cranked up still further by the swollen crowd, Tommy™s facial expression quickly changed.
It appeared to say œGet Me Out Of Here to his bodyguards.
At best, it was a well meaning attempt to build some bridges on Hicks junior™s part.
At worst, it was yet another failure to understand English football culture and proof of the failure of Liverpool™s owners to grasp just how unpopular they have become.
I don’t doubt that everyone with the last name Hicks fails to grasp English football culture. However, Papa Hicks isn’t a bad owner for Liverpool BECAUSE he is American and therefore doesn’t grasp transfer windows, or how to deal with Rafa – he is a bad owner for Liverpool because he doesn’t know what he is doing in any sport.
Hicks certainly groks baseball, but has screwed up the Texas Rangers. American Robert Earl seems to a decent owner for Everton, and I doubt that his Yank-ness is a factor one way or the other. There are plenty of born and bred Englishmen who own Premiership teams and do an awful job of it – what is their excuse?
The English are a people who like them some tradition (I always imagine them as the ultimate baseball old-schoolers). They glory in their traditions – so any problem (even a non-tradition-related like “we need a better left back”) gets viewed by the English through the filter of tradition.
Maybe Knicks fans can claim the Dolans are secretly French.
though Hicks Sr. is often identified as “a yank”, I’ve not seen many suggestions that his relationship w/ Benitez is poor simply because the former is an American.
Randy Lerner seems to have done alright by Aston Villa thus far.