Lawro: Time for Liverpool FC owners to do some real straight talking

Last updated : 12 January 2010 By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

Not in the way he did it of course. But communication between the owners and the fans is non-existent and that needs putting right.

Because the silence is too deafening.

Tommy Hicks broke it in a way which kind of sums up the three-year tenure of his father and George Gillett.

There were elements of stupidity in the way he stuck his abuse in an e-mail, in black and white – so it was always going to come out into the public domain and come back to haunt him.

It was a very strange response and only heightens the hostility between this regime and the Liverpool supporters.

However, Tommy was only really his dad’s eyes and ears around the place – him going is just a board member stepping down, and one who really wasn’t doing very much anyway.

The real problem with the current regime is there is no useful information from the club any more and the supporters would like to hear from these two about some very urgent issues.

About the possibility of the new ground, possibility of being able to buy new players at some point, how they perceive the club now and where they want to take it.

The chief executive Christian Purslow probably speaks to them on the phone which is fine – but does he speak to the two of them? Do Hicks and Gillett even speak to each other? How do they communicate?

I think the Americans are hiding from the reality that it is time for them to put their money where their mouths are or try to press ahead with making sure they can get a sale.

But if they have got nothing to hide, they should both come over for one game, and whether it’s to a press conference or a shareholders’ meeting, come out and say what their intention is for the football club.

Answer all questions, get everything out in the open and then go back to hibernating in America again if you want.

But everyone connected with Liverpool Football Club deserves some answers.

They have had to endure all sorts of nonsense totally out of keeping with the traditions of the club since that dark day the Americans completed their takeover almost three years ago.

They deserve better than to be worried about whether their best players will have to be sold, a fear manager Rafael Benitez revealed he has for the first time this week.

I’ve never been one for the scare stories about Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres but the longer all this goes on it just gives the lads the perfect excuse to leave

The owners could just take it out of Benitez’s hands and say: “What, £120-130million for two players? You’re on!”

It is a great worry.

But the behaviour of the Americans is worrying. They’re never at the games, they were looking to replace the manager when he was doing well and now this e-mail row.

They certainly don’t have the Midas Touch – everything they touch turns to debt instead of gold.

Of course, addressing fans’ concerns won’t help repair the relationship so you can understand why they remain distant.

But surely just as a gesture of good will they should come out and make contact to show that they don’t hold any personal ill feeling towards them.

And that would be a far more sincere way of apologising for the younger Hicks’ bizarre actions.