Rick Parry: How Liverpool achieved anything under Hicks and Gillett is a mystery

Former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry has told William Hill’s podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, that he doesn’t know how the club managed to achieve any success under the previous ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, a partnership which has been criticised heavily by Reds fans in the past.

Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, Parry said: “How Liverpool ever achieved anything under Hicks and Gillett is one of life’s great mysteries. The day before they took over was when I had already started to think, ‘what have I gotten into here?’

“We had known George Gillett for quite a long time, he was very likeable and gave us free reign which was quite commendable. He then brought in Tom Hicks literally a week before the takeover. We didn’t really know Tom, but they had done business together before. It was a classic case of being able to happily survive together in many different businesses, but football is something different.

“They were 50/50 in the ownership and there were no deadlock provisions, which is ridiculous. It was rushed and they had put their plan together too quickly. In hindsight it was ridiculous, but we didn’t know the nature of their deal at the time and it became the source of many challenges down the line.”

My first impressions of Tom Hicks weren’t positive

Parry went on to describe the situation surrounding the announcement of Hicks and Gillett taking ownership of Liverpool, citing their first press conference as the moment when he began to question the pair.

“We had a press conference to announce the takeover,” he said. “We were planning for it and we had a very professional PR advisor teeing the whole thing up, because the Moores family selling Liverpool was massive news. It had to be done properly.

“We had to brief them before on things to ensure they didn’t refer to the club as something like ‘the Liverpool Reds’, telling them not to mention franchises. These were all the things we had to do to mitigate the missteps that the Americans might take.

“We were deciding the running order for the conference with George set to speak second, but Tom jumped in and said, ‘I’m speaking second otherwise I won’t get a word in!’ At that point I was thinking, ‘what is going on here?’ You know that when your first instincts are negative, they’re generally correct.”

FSG are really good owners

The former Liverpool chief executive also spoke on the current owners, Fenway Sports Group, who have been subject to criticism from Reds fans in recent years – but Parry was full of praise for the American ownership group.

“I think Liverpool have done brilliantly under FSG and Jurgen Klopp,” said Parry. “The Champions League win was terrific and I think the owners have achieved success with a sustainable model. They don’t want to lose money but they’re not in it to make money, they are in it to build long-term value. They are in it to win and I think they are really good owners.

“The fans give FSG stick because they want to be competing with Manchester City and the clubs owned by sovereign states, but the owners have had the patience and the courage to say that if it is going to have to take longer, that is just the way it will have to be.

“The fact that they were not Hicks and Gillett gave them a lot of credit in the bank with the fans and they were a lot more patient with them. The fanbase were used to Liverpool winning titles so there was always an expectation, but it had become so long that a lot of newer Liverpool fans had never seen them win a title, so they didn’t have quite as much pressure.”