Is Parry’s departure a victory for Hicks?

By Matt Ladson On · 2 Comments · In Opinion

The news that chief executive Rick Parry is to leave the club at the end of the season has been greeted as good news by most supporters.

However, it should also raise a lot of questions and be taken with some caution. Parry leaving is one of the three amigos gone but it’s the other two which remain the bigger concern.

Undoubtedly Liverpool supporters will be glad to see Parry leave, for reasons ill come to later, but most understand that ideally Parry would have left after Tom Hicks and George Gillett had been removed. I used the analogy before when discussing the situation that Gillett and Hicks are the cancer of the club, in comparison Parry is a cold.

Parry has earnt himself the nickname ‘Coco’ (the clown) in recent years for his alleged transfer misdealings – Simao, Alves, Vidic, Barry, the list is endless depending what you believe Parry’s missed out on for us. Add to that his lack of commercial development (one thing Hicks has ever got right) and the whole ticket fiasco for Athens…

But, when Hicks called for Parry’s resignation last year, fans weren’t happy at the way it was done – it wasn’t ‘The Liverpool Way’. Since then Benitez and Hicks have bonded over their desire to remove Parry but for different reasons; Rafa wanted rid of Parry to gain control over transfers while Hicks will see it as a victory for him in the boardroom.

Parry himself said in the aftermath of being asked to leave: “There’s a Liverpool way, which I think I will understand and I will stick to, and clearly there’s a different way.” He is right, Hicks in particular doesn’t live by these values the club has been built upon.

HicksWith Parry out of the club it leaves only (former chairman) David Moores and gives the Americans, and Hicks in particular seeing as Gillett and Parry were allies, control of the boardroom. The big question now is who will replace Parry – and in what capacity. If Hicks brings in recently appointed commercial director Ian Ayres he will have “won” control of the boardroom and no Liverpool fan should be happy with that.

So, while Parry’s departure is a good thing when looked at on it’s own, in the bigger picture it leaves more questions than answers; who will replace him? Will a new chief executive also replace him on the board? What does it mean in terms of the long term future and control of the club? Should this been seen as a victory for Benitez or Hicks?

  • About the author

    Matt Ladson

    Matt is the co-editor of This Is Anfield. He grew up on a diet of Roy Evans football and yearns for the glory days to return to Anfield. Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattladson.

    View all articles by Matt Ladson.
    Follow @ on Twitter.

  • Follow This Is Anfield


    Liverpool FC news, opinion and features direct to your inbox...

    Or follow us on social media...
  • JB Kopite

    If you look at the forums, you’d think we’d signed Lionel Messi! Matt’s article spells it out well. We now have a situation where 4 voting board members has become 3 or 3 plus a puppet hand picked by George and Tom. It pretty much means the owners can do what they like…

    On the plus side Rafa may be getting what he wants. And for anyone just thinking Rafa should sign his contract, you’re wrong. He wants what all the fans want – success on the pitch. He doesn’t care about anything else – and that’s what we want right? So if he’s holding out to have more say – he’s sticking his neck out for all the supporters. Just remember that. The board can sack him whenever they want. So he just wants the right pieces in place for him to do his job – I commend him.

    And for all those suggesting the icing on the cake would be new owners – be careful what you ask for. I think all of us would have preferred DIC to the Americans. But do you want the yanks to sell this club at a huge profit and walk away? That means more debt on the club, rising prices, less money for transfers (as we get even bigger interest payments) – lets get real there is no sugar daddy coming along who is going to pay in cash and not want a return to equal the investment(we can hope!).

    Perhaps the best we can hope for is if Rafa is on good terms with Hicks, Gillette leaves and Hicks gets an investor in that enables us to move forward with the stadium. And lets hope a new Chief Exec can get our club more commercial! We need it to compete. Look at the likes of Aston Villa creeping up on us… And to all those fans prioritising the league, the league, the league… yeah we’d all love it but its not realistic – the money is in the Champions League. For now it has to be the priority(sorry but it’s true). We need that cash more than Manure, Chelski or Arsenal. That’s the reality – it’s a business.

    Credit to Rafa we are competing with Manure and Chelski. We have nothing like the squads they do – and we’re still up there fighting… but don’t be under any illusions about the priorities… its about cash. So is Rick Parry leaving a good thing? Who knows, but I wouldn’t be celebrating just yet…

  • JB Kopite

    If you look at the forums, you’d think we’d signed Lionel Messi! Matt’s article spells it out well. We now have a situation where 4 voting board members has become 3 or 3 plus a puppet hand picked by George and Tom. It pretty much means the owners can do what they like…

    On the plus side Rafa may be getting what he wants. And for anyone just thinking Rafa should sign his contract, you’re wrong. He wants what all the fans want – success on the pitch. He doesn’t care about anything else – and that’s what we want right? So if he’s holding out to have more say – he’s sticking his neck out for all the supporters. Just remember that. The board can sack him whenever they want. So he just wants the right pieces in place for him to do his job – I commend him.

    And for all those suggesting the icing on the cake would be new owners – be careful what you ask for. I think all of us would have preferred DIC to the Americans. But do you want the yanks to sell this club at a huge profit and walk away? That means more debt on the club, rising prices, less money for transfers (as we get even bigger interest payments) – lets get real there is no sugar daddy coming along who is going to pay in cash and not want a return to equal the investment(we can hope!).

    Perhaps the best we can hope for is if Rafa is on good terms with Hicks, Gillette leaves and Hicks gets an investor in that enables us to move forward with the stadium. And lets hope a new Chief Exec can get our club more commercial! We need it to compete. Look at the likes of Aston Villa creeping up on us… And to all those fans prioritising the league, the league, the league… yeah we’d all love it but its not realistic – the money is in the Champions League. For now it has to be the priority(sorry but it’s true). We need that cash more than Manure, Chelski or Arsenal. That’s the reality – it’s a business.

    Credit to Rafa we are competing with Manure and Chelski. We have nothing like the squads they do – and we’re still up there fighting… but don’t be under any illusions about the priorities… its about cash. So is Rick Parry leaving a good thing? Who knows, but I wouldn’t be celebrating just yet…