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.
With 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?
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