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firstly, you are correct that anfield is a deprived area of liverpool and that the delay to the new stadium is stopping the re-development work in the area from taking place - hence much of the resentment from liverpool fans towards george gillett and tom hicks.
however, the houses you saw around the stadium are in fact owned by the club. they were bought by the club from liverpool city council many years ago with the thought of a stadium expansion in mind which has become unworkable since for various reasons. The houses have been kept by the club and boarded up because to let people live in them with the volume of people walking through these streets on match days would be extremely un-safe. The area is not as bad as it looks around anfield as you have to look past the houses directly next to stadium to see
that said george gillett and tom hicks can get the hell out of our club and our sport! they know nothing about it and were naive enough to think they could afford to invest in a sport they are not successful enough to afford
Many many streets in Liverpool are like this, its because the Conservative Governments including Thatcher et al never spent a penny on regeneration in Liverpool.
The area has been deprived of Government funding for decades.
With the European Capital of Culture Money some good progress is being made albeit just in the City Centre.
LFC as a club bought and boarded all of those houses up and they have been trying to assist in the regeneration of the area but to claim that it is all LFC's and Tom and Jerry's fault is a bit far (even if I do hate the yanks).
Scores of Governments at differing times have denied Liverpool regeneration funding, I don't know exactly what the beef is down south but the City has been denied funds for so long, there are still bombed out buildings from the second world war (even in the city you can see this).
No vitriol or anger at your post but you really should get your facts straight otherwise you will look like a numpty mate.
I'm born an bred in liverpool but i hate the city. it's full of self pitying idiots. if there not full of self pity they're full of smack.
stay away from this city. capital of crap!
good post!
WHY ON EARTH DID YOU BOTHER TO REPLY.
THE CITY IS NOT PERFECT NO CITY IS .
THE IRONY IS - YOU HAVE JUST CRITICISED YOURSELF BY MOANING
I THINK YOU A RE A MANK-NO ONE FROM LIVERPOOL WOULD COME OUT WITH THAT OLD CHESTNUT
GET OUT OF LIVERPOOL IF YOU LIVE HERE AND GIVE US ALL A FAVOUR.
Whilst I do not doubt that the hold up on the stadium is interfering with some of the development work, it worth remembering that £3m of the money granted to LFC for the stadium has now been re-assigned to the community as a result of stadiium delays.
I despise Tom Hicks, George Gillett, Rick Parry and all the lies that come with them. I love to see bad press against any of these however I feel it should be accurate and true. Something this article, quite simply, is not.
I think you will find that 99.9% of Liverpudlians are extremely proud of their city. Its people like you that give our wounderful city and club a bad name.
Do us all a favour and crawl back under your rock! What gives you the right the flame Liverpool!
Americans are the most clueless xenophobes in the world today, that's why LFC has to shed the two that attached themselves to the club and think again.
im appalled that people outside the club will think badly of us now if they take it for face value
Many thanks to the locals who have put this idiot in his place. Im putting this guy alongside Mr Comford from Caughtoffside as possibly the two worst internet journalists ever.
If your from outside liverpool, your not there to see the houses, your there to see 43000 Liverpool fans going mental cheering for their heroes.
HICKS AND GILLET OUT DIC IN!
But that one line aside, the focus of the article - the poor state of the Anfield area and the new owners' failure to help the situation - is dead on and agreed upon by all of you, even though many of you seem to deem this as 'poor journalism' almost as if an involuntary reflex. I understand that the fans feel strongly against the american ownership, and frankly, as an American I dont disagree with you, but try reading the whole article before trying to tear it apart, not the first 30 words.
Quite how you can defend the article beggars belief because from it's sinister title to it's woeful fabrication of rubbish, it is just run of the mill, anti-Liverpool bile My god if you want to see an area that was desperate, you should have gone and had a look at Maine Road while it was the home of Man City, that was a real nasty dive. It made Anfield looks like West Kensington or Knightsbridge!
Overall I have to laugh at American's trying to come across as authoritative about social issues in Liverpool, I bet none can even find it on a map!
Since then the situation has changed still further. The North Liverpool areas of Anfield and Breckfield have become the subject of full scale redevelopment plans of which the New Anfield stadium is the centre piece. As such these plans attract additional money from the EU and some other various public funds. Part of these involve the renovation and restoration of the historic Victorian Stanley Park.
Also, once the new stadium is built, the old Anfield stadium will be demolished as will the surrounding boarded up houses. These will make way for Anfield Plaza; a space that will compliment the new stadium with shops, bars and hotels. At the centre of the Plaza will be the old pitch.
All of this is contingent on Liverpool Football Club building and moving into their new stadium. Without the new stadium, nothing can happen. Obviously, the development of Anfield Plaza cannot happen until the old Stadium is removed. But also the other funding will also not be released unless Liverpool FC start building their new stadium.
So right now, everything depends on George and Tom. They are holding up the whole redevelopment of North Liverpool. The problem is that if they wait too long, the public funds that have been set aside for this will end up being withdrawn and the club will end up having to pay those funds instead if they want their new stadium making everything even more expensive.
I think Hicks and Gillett have bought into something they just cannot afford. Furthermore, their entire leveraged business model is entirely dependant on the Champions League revenue stream. If they fail to provide sufficient funds to maintain the quality of the playing staff, we will slip out of the Champions League and that major source of revenue will disappear and we will then be unable to meet the interest payments for all the debt that George and Tom have heaped on the club. We can barely meet those payments now, and that's with us being IN the Champions League and before we've borrowed the full amount with which to build the stadium.
So, there you are. I'm afraid the picture is much darker than a few boarded up houses.
We are perfectly happy for this side of Anfield to be shown. It shows that our club has responsibility and integrity. Rahter then living people living in sub-standard conditions, it bought their houses from them, for good market values I should add, and then made them safe to avoid people trying to move into them as squatters or whatever as they are not fit for habitation.
I have been to America 13 times, many different cities and have lots of American friends. I do not disrespect Americans or their country and still enjoy visiting for holidays. But I can tell you right now, there are places that I would NOT walk through in the daytime let alone at night. Parts of Miami, New York, Chicago, Atlanta.... and many more. They are notorious for their poverty and people resorting to violence to scratch a living. They have people living in tenements that are REALLY unfit for human habitation.
And we somehow ended up with two American businessmen who do not have a great reputation back home, buying our club with money they haven't got, putting our club into massive debt and now refusing to sell even at a massive profit because they are too arrogant to depart and lose face.
Liverpool is a city I am proud of despite not now living there due to my work. I visit regularly both to see games and friends and family. It has good and bad like all cities but nothing will ever make me be less proud at being a Scouser from a city that has some of the friendliest people with a terrific sense of humour anywhere in the UK.
Mike, if you don't like it, nobody is forcing you to stay. Clear off elsewhere and leave it to the people who love it.... nearly all of them!
Not all of the people reading this blog happen to live in Liverpool, so to read about the poverty and state of the houses directly behind Anfield will be quite surprising to many readers outside the UK (which are the majority of readers to this site).
I stand by the headline and the article I wrote. Yes, I know that Liverpool FC own many of the houses but I included a link to David Conn's article which had a lot more detail about the homes.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Your writing was wrong in so many ways. There is hardly any poverty in Anfield, yes it's not rich, but it's not as poor as West Everton, around Netherfield Road. Anfield is just working class, apart from the empty houses you showed, many of the other homes in the area are well maintained, with all the roads restricted to RESIDENTIAL PARKING!!! I.E. they all own cars!!!! Hardly poverty. All you've done is looked at the boarded up houses and made your own judgement without a single fact to support you.
p.s get rid of them 2 american twats.,
The head line in itself is skewered. Has anyone at Anfield tried to hide these homes from you? Who exactly doesn't want you to see these homes? Your headline is sensationalist. Your article is about two things, a real journalists article, and derelict homes.
You don't really mention anything constructive of your own opinion, merely jumping on Conn's bandwagon. The only thing you've put across is that you were scared to walk past derelict houses on your own. I don't really understand your point, why are you telling us you were scared? Why didn't you mention that the homes are club-owned for regeneration and safety reasons? Why do you think no one wants you to see the homes? Why do you refer to homes that nobody lives in as a state of poverty?
You might as well go to Ground Zero and talk about the poverty there, It would be shocking to all us folk who don't live round there.
Cheers,
Chris
Ps. I hope you got someone to walk past the houses with you.
If they go out to work and make the most of their life instead of thinking everyone picks on them they would improve the citys image which to be frank is crime ridden, chav and lazy ie 26% unemployment says it all!!!!
Who cares if I don't visit and get my facts wrong! I'll still get some hits and feel important!!
What a joke of a post!
http://tinyurl.com/684f4s
Cheers,
The Gaffer
My biggest gripe with the article is not the first 30 words but the fact that you choose a first hand experience based on a visit in 2006 ???????????
Am i the only f*cken idiot who thinks this strange, If your ploy was to gain hit's to your article then i fear you have won, if i come back and read your next attempt at 2 year old journalism then shame on me.
Brozzo.
I work all over Europe and I must be honest most cities have areas awaiting redevelopment or have just become a bit run down and unfashionable but normally these are tomorrows up and coming locations.
If you want to see how the areas is regenerating take a walk down Anfield road to Tancred Road, the houses there are a great example of what happens when people believe in and fund regeneration. A whole street of empty run down houses almost fully rebuilt and now families moving in. This was an expensive scheme but one which shows that people are willing to fight back against their surroundings we just need the people with the money to allow it to happen.
In conclusion this is a piece that is not new its not even shocking but at best is unbalanced and biased. I am a Liverpool Fan and do feel let down by the Hicks and Gillette empty promses but not just for footballing reasons but also for the further delay to teh creation of what was and could be a great area..
Trying to screen a swipe at Scousers in general behind a p*ss poor attempt at an intelligent piece of reporting... Gobsh*te!!!
Alan, stop fooking boring us with your pathetic attempt at sounding like some social study expert... Cut and paste doesn't make you a leading expert in the field you tool!!!
hicks owns massive debt on the dallas star,s loosing 20 mil a yr, and owes debts on texas rangers and his other holdings as well as LFC the guy is defaulted on numerous loans and with his companies reveunes down almost 50 million pounds a yr, he is in sh-- street, if he cant refinance.
Like the Gaff said, most of the readers are outsiders like me who otherwise wouldnt have any clue as to the economic environment of Liverpool, so when you say 'tell us something we dont know" , that is exactly what he is doing to the non-british audience here.
The pictures are taken a lot later than 2006.