“Georgie, Georgie, give us a wave…†“Georgie, Georgie, give us a wave…” Much has been written in the last few weeks about Liverpool FC owner Tom Hicks. That’s hardly surprising; after all Hicks has been an increasingly visible presence as he whores himself around the world’s financial institutions in an increasingly desperate search for new sources of finance, but Hicks’ public profile has become so inflated that it’s easy to forget that Liverpool actually have two owners. To a degree that’s understandable. Tom Hicks seems to have been trying to forget George Gillett exists since before the ink dried on the agreement they signed when buying the club and it’s fair to say that most Liverpool fans are looking forward to the day when we too can forget that he was ever a part of our club. For now though, George is still very much involved and that makes his absence during what is generally accepted to be a critical period in the club’s future all the more curious. George didn’t use to be so shy and retiring. Back when he first became involved with the club, George was at the forefront of much of the media assault on Liverpool fans. It was Gillett that made the now-famous claim of a spade being in Stanley Park within 60 days of the deal being done. It was Gillett that later argued Hicks was responsible for this reckless assertion, despite video evidence to the contrary. It was Gillett that engaged in a heated debate with a group of Liverpool fans at the club’s academy, which you can listen to here: http://www.kopfaithful.org/audio.html (Parental advisory – this recording contains strong language) Yet, as a refinancing deadline approaches which is widely recognised as being critical to the future of Liverpool Football Club, George remains strangely silent. It could be that George has bigger fish to fry. What could possibly be bigger than a half share in England’s most successful football club, a share worth anything between £150m and £400m depending on whether you believe Tom Hicks’ valuation or the banks? Well, perhaps his entire US business empire. George has already had to swallow the bitter pill of bankruptcy once; in 1992 his company Gillett Holdings collapsed in spectacular fashion, leaving company debts of roughly $1bn with Gillett personally exposed to the tune of $66.2m, a situation that he acknowledged was caused by “an error in judgement and timing.” Last year, Gillett sold the Montreal Canadiens, the hockey team that he had owned since 2001. In April 2010, it was reported that Gillett had been in default since February on a $90m loan taken out to support Richard Petty Motorsports, the NASCAR team that he owns. More recently, several respected newspapers have reported that Gillett’s response to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s 2008 demand that he and Hicks reduced the level of debt placed on Liverpool FC was to borrow $75m from US hedge fund Mill Financial, secured against his share of the club. It has been reported that this loan has now been called in and that Gillett will once more be forced to default on payment. In view of his recent track record, perhaps it’s expecting too much for Gillett to have any interest in keeping Liverpool fans abreast of developments but it seems a reasonable expectation that the club’s board will have been informed of the situation. Still, the board themselves seem less than forthcoming with information about the ownership situation too; in fact the overriding impression emanating from Anfield these days is that the fans are firmly at the bottom of everyone’s list of priorities. So if you’re reading George, perhaps you could spare five minutes from your no doubt busy schedule to let the millions of Liverpool fans around the world know what exactly you’re up to these days, as the club you were apparently so proud to be associated with heads inexorably towards a financial cataclysm. At this rate, we might start thinking that you don’t care about us… KOP FAITHFUL http://www.kopfaithful.org/ http://twitter.com/kopfaithfullfc