LFC - Time for Peace?

Damn it! I said I wasn't doing another football related post. This isn't an LFC blog and I'm pretty sure I must have other interesting things to write about. But here's how it works. Yesterday I'm driving wondering what my next blog post might be about - politics, business, drugs, celebrity and I can't think of anything. Then today something triggers in my mind and my head goes 'that's a good blog entry' and well... here we are!

I have come across a bit of an enigma. Last week I posted on the site www.liverpool-kop.com about a point of view expressed which was similar to my own first LFC post. I commented and linked to my own story saying I was going to write about LFC's debts.

The site is run by Jaimie Kanwar someone I have never met and our total correspondence comprises of a few emails and tweets. After writing my post Jaimie asked if he could re-post it to his own site. I agreed and managed to get an insight into what it's like to run a site like his. I have had to respond numerous times to criticism, questions etc. and read comments which were not too flattering about my work.

This led me to reviewing more of Jaimie and his other writers' work and I think it would be fair to say that he does not shy away from controversy. On reading some of the responses it was becoming clear to me that he may actually be 'The Stig'. Between some valid points, some rantings and responses you can almost hear Jezza Clarkson "some say he's actually a Manchester United fan, some say he's in it for the advertising money while some would say he's a wannabe editor for the daily sport. We all know him as the Stig!"

There are some who accuse Jaimie of just finding the latest big LFC news and then purposefully putting forward or posting the 'view of the few' to promote a reaction. How true this is I guess only he knows. One thing is sure - with headlines like the following, criticism is always going to be forthcoming:

• Crouch for sale as Rafa's irrational vendetta continues
• Manchester United debacle once again exposes Steven Gerrard's lack of leadership ability
• Why Liverpool cannont and should not sign David Villa
• Rafa suffering from Houllieresque delusion of blandeur

However it is fair to say that there are often positive posts on the site. In the stories I have read an attempt is also made to back up the views with some form of rationalisation, even if it is not always accepted. He does not shy away from 'flip flopping' either and is happy to change his view point at a later date. Does this suggest an open mind or back up the 'sensationalist seeking' point of view?

If he is indeed The Stig then I guess his Richard Brunstrom would be SoS (Spirit of Shankly) who oppose the current ownership of the club. SoS is the Liverpool supporters union which was formed in January 2008. They are opposed to the current ownership of the football club and have the stated aim of holding the owners of the club to account.

Now, I will state again that I am Hicks and Gillett (H&G) neutral. But at the same time I am a realist and the realism of the situation is where SoS' biggest weakness lies in my opinion. They may well have some valid concerns, some of which have been shared amongst the majority of Liverpool fans, but their options and powers are limited. The most valid of concerns is the level of debts leveraged against the club. As per my last post I don't believe we are in as bad a position as painted by the media and I personally am relaxed about the club's finances. However, it has to be accepted that an additional c.£300m of debt is around the clubs neck post H&G. This is big money and concern is therefore understandable.

But the owners are financially accountable to their backers (the banks) and cannot be forcefully deposed by anyone else. So when it comes to the fans well, what can we do? Most of the actions available to us (stop going to the games, stop buying from the club shop, arrange demonstrations) in some way will damage the financial and / or commercial success of the club. This is as unpalatable as finding another club, so we end up in stalemate.

Stalemate is also where Jaimie ends up in most of his 'comment wars' following his posts. Sometimes we just have to accept that we're not going to agree. While all the trying to 'grind each other down' to accept another point of view simply serves to further damage the unity of the club as a whole.

Let's get personal. Last week I smiled at my girlfriend (an Everton fan by the way) and she didn't like it so a short argument took place. Obvioulsy there is a bit more to it than that but you'll be bored. Anyway I went to play squash while she stewed at home. I came home to a lady fixed in her belief that she deserved an apology. It wasn't forthcoming. I sent out a warning shot that 'we're not just going to agree on this so we should just forget about it'. Not good enough. So she shouted, I shouted, she called me several names not befitting her 'lady' title, I threw some things, broke some things and then she ended up in tears. Five minutes of silence were followed by me 'breaking the ice' and we agreed that we weren't going to agree (like I said at the start). Life is like that sometimes. You just have to get on with things accepting that damage can be avoided if you 'agree to disagree'.

Back to the football and I may be about to offer a simplistic view but while other clubs are limited to arguing over who they should buy, yesterday's result and the referee's mistakes we're collectively adding major arguments about our ownership and the financial structuring of the club. To our sponsors and prospective commercial partners it must appear like their is dis-harmony throughout every level of our football club. Not appealing is it?

I will say again that H&G's public outbursts played out in the media were stupid. However, they appear to have learnt and are at least displaying some sort of harmony for the world. The fans are not.

In relation to the club itself there is a significant weakness which exacerbates the problems. They do not, in my opinion, communicate effectively with the fans about their intentions or plans. They shouldn't need to justify their actions or endanger any competitive advantage they are looking for. However the amount of misinformation could, in my opinion, be reduced if we knew the high level strategies of the company direct from the club. Fans need to know 'from the horses mouth' that our debts can be managed and that the club is progressing towards the global football powerhouse it should be. Pre H&G our accounts and business overview were available from the club website. They are not anymore. They can be downloaded from companies house but why do we have to go looking for them and how many people know that? Little things like this promote the idea of a club trying to hide something.

One of the questions I asked myself as I was posting responses to my last blog entry was 'why am I having to justify our debts?' I didn't have all of the information required and was making judgements which were weakened because of this.

So, my opinions for you to shout at this time....

• Should the fans have an opportunity to hold the football clubs owners to account? Yes, we do hold the ultimate power over the club and company as we are their consumers. LFC need to recognise this and work with SoS - I have noted that Christian Purslow has met with SoS and intends to do so again.
• Is the current situation damaging our club? Yes, disharmony within the fanbase is always going to cause questions to be asked. Whether the future commercial success of our club will be hampered is still to be determined. I am confident it is not helping our prospects though.
• Could LFC communicate with us better? Yes, I believe they can. We don't need to know everything. But it strikes me that a lot of the speculation and misinformation could be dealt with if the club opened up a bit more. In the same way that Rafa is the focal point for the team Christian Purslow should push himself forward as the focal point for the company. He appears to have the support of most LFC fans.
• Should everyone have the opportunity to have their say and put their opinions out there? Yes, of course - we do live in a democratic country.
• Are the constant 'comment wars', speculation and media intensity doing us any good? No, we're not getting anywhere. We're having the same conversation over and over again. Go and look at Jaimie's posts in relation to H&G. In some cases they are as near to being repeated verbatim as you can get!

What would I suggest? Well I think the fans need to come together as one and agree that we are going to have 12 months of 'peace time'. During the next 12 months we come together in unity behind our great football club. God knows after yesterday's result we need it!

That is not to say we forget about things. But consider this. We agree 12 months of harmony throughout the club. In 12 months' time if the debt situation has worsened without clear justification from the club, or, other detrimental things have happened SoS or whoever else will have gained the moral high ground. They will then be in a much stronger position to convince a larger number of fans, thus having a larger influence over the club. Looking through posts on many LFC sites and forums there is evidence of a softening towards H&G and a hardening towards SoS. I could be wrong about it but on some of the posts I see I believe a wind of change is underway.

For clarity, my position -

• I don't care who owns our club.
• I care very much who runs it and that it is run well with an overall target of turning LFC into a 'global football powerhouse'.
• I am pro Rafa and believe if he can be given the tools he needs he is the right man
• I am realistic that without equity investment we need to borrow money to grow and achieve our targets. This is for the good of the club longer term.
• I believe our debts (as per my last post) are not as bad as the other 'top 4'clubs.
• I believe the press have a tendency to pick up on LFC stories. Why shouldn't they? We are a globally recognised football club, the most successful football club in history. We're going to be a target. While there isn't general unity at every level of the organisation, including the fans, we'll keep feeding them stories.

Finally and critically I believe we should have 12 months of 'peace time'. No demonstrations, quiet on the forum front, no shouting at our owners when they appear. In 12 months things will have improved or have worsened. Either way things will have 'crinkled out' and we the fans won't have damaged our club's future prospects.

Liverpool Football Club - Sinking in a Sea of Debt?

Is the crisis now over? Can we go back to our normal business? The recent run of poor form and results by Liverpool certainly caused a mini furore amongst fans and a significant amount of press coverage. Just last week I posted a blog entry in relation to the recent frustrations and blame associated to the relevant parties (Available here - http://bit.ly/2oz9gP). But yesterday and the days running up to 'd-day' - what a response from the fans, club management, Rafa, backroom staff and players alike. 'YNWA' and 'Liverpool' were trending at the top of the twitter charts while Manchester didn't even make it to the list! Yesterday's game in some ways was the closest to Istanbul and I felt such emotion with each goal.

However there may be longer term problems according to some. During the furore and when writing my last blog entry I underestimated how strong the anti Hicks and Gillett feeling emanating from some quarters is. There appear to be three main complaints. The first two involve lying and expense claims. The first I assume is because we don't have a new ground built yet and the second has a common theme from somewhere else?

The third complaint, the one which has strong factual evidence behind it, is the level of debt which the club now has. It is not helped by the sheer amount of media coverage our debts seem to attract. So is the debt a failing of the new owners and should they be held accountable? Well as much as some may not like this next statement - it is their club and their company, ergo they can do what they like. We the fans are its consumers and until something changes we are locked together until H&G sell or the fans decide to support someone else or start a new club. Neither look likely at this stage.

So I set off trawling through the company accounts of the 'Top 4' and tried to generate a picture of exactly what the true state of affairs are. Are we really about to self combust or is this simply media and fan hype? Should we be worried - is there anything to hold the owners to account for? Well the answers aren't easy ones, but I'll try.

Please note I have taken the last filed accounts for each club and the figures will have moved since then (for example we are reported to have reduced our debt by £60m so far), I have also rounded all figures to the nearest half million.

FOOTBALL CLUB DEBTS

Straight down to it - Liverpool Football Club has £227.5m of debt which, while a colossal amount of money, is less than Arsenal's £280m and Chelsea's whopping £616m. We are also not too far away from the lowest debts of £210m recorded by Manchester United.

Where I believe there was/is a problem is that our debts are heavily weighted towards our current liabilities, which need to be paid within 1 year. I assume this is down to the bank refinancing which was completed earlier in the year. At the last accounts we had £202.5m of our debt to repay within the coming year compared to AFC:£80m, CFC: £105m and MUFC: £146m.

Ideally our debts would have been refinanced over a longer period pre-credit crunch. This was no doubt the plan at a time when funding was freely available from the banks. Today it's a different world where loan monies are not so freely available and banks are taking advantage where they can. This affects all football clubs not just ours. Who from the 'top 4' splashed the cash this summer? Even United after the cashing in of Ronaldo were quiet, coincidence or clubs bolstering their balance sheets at a time of uncertainty?

I have to confess that I have a degree of sympathy with H&G who are demonised for what exactly? Without them would we really have the quality of players we have now? Probably not and Rafa would have had to continue scrabbling about for bargain players. They have also undertaken a restructuring program to modernise our club and yes the stadium is on hold. But in business you can't get the best facilities and best materials (players) and best management without spending money, it is a question of priorities and timing. The credit crunch timing was lousy for all businesses and certainly not the fault of H&G.

ABILITY TO REPAY THE DEBTS

LFC has the lowest turnover of the four clubs at £159m and generated a profit of £8m. In comparison the highest turnover was CFC with £190m but a loss of £70m... yes £70m! The most profitable was AFC who made £48m out of their £183m turnover. MUFC reported a turnover of £180m generating a profit of £23.5m.

This only represents one year's results though so I looked back at the last 5 years results for each club. MUFC were the most consistent performers averaging a £15.5m profit per annum while AFC pretty much broke even with a 0.5m profit. By comparison we lost £5m per year but again this was dwarfed by Chelsea's £84m per year losses. Yet we are the club everyone talks about as being 'in trouble', we are both owned by wealthy people - in fact we have two.

If you read my last post you will know that I raised criticism about the old regime's abilities to take best advantage of the commercial opportunities open to LFC and turn it into a football global powerhouse. Take our £5m loss per year and add an additional £13m from the new bank sponsorship, plus a possible £5m for keeping hold of a reduced Carlsberg deal before even considering any other new ventures. I believe Christian Purslow is finally pushing LFC in the direction it should have been going 20 years ago. When H&G came in and bought LFC I am sure they could see the un-tapped potential of the business and the club. As on and off the pitch success are inextricably linked this has to be good for all of us.

The club which stands out as unable to repay their debts in the short to medium term is CFC with the highest debts and biggest losses. The biggest worry for their fans should be that without Abramovich they will probably not even be able to service their debts, never mind pay them back. This is not a position LFC appear to be in. In fact with potential yet to be realised you would have to ask what the potential of the banks 'pulling the plug' or us not being able to sell the club really are. Especially when you compare 'apples to apples' like I'm trying to here.

THE PARENT COMPANIES WHICH OWN THE CLUBS

After looking at the clubs I turned my attention to the parent companies of each club. This is where all of the debts of ownership are held and I found something interesting. Remembering that we are the club which is in such strife. CFC's total debts are £850m, AFC £674m, MUFC £620m and LFC... well, by comparison a relatively low £446m.

However the sales (turnover) of our parent company are a lot lower than our competitors as well (MUFC:£256m, AFC: £222m, CFC:£210m and LFC £162m). This is something I am sure Mr. Purslow and his management team are working on. I am more convinced than ever that our failings in the past are biting us on the backside. Despite this we have a team which remains in the top 4 in the country, finished second in the Premiership last season and is classed as a contender for all competitions.

SUMMARY

A scoring system and league table is quite obviously called for in this context.

As we are looking at the debts and the ability to repay I have taken the holding company's total debts (worst case scenario) and made an adjustment for every pound of average football club profit (last 5 years)[Av P/L], last year's profit/loss from the football club [P/L LY] and holding company [PL L/Y HC] and for every pound of turnover [T/O] from last year. So we're taking the total debt and reducing it with every pound of profit or turnover or adding on any losses (ability to repay). The lowest score wins.

Premiership top 4 League Tables

Club - Debts Av P/L P/L LY P/L LY HC T/O SCORE

1. LFC - 446m -5m 8m -42m 162m 323m

2. MUFC - 619.5m 15.5m 23.5m -21.5m 256m 346m

3. AFC - 674m 0.5m 48m 36m 222m 367.5m

4. CFC - 850m -84m -70m -84.5m 210m 878.5m

[NB - Sorry about formatting but I haven't got time to put into a table]

If that's not enough look at the holding companies in isolation. There is a simple ratio which will show the relative position of the company's debts to income. For every £1 of sales MUFC achieves there has historically been £2.54 of debt incurred, AFC £3.04 and CFC £4.05. Liverpool FC has £2.75 of debt for every £1 of sales. All my calculations clearly indicate that we are not the worst performing of the 'top 4'. In fact we appear to be either the 1st or 2nd best performing in all of the calculations relating to debt.

There is a downside though. We are reliant on our banks to continue loan finance for the foreseeable future unless an investor comes in. But consider this, so are hundreds of businesses across the UK and all of the other top 4 clubs in the Premiership. Consider Chelsea losing Abramovich, or, Abramovich losing his billions (which some say he is already doing)? I believe no one will buy CFC as they won't want to take the debts on and the banks would not be able to see a way back to solvency for the club. Abramovich appears to have literally tried to buy the Premiership for the fun of it. But there is no sign of prudence for the longer term stability of the club which has been applied to ours.

I imagine (because as much as I would love to I can't spend a week, or month, or years mulling through their business asking questions) that the pressure comes from the structuring of the debts. The banks are probably using this to their advantage and renewing short term deals. This keeps the pressure on the club and no doubt strangles cash flow at transfer time. Think of your bank saying yes you can have a mortgage but we want the money back in 12 months! Two possible fixes are a relaxing on lending policies as the global financial recovery continues and/or the ongoing actions taken by Christian Purslow to push our club to where it should be (increasing profits). Which is with a new ground and a sensible annual transfer budget to keep us competitive and successful. Both of these things will generate additional revenues and profits. Setting us up as the football global powerhouse we should have been years ago.

FINAL NOTE

Before any accountants come in on this I am aware this is not the official way of assessing the liquidity of the business but I could be here all day analysing accounts. I could come up with all sorts of bamboozling data and ratios but I just wanted a quick snapshot of the state of affairs, along with a simple explanation. I hope I achieved that.

follow me at http://www.twitter.com/mcdonaldtaf

Liverpool Football Club and the Blame Game

After our fourth loss in a row this morning my Sister posted her facebook status as "has nothing left for Liverpool anymore, my tolerance and expectations are at rock bottom.....and I dont want to hear anymore about us having no money to compete because that doesnt excuse the performances of our existing players......and any people that support other teams and may want to take this opportunity to take the p*** DONT....you have been warned" Well I think she went about her busy day as usual leaving a family facebook storm brewing (that does not sound anywhere near as good as "twitterstorm"!)

Middle brother (Chris) was the first on the scene... hang on. First things first - my brothers are well balanced individuals who are very capable at expressing themselves in the literary form. I do not mean to mis-represent anything here and if I have I apologise now, but I'm not going to copy and paste all the conversations, which were lengthy! Where was I? Oh right... he (Chris) was very much of the opinion that money and the owners were at the heart of our recent problems. I rebuked his comments and offered, in my opinion, a more balanced view which I will share shortly. This was the point when young brother (Rob) stepped in. Now I know Rob has a loathing for our new American owners (a view shared by many LFC fans) and he stated that "Benitez is being buried by expectation, no finances and a squad with players who've failed to live up to expectation." Again the no finances argument. There were several facebook messages shared and while I wait to hear from Chris I think I managed to get Rob to edge towards a more balanced view.

I was/am concerned that my brothers and fans in general want(ed) to blame someone when the truth of the matter is there has to be (in my opinion) a shared responsibility. There is not one thing wrong with our football club, there are several. But at the same time there is a whole heap of light shining at the end of the tunnel. Again, before I continue I have not had time to research everything I am about to write and I will use the words around, about and circa a lot. I believe I am in the ballpark with what I will write, which is written in good faith.

Now then, what I consider, is a balanced view on what is wrong with LFC at the moment.

The preceding owners and management

Something that has become abundantly clear to me is that the commercial opportunities which were available to our club had not been taken advantage of in the past. In England I believe there are only really two 'worldwide football brand names' and they are Liverpool Football Club and Manchester United Football Club. Chelsea are doing their damnedest to get there as are Arsenal, but at present there are only two.

It is no surprise that our new sponsorship deal is worth at least double to that of the outgoing deal. The figure £20m has been banded about opposed to the £7m per annum we were getting from Carlsberg. 10 Years of that difference buys you a few more players like Torres.

There are other signs of improved commercial success not least the recent suggested interest of Prince Faisal with a figure of £200m for a 50% equity stake in the company. This represents a doubling of the value of the business over what is a very short period of time.

Maybe one of our most important signings should have been Peter Kenyon (or the likes of) in the late eighties / early nineties? I am confident that we would have a much stronger squad today had we taken better advantage of the opportunities in the past.

The existing owners

Where the preceding owners did 'score points' was in the way they conducted themselves, which was largely behind closed doors. Unfortunately that has not been the case with our new American owners. Their well publicised disagreements have been played out in the public eye time and time again. We have to accept that the British media will blow things out of proportion and this is maybe something our American owners were unaware of. We do not know everything which was happening within Anfield at the time they spoke to Jurgen Klinsmann, but again it was played out within the media.

This creates instability and no doubt affects the morale within every level of the organisation including the players. Unfortunately it has a longer term affect within a football club as the media are quick to drag everything back up every time we lose. The owners must take responsibility for this and hopefully they have learnt enough about the British media to know how to deal with their disagreements in the future.

There is also the question of whether key potential signings failed to come to fruition in the early days as there were significant time delays between America and Anfield. Although this is now hopefully rectified who did we miss out on?

That said I believe we do have two owners who continue to act, on the whole, in the best interests of the club. £60m has recently been paid off the club's debts and I suspect they can still see the potential of both the brand and the business as a whole. The credit crunch has impacted on the world and unfortunately we will have to be patient or secure outside investment, just like every other business. This is not the fault of the individuals.

The owners continue to be vilified within certain sections of Liverpool fans but they are businessmen who've had success with sporting ventures in the past. They should be assessed as businessmen first and foremost and as I say on that front things appear to be improving.

There is an ongoing accusation of not enough transfer money being provided to Benitez. We may not have spent as much as some (as reported by Paul Tomkins) but we have burnt through tens of millions of pounds on players. At the moment with every business feeling the credit crunch the owners and management team must put the long term security of the business first. As this hinges on 'on the pitch' success it is a difficult balancing act.

One thing I am clear about as a Company Director / Senior Manager myself is that it is difficult to keep everyone happy and the weight of responsibility is immense, even in a small company. Never mind one with such a worldwide customer base and media presence. We may not like all of their decision but should trust that they are made with the best of intentions.

Rafael Benitez

As any Manager knows the 'buck stops with you', you have to be prepared to accept that and deal with the pressures of being in management within any organisation. I have purposefully left out the players in this blog entry as while the players (staff) may be charged with performing to the best of their capabilities the responsibilty to ensure that happens remains with the Manager. This is true of any organisation.

I have to confess that my position on the amount of blame to be associated to Rafa has softened a bit. Partly because of my Brothers' input and the recent article written by Paul Tomkins . I truly continue to believe that Rafa is the man to move our club forward. His record speaks for itself and should afford the man every last ounce of patience the fans and owners can muster. I do not believe either party should be anywhere near getting to the end of their patience yet.

However there have been, in my opinion, shortcomings. Alonso's departure from our club must rest squarely on Rafa's shoulders. Albeit this decision was taken before perhaps Alonso's best season in a red shirt. I had initially also brought his transfer record under scrutiny with my brothers but Chris set me straight on a few things and apart from bargain basement signings the only true failings to date have been Ryan Babel (who was courted by many clubs before arriving at Anfield) and Keane. Chris believes the Keane 'mistake' was quickly rectified, but I would argue that we ended up out of pocket by millions at a time when millions matter. Babel continues to frustrate with flashes of brilliance and I remain un-convinced by Lucas. I do accept though that the majority of signings have been successful.

I have no doubts that Benitez is a tactical mastermind and few in the game, know the game better. I would question though whether he is a man-motivator. At the moment, we appear to be in a rut (the worst for some time), so maybe motivation is possibly more important than the tactics? There are times according to Aurelio that he doesn't speak to the players after the game, win or lose.

I would imagine man motivation is his Achilles heel. Rob pointed out some great comebacks in the past which must have required motivational prowess, I would question whether the great comebacks were instead tactical master strokes. Nobody knows for certain expect the players and the management team. I don't believe he is as cold as portrayed or doubt his lack of desire or love for the club. But we all have a weakness and I believe this could be his.

Summary

There have been a multitude of things that have come together over the past few years which I believe have led to this pressure point. The old management didn't take the best opportunities afforded to them and the new owners have been a PR nightmare increasing the media pressure on the organisation significantly. More recently Alonso has left after his best season in a red shirt and expectation has not been so high in a long time. I agree with Chris when he points out that the Premier League is getting stronger every year and the 'top 4' are all going to lose more games. But when Liverpool lose a game we seem to always attract more attention than other clubs (zonal marking etc.)! When we hit a rut though and the chips are down is Benitez as good at picking the players up as some other managers?

However, the business (from what we see) is getting stronger and the new MD appears to be making very quick strides towards cashing in on our massive brand name. Our debts are being reduced and the possibility of outside investment is looking more than hopeful. This will hopefully resolve the owners' grievances and provide a cash injection for players and our long awaited new stadium. A solid business plan implemented now will secure the long term success of the club and provide for transfer funds and a new stadium.

Benitez will resolve the current rut and he must be given the time and support to do so. I don't agree that he needs more money to be competitive but I accept that he might do to win the title. At the moment we are not competitive and he must fix that first and foremost.

The longer term?

I believe there is quite a simple formula for any football club:

1. A stable environment, good players, facilities (especially youth facilities) and the best management team will bring on the pitch success

2. On the pitch success drives revenues and brand awareness

3. The company must be run effectively to take advantage of the increased revenues

4. The company must be commercially astute to take best advantage of the increased brand awareness to further increase revenues

5. Increased revenues and a well run company will increase profitability

6. Profitability allows for growth both in player talent and facilities providing stability

Think of the 6 points in a cycle, ever revolving.

This is what every football club should be striving for. The top clubs at the moment (excluding Manchester United who have achieved this consistently for years) and the up and coming clubs are reliant on investment money to provide player talent and facilities - to enable growth. Investors may not always be forthcoming so we shouldn't rely on investor input for ever and a day - there is a cap on the amount of value which can be derived from any football club.

For longer term growth and security we must employ the cycle noted above. We had the opportunity to employ the cycle in the early nineties but failed to do so or failed to put it into use effectively. Only one or two clubs can be successful in any one season which makes me wonder about the future of football in general.

As for our business plans, taking into account last season (where we were in the title fight and had a good champions league run) I believe points 1 - 4 are improving year on year. At the moment we have a blip to deal with and possibly a long season ahead. This is not any one person's fault but a collective sharing of responsibility past and present. A blip can be dealt with but we must continue to make progressive steps forward over the entire season.

Finally

My response to my sister "I think you have expressed a general feeling which is emanating from even the most ardent LFC fans (myself included). However, if we beat United on Sunday it will be a different story again. Remember at this time last season the same things were being asked about Ferguson after a shocking start to the season. A couple of wins change everything. Also, last time we struggled to qualify for the last 16 in the CL... we won it! Walk on!"

Note: My sister posted her response on Wednesday morning when I started writing this blog entry. I was then struck down with flu so had to wait till today to finish it.

The X Factor continues to delight and frustrate in equal measure

The (majority of) contestants are stronger than before, the judges continue to bicker better and Dermot O'Leary goes from strength to strength. Snide comments and hypocrisy retains its usual prevalance, for example Cheryl Cole criticises a girl band for their skimpy attire and then two weeks later appears to borrow their wardrobe. But the real increase in strength for the X Factor goes unnoticed within the mainstream. The business model is stronger than ever.

They are clever boffins the producers of the show led by head honcho Simon Cowell. In a world where the credit crunch eats into middle England's disposable income advertising revenues are also down. This is due to both the 'credit crunch effect' and a wholesale shift to on-line advertising which is cheaper and in a lot of cases better suited to the younger generations. So what to do? Well how about this - we can leave our phone lines open for 24 hours and then have two prime time advertising slots. That'll do it!

I would imagine it will only be a matter of time until some newspaper runs a story about how some teenagers have bankrupt their parents with repeated calls to vote for John and Edward (well someone's voting for them). There is a social responsibility which has quite possibly been overlooked by Simon Cowell et al.

Now back to John and Edward. We're all paying our, no sorry, our kids are spending our hard earned cash on keeping them in while it would appear everyone over 15 wants them out. So how about this Simon. Go back to two shows on a Saturday night and give us two lines for every act, a 'keep them in' and a 'get them out' line. At least then we only have to watch the kids and our phones for two hours, and we get to have our feelings aired. I am confident they (John and Edward) would have been out in the first week if this was the case.

I don't like John and Edward (quickly becoming known as Jedward). But I don't like them because they can't sing, dance, have very little charisma, have no X Factor and managed to get everyone's backs up in the first two minutes of being on TV. Now I'm not sure what Louie was thinking, although this stage being pre-recorded he wouldn't have know the public's perception. But they are two young lads who don't deserve to be booed off stage or have quite so many Facebook hate groups. They are annoying, but not evil!

The X Factor will probably continue to go from strength to strength in the short to medium term. However, the producers may wish to consider the longer term implications of what they do.

The Good and Bad Side of Social Networking

Twitter has played a key role in the delivery of criticism aimed at large organisations this week. While it was largely responsible for the (hopefully) upcoming apology from Jan Moir of the Daily Mail, following her vile contribution to our news intake. It has also (in my opinion) forced one of the largest organisations in the world (PepsiCo.) to issue an apology which was not required.

The article written by Jan Moir http://bit.ly/1est0Y has very quickly been condemned by the UK public, largely in unison. Following Derren Brown's tweet about posting a complaint to the PCC I was lucky enough to get mine in before the site slowed to a crawl and then eventually fell over. Over a 1,000 complaints were received, quite a condemnation. She hurriedly released some sort of explanation http://bit.ly/2wLyX9 - well she just kept digging didn't she? My own complaint was a direct response to reading the article which created the sense or feeling that it was a disgusting attack on both Stephen Gately personally and the gay community as a whole. I am entirely heterosexual and yet I spent hours re-tweeting, such was the strength of felling I had (and obviously others shared).

But then alas I read this article http://bit.ly/1x9VLp. PepsiCo. have released a fun application which is aimed at a certain market segment (Men). Although it's a bit silly did it really have to receive the barrage of Twitter criticism leading them to feel the need to apologise? I have to wonder which sex generally complained about this application. Would there have been the same, if any, comment if it was a Diet Coke application showing how to chat up the Diet Coke topless model? It always seems that our female counterparts can have fun and specific applications or adverts to watch but all male only based media must be shared or face the possibility of being condemned as sexist! My experience is that most women would simply laugh off the application or not even really care, but if the question of sisterhood is brought up, well the bandwagon starts rolling! [NB I'm pretty sure my girlfriend and others will have counter arguments!]

So the power of Twitter and other social networking sites, good or bad? It is still early days and that is what is concerning. If we 'gang up' for every incident to complain vociferously at some kind of perceived injustice will the truly meaningful complaints, like that of the Jan Moir case, go largely unheard?

I will always remember one of my bosses who very rarely swore. His colleagues couldn't manage 5 full sentences without an 'F' or a 'B'. When they swore it was just the 'norm' but when my boss swore boy did you know something was wrong. I hope that the impact of social networking, which is still in its infancy, will remain for the long term. However if this is to be possible, I think there is a need to practice restraint and only complain when it's something you truly believe in and not just for the sake of the bandwagon!

Update: [19th October 2009] The PCC have today confirmed that in excess of 21,000 complaints were lodged.