Even Hicks And Gillett Could Not Divide The Liverpool Dressing Room
“I know Carra has admitted that I asked him why neither he nor Stevie spoke out at the time. I understand their reasons, that they felt that they had to be professional and not get dragged into a war, and I respect them. We might have disagreed on this subject but that did not mean we fell out with each other or anything like that. The club had enough problems without the senior players having problems with one another because of a difference of opinion. The way I saw it, Stevie and Carra are the two principle members of our squad, the ones who the people love and maybe if they had said something it would have put Hicks and Gillett under real pressure. But in their view, it was more important to try to keep things as normal as possible rather than risk rocking the boat even more. What was not in doubt was that we all just wanted the best for the club.
“This was an extraordinary time and it should never come down to the supporters to decide whether or not they should protest, or to the senior players to decide if it is right to speak out against the owners. It just shouldn’t happen. We were all being put in a bad position by Hicks and Gillett. Whatever choices we made at the time should be judged against the backdrop of how bad the situation had become, not against us as individuals. My respect for Stevie and Carra did not change one bit, even though we saw things differently. We all did what we thought was right, that is all anyone can ever do.” Pepe Reina: My Autobiography.
Almost twelve months have passed since the departure of Tom Hicks and George Gillett and not all of the wounds caused by their palsied regime have completely healed. A brief perusal of the myriad Liverpool forums is all it takes to realise that some of the divides dating back to that era are still in existence and the same entrenched positions continue to be adopted.
It was always going to be this way. You can’t have what was effectively a couple of years of civil war and then expect a sudden declaration of peace to bring everyone together in a hippy style love in. This week is bound to herald a period of reflection about where Liverpool were and where they are now and it is equally inevitable that some old scars will be picked at. Healing processes are rarely anything but painful.
On Saturday night, extracts from Pepe Reina’s new book became the latest source of debate. At this point I have to reveal a vested interest as I was Pepe’s ghost writer, but I would argue that this makes me better placed than most to put the extracts in their proper context.
It was suggested that Reina had been critical of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher for not speaking out against Hicks and Gillett. As the above extract shows, nothing could be further from the truth. Reina admits – as Carragher did in a previous interview – that he had disagreed with his senior team mates over their decision not to go public on their disenchantment with the club’s owners at the time. But he is also at pains to stress that he not only understood their decision, he totally respects it. His criticism is saved for Hicks and Gillett for putting them in the kind of position that no footballer, let alone a Liverpool player, should ever be placed in.
“My respect for Stevie and Carra did not change one bit, even though we saw things differently,” Reina says. How that kind of comment could be construed as evidence of some sort of split in the Liverpool dressing room or as the senior players being at daggers drawn is absolutely beyond me. It was a difference of opinion, nothing more and nothing less, and the high esteem in which Carragher and Gerrard are both held by Reina could not be any more clear.
In my opinion, one of the few positives to emerge from the Hicks and Gillett era was the togetherness of the dressing room. It would have been so easy for the players to allow themselves to become factionalised and for political differences to take a hold. But that never happened. It wasn’t even close to happening. Yes, that period affected them like it affected everyone else connected to Liverpool Football Club but, as Reina points out, this never turned into the kind of splits that would have been so damaging to everyone. That is to their eternal credit and it bodes well for the future because if togetherness can be maintained during a time of division then it speaks volumes for the spirit that allowed such unity to prevail.
It also highlights another reason why the time has come for the healing process to be completed. There wasn’t a Liverpool player or supporter who did not do what they thought what was best for the club during that troubled period. There may have been marked differences of opinion, debates and even some falling out but one thing that should never be in question was that everyone was fighting for Liverpool FC. They may have had different ways of doing so and diverging ideas about what was right but it was all prompted by a love for the club.
As Reina says “It should never come down to the supporters to decide whether or not they should protest, or to the senior players to decide if it is right to speak out against the owners. It just shouldn’t happen. We were all being put in a bad position by Hicks and Gillett.” Thankfully, they no longer have anything to do with Liverpool and the best way of ensuring that they cannot cause any more suffering is to put their era and the divisions it caused behind us.
