Rick Parry Defends Decision To Sell In 2007

The former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry has defended the decision to sell the club to George Gillett and Tom Hicks in 2007.

It has been widely-reported that Hicks and Gillett assumed control of the club despite a rival offer from Dubai International Capital (DIC) but Parry, who along with then chairman and owner David Moores made the decision to sell to the American duo, insists that DIC were not in the running.

"It wasn't a case of us rejecting Dubai," Parry told London's Evening Standard. "They were the preferred bidder but they walked away."

The reign of Hicks and Gillett, which ended when Fenway Sports Group bought the club last year after a bitter court battle, was punctuated by public arguments between the two owners, between Hicks and Parry and disagreements between then-manager Rafael Benítez and the owners.

The much-heralded new stadium in Stanley Park failed to materialize and the club struggled under the weight of the large amount of debt which was placed on the club by Hicks and Gillett. Parry believes much of the difficulty stemmed from the fractious nature of the relationship between the owners.

"I think one of the fundamental [problems] was that they actually didn't get on terribly well with each other," Parry explains.

Parry left the club in 2009 and, despite the often haphazard nature of the Hicks and Gillet era, he feels that for a period of time at least things were going well.

"Don't forget and certainly until I left – which was 2009 – we were second in the league. The business plan was a net spend of £20m on players. And they'd over delivered on that. They took us pretty close to winning the Premier League in 2008-2009, within four points of Manchester United with a huge points total.

"So it wasn't all doom and gloom. Then, in 2009, for whatever reason, there didn't appear to be any net spend at all on the players. By which time they clearly realized that they probably needed to sell completely."

Parry also stressed that despite what seemed to be a hostile relationship, he remains on good terms with Benítez.

"You don't get into the business if you want people who are easy," he said. "You want people who are winners. He's very demanding and he's a perfectionist. But I'm still friendly with Rafael."