By Andy Heaton and Jim Boardman

And so, nineteen years after buying the club, five years after Istanbul, three years after selling the club and two years after speaking out to defend his close friend, David Moores last night, finally, spoke out about the state that the once great Liverpool Football Club now finds itself in.

Kind of.

In an open letter to The Times, the first thing that multi-millionaire former majority shareholder, Chairman and Life President David Moores makes clear is that he isn’t apologising, nor has he ever felt the need to, instead pleading a defence of what can only be described as ignorance and stupidity, stating that he, just like the fans, just like Steve Morgan and just like all the other minor shareholders had all been hoodwinked by Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

He, just like the rest of us, was a victim of the American regime, but unlike the rest of us who could no more influence the direction that the club took in 2007 than we could take a seat on the team bus on the way to the match, had the power and more importantly, the responsibility to make the right call or wrong call back in February 2007, and he got it wrong

Badly wrong.

The self pitying tone continues throughout the best part of another three thousand words, blaming everyone from Rothschilds, to DIC, to Samir Al Ansari and even Roman Abramovic, before finally reaching out with an admission that fans had been demanding from him for two years and then signing off with an appeal to those he allowed in to destroy the club to leave:

“I hugely regret selling the club to George Gillett and Tom Hicks. I believe that, at best, they have bitten off much more than they can chew. Giving them that benefit of the doubt – that they started off with grand ideals that they were never realistically going to achieve – I call upon them now to stand back, accept their limitations as joint owners of Liverpool Football Club, acknowledge their role in the club‘s current demise, and stand aside, with dignity, to allow someone else to take up the challenge. Don’t punish the club’s supporters any more – God knows they’ve taken enough. Take an offer, be realistic over the price, make it possible. Let the club go. It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to concede for the greater good.”

When he last spoke out two years ago in a Liverpool Echo ‘interview’ with Tony Barrett, his words were little more than a defence of his ex-running mate, and then-CEO, Rick Parry who had been asked – rather firmly – to resign by one of the club’s co-owners, Tom Hicks.

As it conspired, Parry was only able to hold out for a further 12 months, before effectively being replaced by Christian Purslow, close friend of the now owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers and former arch nemesis of David Moores, Steve Morgan, a move which saw Moores step down from his post as Life President and resign his place on the board.

Since that date Moores has not set foot inside Anfield, not that he would have enjoyed much this past season, the club’s off-field financial difficulties finally having a telling influence on matters on the pitch, as a thread-bare, and in some places, poor quality squad trading 2nd for 7th in the worst season for a decade.

So what prompted him to speak out this time?

As we know, it wasn’t to apologise or admit any culpability, that, clearly, was everyone else’s fault.
Although would it not have been a sign of strength, rather than weakness, to concede that he’d done a lot wrong by sitting quietly in the background for so long?

So what did prompt him?

“Above all I’m writing to you because I care deeply about the club, the team and the fans.” That and the harm that “hearsay, mistruth, and malicious gossip” was having on his family, a feeling the manager he left behind could surely identify with.

And on the week of the 5th anniversary of the club’s historic 5th European Cup win and arguably the club’s greatest ever night, a night he feels a repeat of is now “light years away”, he felt the time was finally right to speak out publicly.

What Hicks and Gillett will make of the letter to The Times is anyone’s guess, as is why he never sent them a direct correspondence, as opposed to “hoping against hope” that they’d see at least “some portion” of it.

Only at Liverpool, where the ex-chairman admits to having never used a computer and an ex-CEO used to hand write emails for his secretary to forward on, could you imagine that no-one kept a record of addresses and phone numbers of the two people to whom they “sold the family silver”. Of course, the above is both highly implausible, and unlikely, yet in a way, tragically, comically, believable.

But let’s strip away the cynicism and assume that Mr Moores’ actions were that of a man who acted in way that he thought would have maximum impact, to galvanise and throw weight behind a support that is finally waking up in number to the almost clinical disassembly of what was only a few years ago one of the most unique, envied and respected clubs in Europe.

Let’s believe that it’s not because he doesn’t care that’s it’s taken him two years to speak out, or to lash out at some enemies both old and relatively new.

Whatever your thoughts about David Moores, there are two things that are undeniable, that he is a Liverpool fan, and he is deeply hurt by what has become of the Club he used to own.

Maybe it’s taken two years because he’s felt powerless to intervene, helpless as he’s been forced to witness the car-crash of the Americans’ ownership develop.

Perhaps it’s taken two years because he’s as upset as any of us, arguably much more, destroyed with the knowledge that to the majority of Liverpool fans, he’ll forever be thought of as the man who sold us down the river to the Americans for a few extra million, despite the accepted knowledge that the club was actually sold on the cheap.

Maybe he did make the decision in what he thought were in the best interests of the club, that he had the right people coming in to take the club from him, is it really beyond the realms of believability?

Whereas the current owners are not holding out for the right people, they aren’t even pretending to.

The current owners are holding out for their right price.

And that price is way higher than what the club is really worth.

Moores stated in his letter that the current owners, “in holding on and holding out, risk damaging a sporting institution of global renown”.

But it’s already damaged, and in some areas increasingly beyond repair.

It’s not just the money either, it’s the way the club is being run; Rick Parry’s last 12 months saw him completely at odds with Tom Hicks and he only ever got on with Gillett because it was to George’s own personal benefit in his battle for control with Hicks.

When Parry finally left, a new man came in, supposedly on a temporary basis, who has only succeeded in creating even more divisions within the club, but unlike the problems caused by his predecessors which were confined mainly to the boardroom and the manager’s office, we are now seeing the desire for power and control affecting matters on the pitch.

Add to that the current situation where the club is effectively in limbo, with the current owners unwilling to put any money into a business they are looking to sell, a split fan-base, and a manager who doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going, we are only going to be looking in one direction, and that’s down.

David Moores lived the dream, he owned the club, and under his stewardship saw it achieve the unthinkable, and no matter what happens no one can take that night away from him, or us. But that dream has turned into a nightmare for all of us, a nightmare that he must take some of the blame for; he made a mistake, and a mistake he has to do all he can to put right.

David Moores may not be able to right all the wrongs or ever completely absolve himself from the consequences of his actions in 2007, but he has a voice, a voice louder than arguably any other outside the club, and has finally shown a willingness to speak out.

It’s easy to castigate, to dismiss, to criticise, but to what end, what will it ultimately achieve?
But he’s not the only one who that applies to. All fans need to think the same way. What can we do? How can we help?

Perhaps the first way is to do all we can to stop the infighting.

One phrase that is overused these days to the point of it no longer meaning what it did is “the Liverpool Way”. It can now mean any manner of things; increasingly though, it is used to belittle those with a different opinion. “My Liverpool Way is better than your Liverpool Way.” Now more than ever, we need to reclaim the true meaning of “the Liverpool Way”.

But what IS that exactly?

“One of the principles that unites us as Liverpudlians, gives us pride and informs our sense of identity is the philosophy [that] on the pitch evolved from Shankly’s fearless attacking football into a simple but wonderful game of pass and move, founded on hard work and a team spirit that relied upon everybody fighting for each other. Off the pitch things were not so different. We would put our faith in the manager and support him to the fullest extent we were able.”

Whether it was written by his own hand or the work of a “ghost” it’s pretty impressive and not far from what you would imagine those people who made our club great had in mind when the phrase was first coined.

The above is not an appeal for anyone who has a negative opinion on the manager to blindly support him, or that want a change that they’re wrong to do so, it’s a call for us all to stop fighting with each other about it.

Whilst we are busy falling out with each other, fighting over minor, inconsequential details and arguing over the latest bit of pub gossip, we are caught looking the other way as the owners and their assistants just take the club nearer to ruin.

When the owners were fighting, we were winning. Now they’ve – at least in public – stopped the fighting, leaving that to us instead. And they’re winning. Winning handsomely.

As fans we will never, ever, agree on everything. That’s part of the attraction of being a fan of any football side. But at Liverpool we’ve always known when the time is right to be together, to put petty differences aside, to show unity and solidarity, to win.

If we’re going to be critical, let’s be constructive. David Moores may be different to 99% of us in a countless number of ways – but he is still a Liverpool supporter, he is one of us, he might have made the biggest mistake of his life, but he did it thinking he was putting the club first.

Hicks and Gillett could have been adopted by us, adopted as two of our own. The opportunity was there for them and if they’d taken that opportunity maybe they’d have been afforded the understanding we always have for our own.

They passed up the opportunity.

David Moores has now, gingerly, stepped back amongst us and seems ready to fight with us, and despite whatever your reservations might be, our fight is stronger with him than without.

His message to the owners was: “Let the club go. It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to concede for the greater good.”

It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, from all of us if we stick together and put our differences aside, we’ve already lost so much and are at risk of losing so much more, let’s not lose each other.

Andy Heaton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Andrew_Heaton

Jim Boardman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JimBoardman

Anfield Road on Twitter: http://twitter.com/anfieldroad