Liverpool: Tom Hicks explains why George Gillett was to blame for Reds failure

The American has reflected on a disastrous period in charge at Anfield

Former Liverpool owner Tom Hicks has blamed his former partner George Gillett for their collective failure to deliver success at Anfield.

The Americans took over the Reds in 2007 but sold three years later to John Henry and New England Sports Ventures group via a court ruling.

Hicks, now, has reflected on the mistakes he made and pins a lot of the blame on Gillett.

“Absolutely I made some mistakes. The biggest problem I had was I picked the wrong partner! I should’ve known better, I knew George Gillett from previous business deals that we’d ventured into together, where my firm owned 85 per cent and his 15 per cent, and he was impossible to deal with,” Hicks tells Sky Sports. “So why would I then go and do a fifty-fifty deal with the guy? Well shame on me!

“It was very frustrating because George had personal financial issues, he had other things going on, he just didn’t look at things the way I would have liked to have looked at things and so, in a 50-50 deal, you have to agree or you default to a negative position.

“For instance, I wanted to get rid of [chief executive] Rick Parry from the very beginning and George protected him for way too long and I think we lost a lot of momentum then, and yes, it was an interesting period of time!”

Hicks also concedes he attempted to oust Gillett from the club, though he could never quite pull it off, with his partner also trying to get rid of him at the same time.

“Yes, I knew it was a mistake after the first few months,” he adds. “We actually agreed to part ways but every time I tried to get the money to buy him out something would happen and he was also trying to do the same to me, it was just a very poor partnership.”