Bates Brands Liverpool Owners As Jokers

Last updated : 07 August 2010 By Kevin Markey
Bates has led Leeds back into the Championship and has his sights on further progress into the Premiership.

The former Chelsea chairman told the : "Half of the foreign owners don't know what they're doing. Half of them don't have a clue. You can't automatically buy success, not always. You need more than money to be successful.

"Look at those two jokers at Liverpool - Tom Hicks and George Gillett. They meet in some Texan bar and decide they are going to be bestest friends and run a football club together. Do me a favour. That was always a disaster.

"Most of the clubs who are in the s*** are, or were recently, under foreign ownership. Look at them: Hull City, Derby County, West Ham, Notts County, Portsmouth and Cardiff City.

"The trouble is people come into the game and think they can make a fast buck. You can't. You have to build something. You have to do more than just buy players.

"I've been there, done it and sold the T-shirt to someone. There isn't a trick I haven't seen. My policy is quite simple. Apply basic business principles to running a football club - but so many of them don't."