What is it exactly that Tom Hicks wanted to achieve by revealing that he and George Gillett had virtually sealed an agreement for Jurgen Klinsmann to replace Rafael Benitez? Perhaps he wanted to give the impression of being honest about the whole situation and he can claim that a subsequent comment highlighting that they were now working much better together was given much less prominence.

Yet Hicks is experienced enough about how the media works to know what part of his comments was going to be picked up. He must have known that they were going to cause more unrest rather than calm things down.

What is more baffling is the timing of Hicks’ comments. Meeting or not, Klinsmann’s appointment at Bayern Munich offered the perfect excuse to rubbish the claims of Liverpool’s approach whilst the signing of Martin Skrtel offered proof of the backing being afforded to Benitez.

Instead, any illusion that things are getting back to normal has been shattered. Whatever the club claims, it will be difficult to dismiss any rumours that Benitez is going to be removed at the end of the season or that Jose Mourinho is the one they will be turning to as a replacement. It’s every tabloid writer’s dream.

Liverpool FC deserves better than this. Respect and dignity used to be by-words of how the club was run but now it is fast becoming a shambles, a club on par with Newcastle as Sami Hyppia aptly put it.

It is amazing how quickly Hicks and Gillett have blown away the goodwill that their take-over of the club generated. Initially, they said the right things and made all the right noises. They showed that they were determined to get to club to maximize its potential, a desire typified by their setting up of a club television channel within a matter of weeks.

Of late, however, it has gone from bad to worse. Apart from the undignified and public fall out with Benitez, there has been the degrading back tracking about the new stadium. On top of all this are the continuous rumours about the two owners’ inability to refinance the loans that they took to buy the club and their intention of loading the debt on to the club, something that they had promised not to do.

And therein lies the root of the whole issue. For the past six weeks we’ve been hearing how the deal to refinance the club is about to be closed off yet every time nothing comes of it. We keep hearing how everything regarding the new stadium is still on schedule yet the work has to commence.

Little wonder that most fans have lost faith in Gillette and Hicks, that they no longer believe in what they say. Not everyone is convinced that Rafael Benitez is the man for the job but even those who don’t think so feel that he has been treated shabbily, as is the rest of the club.

Having come in claiming that they respected the club’s heritage, they’ve found a strange way of doing so.