Ohhh Liverpool, Are those naughty home owners bullying you now? (Liverpool snapping up property)

LuckyReds

Liverpool are coming under increased scrutiny after it was revealed by the Guardian that the football club's policy of buying up houses around Anfield is leaving the local area in "dreadful decline".

Source (Yahoo Eurosport)

Not quite sure how bothered I am to be quite honest, without sounding bad - but I get the impression that people are in it to sell if their houses are being bought..! Not like people are being made homeless. However it may be that they are making promises that they can't keep, and by buying some of the houses people follow suit until they have no real option. (We probably know more than most that people will cling on to even the roughest of places - Ferrier?) There's one comment to this effect on the article above, about an 87 year old man who was promised new housing and so on - but it was never ready and he ended up having to go in to retirement complex.

That said, leaves a bit of a nasty taste that the club could basically turn the surrounding streets in to a ghost town. Especially when you consider the likes of people moving because it's becoming deserted - and feels unsafe; then seeing their houses still boarded up 2 years later. Must be quite upsetting really.

Pretty interested to hear other peoples views on this..































Also, I'm expecting some top-notch jokes about Liverpool being a shithole, buying houses for pocket change, Liverpool fans being bullied and so on. Don't disappoint.

Lincsaddick

Have you ever been to the area around Anfield stadium? ... with respect to the (I am sure) lovely residents, a large bomb and total rebuild would not come amiss

Friend Or Defoe

The point is Liverpool FC are partly to blame for the area being in that state by leaving properties uninhabited.

I'll leave the jokes to someone else...

BlackForestReds

I recall when Hicks & Gillett bought Liverpool a few years ago virtually the first thing they did was to announce that the plans to extend Anfield were unambitious and they wanted a larger stadium/complex which in turn meant buying up a lot of property in the area. A generation before Liverpool tried to extend one of the stands and were held up for years because one owner refused to sell. After Hicks & Gillett virtually bankrupted the club the new owners decided that the revised plans were to expensive and unrealistic, but this has left them with a lot of real estate that they don't know what to do with. If it's redeveloped back into housing then it stops Liverpool's plans if in the future they want to rebuild Anfield. On the other hand they can't afford to extend Anfield...

North Lower Neil

Part of the issue is the sneaky way they've done it, too - buying through third parties, driving down the cost of neighbouring properties by leaving their newly bought properties boarded up inviting people to vandalise, gut the places, squat etc.

And I think that's definitely what they were doing or they'd have rented them out to make some money on them until expansion.

If they'd have been honest, said they want to buy houses in that road and paid slightly over the top, fine. But obviously that would be a more expensive way of doing it.

I get that Liverpool ate a business, and they weren't the first and won't be the last to do underhand things to save money. But it's very hypocritical when they profess to be a community club. YNWA (unless it suits us).

cafcfan

The area around the ground in "dreadful decline" - what a joke! A ghost town would be an improvement! It's an utter dump and has been for decades. Coming away from an evening game, it's almost impossible to get back to your car without treading in dog (at least I think it's dog) crap.

Richard J

Agree about all of the comments about Anfield.

Celtic was another ground where the surrounding environment looked completely out of place.Ten years ago I went to see them play Arsenal whilst up at an Open University summer school (for the sake of balance I also went to Ibrox 3 nights later).I was absolutely disgusted with the area.

I revisited Parkhead last September to see my Scottish team Raith Rovers in the Scottish Community Cup and was impressed at the redevelopment around the stadium.The horrible disused primary school has disappeared and with the Commonwealth Games around the corner the Chris Hoy Velodrome has opened opposite Celtic Park and the new build housing was also quite attractive.

I hope Liverpool can undergo a similar transformation.