Tom Hicks & Corinthians

It seems Tom Hicks leaves a trail of devastation wherever he goes. His disastrous foray into the Brazilian football market as chairman of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst left Corinthians, second most popular club in Brazil, in a state of turmoil.
The parallels between what happened to Corinthians and what is currently happening at Liverpool are unsettling to say the least:
* There was the initial blaze of publicity and fanfare when the company bought the club in 1999, with promises of big spending on the best players and the construction of a brand new 45,000 seater stadium in the suburbs of Sao Paulo.
* There was an initial capital investment to tie down existing players and to finance the purchase one or two other additional players.
* The economics behind the Corinthians deal appeared to be based on ridiculously rudimentary logic: "If you add up all the fans of professional baseball, basketball, football and hockey in the United States, that number is lower than the number of Brazilians who are soccer fans." Clearly, no proper risk analysis had been undertaken - a situation which resonates with the due diligence period of 3 days prior to the purchase of Liverpool.
* This flimsy approach was reinforced by the