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Tom Hicks has spoken out on his relationship with Liverpool fans during his co-ownership of the club from 2007-2010.

Hicks took over at Anfield with George Gillett after buying out David Moores' shares in March 2007.

The partnership soon toured sour, however, and the decision to load the club with debt, as well as the failure to build a promised new stadium, saw fans protest against their ownership of the club.

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, the American said that the first six months of his tenure were great but that the atmosphere soon changed, pointing the finger at fans on social media for their "betrayal".

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"I was very impressed with the Liverpool fans. They are the most loyal, rabid fans there is," he said.

"It was great the first six months, we arrived at the club in March and went to the Champions League final in May, and I remember walking around the track before the game started with my son Tommy and the fans were yelling all these wonderful things at us, adulation, but of course a year later the same fans were calling for my head, they changed fast.

"I think the social media aspect became so vocal and visible and I think that was highly organised by people I thought were working for me - in hindsight they were trying to sabotage the ownership, I'm not mad at the fans, I'm mad at those people who organised the social media. I felt betrayed."

And Hicks says fans had the 'wrong impression' of him as an owner.

He added: "The club was making a lot of money, it was a commercial success, we just had a bank that wouldn't renew the loan. We spent a lot of money on players during that time, I tried everything I could to win."

Hicks also gave his opinion on the current ownership at Liverpool and the success manager Jurgen Klopp has had.

He said: "Lucky John Henry! He finally got a good manager, and I don't care if it's football, hockey or anything else, you've got to have a good leadership."

"I don't blame them, I blame RBS. They haven't built the stadium, I know they've added to the capacity at Anfield but I still feel there was a great opportunity to build a stadium but as I said before it's all about winning and over the last two years people have to be very happy with them."

The Texan claimed Liverpool fans 'turned' on former manager Rafa Benitez after the results started to deterioate.

"Obviously Klopp is a great manager," he explained. "The last two years especially Liverpool have been impressive. I know they had some poor managers before Klopp, the fans loved Rafa Benitez when we bought the club, they turned on Rafa later when he wasn't winning because it's all about winning."

Roy Hodgson was the last manager under Hicks and Gillett before new owners FSG (then NESV) replaced him with Kenny Dalglish in 2011 before bringing in Brendan Rodgers in 2012 and Klopp in 2015.