There has been a lot of news in the last week and I am now starting to believe that this might finally be the beginning of the end of the Hicks and Gillett tenure at Liverpool.
Many Reds including myself are sceptical about all this after seen many Sheiks come and go, we have been left dreaming of the proverbial Sugar Daddy with petroleum millions to splash out on players and a new stadium. I must admit however that this time around things are moving very fast and it could be a different story, many questions have come up over the events of the last week.
It started on Monday when reports that the club was turning its back on the proposed investment by the Rhone Group. From what we have read and heard the group wanted 40% of the club in return for a £100 million investment. Trying to do some math I figured that Hicks and Gillett would have been left with 30% each an evaluation that would leave them with £75 million apiece. So it is not a surprise that they turned the Rhone offer down.
On Thursday we heard that they (H&G) were in London for some ‘loan negotiations’, later that evening they were both at Anfield and Rafa Benitez claimed that he did not even see them. Strange, you might think, why not meet with Rafa after flying half-way across the globe? Are they planning to fire him? Or have they made their minds up about selling the club, so they do not care what Rafa has to say?
On Friday the news emerged that the British Airways chairman Martin Broughton was approached by Hicks & Gillett to become chairman of LFC. This would explain why they did not meet Rafa on Thursday, they did not have to, as it looked like they are getting ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.
All the pieces of the puzzle seem to have finally fallen into place as on Saturday afternoon the Times was reporting that Barclays was the one who was behind installing Broughton as chairman. The bank was offering a £300 million finance deal in which they would pay off the £240 million loan to RBS and leave £60 million for Summer spending. The numbers all add up to what everyone was reporting this morning so I am starting to believe something is up here. The Times reports that Barclays will be responsible in looking for a buyer of the club with a selling price of around £600 million.
As far as Barclays are concerned I can see that they genuinely would be interested in the welfare of Liverpool F.C. as after all they are the sponsors of the Premier League.
Praying and hoping for the best.
Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine
These are HUGE news. I even forgot what happened in Anfield today. :P
The numbers appear great – but in my personal experience of dealing with Barclays Capital (the investment arm and nothing much to do with any of the rest of the business) – they are vicious, cut-throat, scheming, asset-stripping vultures……so my paranoia is we are about to move from liars and cheats, to strip it and flog it! These are the same caring, sharing business people who took Lehman Brothers over the edge and cherry picked the valuable bits for about $1.3bn (vs the previous market valuations of about $11-13bn)…seem like people you’d trust with the crown jewels??
Hoping I’m wrong, and the gentlemanly and proper business of LFC can return to being just that!!
Is this such good news ? Buy the club for £300 million, £60 million for transfers (3 players)to make the asset more saleable, then flog it for £600 million ? Who is going to pay that sort of money and develop a new stadium ? Barclays can see a quick buck and nothing more – this is bad bad news, as it was when Moores and Parry turned their back on DIC and got gillett to hop into bed with Hicks as neither could afford the club alone.
barcap will know dam well that a team performing well will get a much higher valuation that one thats fucking up. hence the 60 million input. it wont be sold this year, why the fuck would you put 60 million into something your selling at 600 million anyways, them putting 60 million of loans into the club will just increase debt and drive down the price. they wouldnt employee people a month before they leave either. there hopign this season is a blip, win the league next year after 60 million input and then sell the club then, at the peak of its price.
they may be cunts, but there not dumb
This is not as good as it looks. We go from owing £240m back to owing £300.
Furthermore, I reckon most investors will regard £600m as well over-valued. £400m is more likely to be nearer the mark. And when Barclays can’t shift us at those sort of values, what happens then.
God forbid it’s what Mr Turner suggests.
Rafa should go now. Broken promises and a disaster of a season. New owners, new manager and new players. What a breath of fresh air for the new season. In Rafa I Trust he will leave :-)
Guys we are making calculations on assumptions here. Barclays will not take over the debt unless there is potential. And Broughton won’t be brought in unless there is a serious project (I can only imagine what his remuneration is going to be!).
So let’s hang on in there and see what happens!
not really sure what to think of all of this. I just hope any future sale is considered a hell of a lot more than the last one.
And what about the money coming from CHARTERED BANKERS for the kit deal, and the money from from ADIDAS??? Rest assured that these deals and others in the pipeline (including the stadium naming rights) are all in this complicated equation.
With UEFA’s new rules, there will be no mucking about. This time things HAVE to be done the right way.
Guys let’s get rid of H&G and sing hallelujah!
I also said and still believe that if Rafa does not clinch 4th spot her should really consider resigning (which he probably will anyway). He should not made promises he knew he could not keep and he should not have ‘guaranteed’ 4th spot.
Sorry Antoine, I know this subject disappoints you, but if the man is as professional as he makes us believe and coherent with himself, he really should put his mandate on the line.
Tonio Bone just grow up. Fire Rafa and get who? He got us into the Cl every season bar this one. A season where our rivals for that position have spent over £250 million together on player acquisition. I’m talking about Spurs and City. How are we to compete with that when we can now only get players on free. You think Mourinho will win us the league with an extra £30 million this summer? You are dreaming. Even if he did, do you think a narcissist like him will stay for the long haul. Not in a million years.
Since the yanks first landed at Anfield they have been trying to offload the club at an outrageous price whats changed, if they had said we will sell for 350 to 400 mill now thats a real sign.
To jack this is not the first time rafa has failed to get us into the top four his first season in charge he failed but uefa changed the rules so that they could let the holders of the champions league “LIVERPOOL” in through the back door. Also rafa is a very negative manager he sets up the team to go out and get a goal and sit on a one nothing lead until the opposition score and then the team start to attack again, that is not the way you win leagues, look at united, arsenal, chelsea they go out every week to score as many goals as they can. As to your point about mourinho if he came to liverpool and won the league 1 or 2 times he would be setting the team up to play with a champions mentality and i dont think many LFC fans would care if he stayed for 2,3,4 years as long as he won the league. At the moment LFC is a stale team and they dont need lots of players to improve just a manager with the stranght and character of a winning mentalaty which is something benitez just doesnt possess, his mentalty is lets not get beat and hope we nick a goal, and it causing alot of problems within the dressing room espically with the players who want to play attacking football.
You have all seemingly missed the point here. BarCap have been brough in to replace Meryl Lynch and the other investment bankers to run an ‘auction’ for Liverpool. The BA Chairman will be brought in to bridge the transition between the current and new owners and to ensure all interested parties are fairly represented (split ownership etc). The whole thing is to draw out the interested parties identified by Purslow (who i think has been the commercial breath of fresh air the club needed, permanent or not!!). Hopefully this sorry season will end with new owners, some silverware (although not the one we wanted) and fresh investment in the team. YNWA
People, we’ve heard and read so much about this saga, personally I’ve had enough of it. Issues such as these are so delicate and one missing detail changes the whole complexion of the matter so it is impossible to second guess what exactly is going on. The not so distant past teaches us that things can change so quickly, one week we were being sold to D.I.C. and the next week we were sold to two DICKS instead. The current club situation is really sad because honeslty we have the core of a really great team, we are only short of two or three top players.
Liverpool are not worth 600m without a stadium. With, yes. I don’t know where the Times got the 600m figure from but if investors aren’t interested now at 400-450, why would they be interested in us for 600m ??
We’re in a mess. There is no getting away from it. Rafa will go in the summer because he knows he can’t take us any further. I can’t blame him but I also don’t think he’s been totally blameless either in some of his team selections. Not just this season but throughout his tenure.
Darren, that was his first season at Anfield. Besides he got us in the Cl no matter how it was done. Also your argument that we are defensive is nonsense. We scored over 100 goals last season. Remember Real 4-0, Man U 4-1 and Villa 5-1? This season we have had so many injuries, it means sometimes you have to just grind out results till your confidence is back. Again your dreaming if you think Mourinho would win in a league where City and Chelsea can go out and buy a player for £40 million without selling.As I rememeber clearly Mourinho won the league with a cash strapped Chelsea. I would like to see him win with £0 net transfer money in the summer. Look at Man U. They could not make the CL semis and look like not winning the league. They are so much in debt they cant compete with City and Chelsea anymore on transfers. In the long run MONEY will win and LFC haven’t any. Those Man U fans who wanted Fergie out have more insight than some of you people. At least they can say their manager won nothing in his first 5 years.