Liverpool fans are demanding talks with the club’s prospective new owners to discover their intentions and ask them to explain their plans.
Spirit of Shankly, the supporters’ group that has campaigned aggressively to oust Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have welcomed the agreed sale of the club to New England Sports Ventures, owners of baseball’s Boston Red Sox.
But they remain ‘extremely skeptical’ as the Hicks and Gillett era draws to a close and are desperate to avoid a repeat of the catalog of mistakes made since the Americans took over three years ago.
“As fans we are worried that the next set of owners will be just as bad,” SoS spokesman James McKenna told Goal.com UK. “It is absolutely vital that the new owners talk to supporters to alleviate our many concerns.
“The main things we need to know are their plans to invest in the team and for the new stadium. [Chairman] Martin Broughton has been talking to them for a while and we want to know, what are your plans? What will you do about the stadium? Where is the money coming from?
“We want them to engage with us and use the fans as a positive. After Hicks and Gillett we are extremely skeptical so we need to know that the next owners are the right owners.
“We accepted the last owners too easily and we won’t be doing that again. If they are the right people for the football club they will sit down and talk to us rather than chase PR and photo-shoots while ignoring the supporters.
“The issue fans face these days is that we find it hard to trust the integrity of these people. All supporters will be watching very carefully to see their intentions for the football club and they need to talk to us.”
The sale is now subject to Premier League approval and a legal wrangle between Hicks and Gillett and the three independent directors after a sensational boardroom split emerged on Tuesday.
The Americans’ desperate attempts to cling on to power comes as no surprise to Spirit of Shankly, who believe the most important thing is for the club to be in new hands.
McKenna added: “It’s been a nightmare for Liverpool supporters and we've fallen behind the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea because of the debt, the lack of a stadium and their failure to invest in the team.
“The main thing is that this matter is resolved sooner rather than later so we can start concentrating on what is happening on the pitch rather than a poisonous situation in the boardroom.
“The club needs to be managed properly on and off the pitch – we will wait with baited breath until Hicks and Gillett are out and we can start a new era for the football club. We are cautiously optimistic.”
The Boston Red Sox bid is led by another American – John W. Henry – who is believed to value the club at around £300 million.
That would be enough for the club to repay in full their £282m loans to the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, and leave a little more for investment in the team.
Hicks and Gillett believe the offer undervalues the club and on Tuesday attempted to block the deal by trying to replace managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre with Mack Hicks – son of Tom – and Lori Kay McCutcheon, vice-president of Hicks Holdings.
The deadline to repay the bank debt is October 15 and Tom Hicks in particular is expected to try to raise the capital to make his own offer to repay the bank debt.
No comments:
Post a Comment