Football

Although I’ve never been a fan of TalkSport radio, I have to confess I do enjoy their videos 🙂

It’s been a fucking mental 24 hours at Liverpool, with the official site dropping this bombshell in the late hours of Wednesday night:

The Board of Directors have received two excellent financial offers to buy the Club that would repay all its long-term debt. A Board meeting was called today to review these bids and approve a sale. Shortly prior to the meeting, the owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – sought to remove Managing Director Christian Purslow and Commercial Director Ian Ayre from the Board, seeking to replace them with Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutcheon.

This matter is now subject to legal review and a further announcement will be made in due course.

Meanwhile, Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre continue to explore every possible route to achieving a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity.

Ironically this news comes on the same day that the much hyped “Dear Mr. Hicks” viral was launched – minus any celebrity of note – I struggled to watch it to the end, and as a Liverpool fan I am embarrassed to have this sanctimonious whining being connected to my club.

Finally, yesterday morning I wake up to the news that a sale has been agreed and some dynamite quotes from previously quiet chairman Martin Broughton

I am delighted that we have been able to successfully conclude the sale process which has been thorough and extensive. The board decided to accept NESV’s proposal on the basis that it best met the criteria we set out originally for a suitable new owner. NESV’s philosophy is all about winning and they have fully demonstrated that at Red Sox. We’ve met them in Boston, London and Liverpool over several weeks and I am immensely impressed with what they have achieved and with their vision for Liverpool Football Club. By removing the burden of acquisition debt, this offer allows us to focus on investment in the team. I am only disappointed that the owners have tried everything to prevent the deal from happening and that we need to go through legal proceedings in order to complete the sale.

I think it is a great pity that at the end of an exhaustive process that has been seeking a competitive bid, that they are not going to take the last opportunity to be the ‘good guys’ and pass over Liverpool to the right owners, that is what they promised to do, what they said all along they would do.

When I took the role they gave a couple of written undertakings to Royal Bank of Scotland – that I was the only person entitled to change the board and that they would take no action to frustrate any reasonable sale, I think they flagrantly abused both of those written undertakings. I have the casting vote.