After Chinese restaurants across Liverpool enjoyed their best night in history, and the planned dragon boat racing on the Mersey went off without a hitch, Red’s fans will have woken this morning to the news that this isn’t the only group interested in a takeover of the club. Read more.
Nonetheless, whoever buys the club the losers, and big ones at that, will be the owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who’ll get nothing – not even a sausage. Although this may set a precedent for other clubs to also be bailed out in this way, and it’s not going to be the smaller teams either.
Liverpool’s debt is huge, but there’s a very similar turn of events taking place in the city inhabited by their closest rivals.
When Manchester United let in a group of American window makers back in 2005 they thought they’d be in and out within a few weeks, the work done and back to business. Wrong. It turned out they were actually an American family led by Big Poppa Pump, Malcolm Irving Glazer – not a glazier after all. Doh.
Since worming his way into the boardroom the American owner has loaded the club with debts of around £600million and angered the entire county of Surrey to the extent that some aren’t even renewing their season tickets for the coming season. But could Glazer succumb to the same fate as little and large over at Anfield?
Well probably not, but there was extremely significant interest over what has elapsed of 2010 so far, from a group sent from a time machine from the Middle Ages, the Red Knights. They could even be from Russia such is a the name they’ve attributed to themselves, but the fans weight is well and truly behind this group of nomads.
But the money these Knights, many of them bankers (have they been saving their bonuses in their piggy banks?), would probably need to be approaching £2billion, if they were to make a realistic bid for the club. The Glazer’s may now lower this figure after the events that have occurred over at Liverpool, but the assets Man Utd have far outstrip their rivals. Although so does there debt so you never know. What this space as the saying goes.
It would be great for this group to take-over United though. The team may not enjoy the same success that they’ve enjoyed under Glazer, but I honestly believe those hardy souls drinking in the pubs and bars of Salford would rather not have the bearded Grinch lookalike as an owner.
One thing’s for sure though, the takeover talk at Liverpool has well and truly given the greedy, money-grabbing owners reason to worry and the hope that there’s many more cases like this could steer soccer in a different direction for the years to come. I’m getting down the banks before they close – see who I can snap up. Portsmouth for a quid anyone?
