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[Yuttie]

Liverpool's owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett could be forced to sell the club over a row about debt. (The Independent)

[Sir X]

Best News Fe De New Year !

[Yuttie]

Hicks is the same breddah whe gi A-Rod di massive contract...

Clock ticking on Liverpool owners' bid to stay afloat

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Oliver Kay

The relationship between Liverpool’s co-owners is to be put to the ultimate test as Tom Hicks looks to George Gillett Jr to approve the £350 million refinancing plan that is needed if they are to stabilise their troubled regime at Anfield for the immediate future.
With the American tycoons’ £270 million loan with Royal Bank of Scotland due to expire next month, Hicks is determined to replace it with a £350 million loan that will allow Liverpool to proceed with the planned construction of a 70,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park. Hicks said on Monday that the new deal would “close by the end of the week”, but Gillett is understood to be distinctly uneasy with the refinancing plan, as are many figures at Anfield.
It is widely expected, not least by Royal Bank of Scotland, that the refinancing deal will be ratified, possibly even today, but one well-placed source in the City has raised doubt over whether this will happen, partly owing to the misgivings of Gillett and Rick Parry, the chief executive, and partly because of doubts over the Americans’ ability to raise a relatively small sum with which to guarantee the new loan. If the owners are unable to repay the existing debt by the end of next month, Liverpool would officially fall into the ownership of the bank, but in reality it would force Hicks and Gillett to sell the club, barely 12 months after their takeover.
The expected outcome still is that Hicks and Gillett will secure the refinancing plan, which would allow them to press on with plans to build a stadium, having examined plans from two architects, Dallas-based HKS and Manchester-based AFL, at a meeting in New York a fortnight ago. With HKS’s original design having been dropped on the ground of cost, the budget has been set at £300 million, with AFL, the original choice before Hicks and Gillett came on board, thought to be marginal favourites.
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The collapse of the refinancing plan would bring further embarrassment to the club, but some within Anfield, perhaps not least Rafael BenÍtez, might wonder whether such pain is worth enduring if it leads to a change of ownership. If Hicks and Gillett fail to secure a refinancing plan in time, they will almost certainly be forced to sell – with Dubai International Capital, which they gazumped at a late stage in the bidding process a year ago, believed to be monitoring events.
A change of ownership may represent BenÍtez’s best hope of staying as manager, after Hicks’s admission on Monday that he and Gillett had tried unsuccessfully to line up Jürgen Klinsmann. Hicks’s comments have met anger from supporters, with Jamie Carragher, the defender, suggesting that it was time that the club got back to the “Liverpool way” of doing things.
“It’s not just me thinking that,” Carragher, who made his 500th appearance for the club in the 5-0 victory over Luton Town in the FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday, said. “Ask any fan. It’s not the way we have done things in the past.
“We are all aware of what is going on, but all we can do as players is concentrate on doing it on the pitch. The last nine or ten games we haven’t been good enough.