Irritated by talk of an Anfield crisis last week, Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, is confident that the next seven days will bring a series of more positive headlines, starting with the signing of Lucas Neill and continuing with long-awaited progress in the club’s takeover saga before ending, Benítez hopes, with victory over Chelsea in the Barclays Premiership on Saturday.
Neill, the Blackburn Rovers defender, is expected to become the club’s third arrival during the January transfer window — after the less high-profile signings of Emiliano Insua, 18, the Argentina Under-20 full back, and Daniele Padelli, the Italy Under-21 goalkeeper, on loan from Boca Juniors and Sampdoria respectively — with a swap deal involving Stephen Warnock likely to go through in time for Neill to make his debut against Chelsea at Anfield next weekend.
Neill, whose contract with Blackburn expires at the end of the season, is understood to have been offered more money to join West Ham United, but he is eager to switch to Liverpool.
He may yet be followed to Anfield by Javier Mascherano, the West Ham midfield player, whose proposed loan move is in the hands of Fifa, the game’s world governing body. Fifa’s regulations dictate that players may not represent three clubs in one season. Mascherano has already played for Corinthians and West Ham.
The deal for Mascherano is likely to drag on until the end of the month but, by the time that Chelsea visit Anfield, Liverpool expect to have moved closer to new ownership, with Dubai International Capital (DIC) preparing the final details of a formal offer for David Moores’s majority stake in the club.
It is understood that an £85 million offer for the chairman’s 51.6 per cent shareholding is imminent, with Moores ready to accept and pave the way for a takeover that is being valued at £450 million, which would include taking on the club’s £80 million debts as well as the £200 million construction of their planned new 60,000- capacity stadium in Stanley Park, adjacent to Anfield.
DIC, the private equity investment arm of the state of Dubai, would then extend its offer to all shareholders with a view to completing a takeover by the end of March.
Rick Parry, the Liverpool chief executive, said yesterday: “It is looking positive and, yes, I’m confident it will go through. A huge amount of work has been going on from both sides.
“I imagine we’ll have something concrete to say relatively soon on that. They are finalising all the legal work. They have been examining the books and satisfying themselves that everything is fine on that score.
“There is lot of legal work to do and investigations going on into the funding of the new stadium, which is a very important project for us. It is a case of finalising the due diligence and pulling everything together, which we hope will be completed relatively quickly.”
Benítez, too, is confident of a bright future for the club, having been irked by some of the reaction to his team’s elimination from the FA Cup and Carling Cup by Arsenal last week, and he has set his players the target of moving to within five points of Chelsea by beating the champions on Saturday.
“We are eight points behind Chelsea but we know if we beat them then we will draw closer,” he said. “We know that it will be difficult to beat Chelsea but our confidence is good, the understanding is there and we can beat them.
“Chelsea are a difficult team to play against but we have to make sure we score first and maybe if we have pace and quality up front, we can make them pay for a mistake.”
Neill, the Blackburn Rovers defender, is expected to become the club’s third arrival during the January transfer window — after the less high-profile signings of Emiliano Insua, 18, the Argentina Under-20 full back, and Daniele Padelli, the Italy Under-21 goalkeeper, on loan from Boca Juniors and Sampdoria respectively — with a swap deal involving Stephen Warnock likely to go through in time for Neill to make his debut against Chelsea at Anfield next weekend.
Neill, whose contract with Blackburn expires at the end of the season, is understood to have been offered more money to join West Ham United, but he is eager to switch to Liverpool.
He may yet be followed to Anfield by Javier Mascherano, the West Ham midfield player, whose proposed loan move is in the hands of Fifa, the game’s world governing body. Fifa’s regulations dictate that players may not represent three clubs in one season. Mascherano has already played for Corinthians and West Ham.
The deal for Mascherano is likely to drag on until the end of the month but, by the time that Chelsea visit Anfield, Liverpool expect to have moved closer to new ownership, with Dubai International Capital (DIC) preparing the final details of a formal offer for David Moores’s majority stake in the club.
It is understood that an £85 million offer for the chairman’s 51.6 per cent shareholding is imminent, with Moores ready to accept and pave the way for a takeover that is being valued at £450 million, which would include taking on the club’s £80 million debts as well as the £200 million construction of their planned new 60,000- capacity stadium in Stanley Park, adjacent to Anfield.
DIC, the private equity investment arm of the state of Dubai, would then extend its offer to all shareholders with a view to completing a takeover by the end of March.
Rick Parry, the Liverpool chief executive, said yesterday: “It is looking positive and, yes, I’m confident it will go through. A huge amount of work has been going on from both sides.
“I imagine we’ll have something concrete to say relatively soon on that. They are finalising all the legal work. They have been examining the books and satisfying themselves that everything is fine on that score.
“There is lot of legal work to do and investigations going on into the funding of the new stadium, which is a very important project for us. It is a case of finalising the due diligence and pulling everything together, which we hope will be completed relatively quickly.”
Benítez, too, is confident of a bright future for the club, having been irked by some of the reaction to his team’s elimination from the FA Cup and Carling Cup by Arsenal last week, and he has set his players the target of moving to within five points of Chelsea by beating the champions on Saturday.
“We are eight points behind Chelsea but we know if we beat them then we will draw closer,” he said. “We know that it will be difficult to beat Chelsea but our confidence is good, the understanding is there and we can beat them.
“Chelsea are a difficult team to play against but we have to make sure we score first and maybe if we have pace and quality up front, we can make them pay for a mistake.”
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