Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC

[sonsofthedesert]

Behave will ya! Who has said we want £150mill spent on players? The general point is that we are not going to be able to move forward and catch up to the Mancs, Arsenal and Chelsea without some investment.

Yet with these 2 prats in charge we are already losing £30mill a year in interest. Then in a year or 2, when they need to re-finance for the stadium its going to be close to £50mill a year in interest.

You must be a part-time supporter because your totally relaxed attitude to what financial responsibility they are putting onto our club for the next 25years is sad. Im sure you will be one of the 1st to jump ship if we do a Leeds.

Do we know the facts here? I don't so we can't make assumptions about this.

[JCase]

Bose said on five live that the £45m transfer budget is for the next 18 months and that Mascherano is included into that.

So it's already down to £28m for Rafa to spend in the next three transfer windows.

I assume Rafa wld get the cash from sales of outgoing players? In reality we may only need to buy 1 or 2 quality / game winning players per window instead of loading up on bloody squad players.

[baz87]

This £45m gives us absolutely no indication of how much Rafa's going to have to spend. The £45m is working capital, basically the cash needed to run the club from day to day.

However thats not to say he's going to have less than that to spend on players over the couple of years as the club can/will take out loans to buy players even if they have the cash (like we did with Torres et al last summer).

As for the cash from sales: Rafa will get told how much he has to spend and then it will be his choice whether to sell players to give himself a bigger budget. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth selling the players from Rafa's point of view.

[captainfog]

I assume Rafa wld get the cash from sales of outgoing players? In reality we may only need to buy 1 or 2 quality / game winning players per window instead of loading up on bloody squad players.

28 million would buy one world class player. Any change would then be used with money brought in from player sales to buy better 'possibilities'.

[carrsim]

i think its safe to assume that we will get much less for kuyt than suggested in here

i also think that crouch and riise are losing value by the day with less than 2 years ontheir contracts

this 45million over 18 months is interesting, wonder if that also includes wages?

[paulcooper4]

i think its safe to assume that we will get much less for kuyt than suggested in here

i also think that crouch and riise are losing value by the day with less than 2 years ontheir contracts

this 45million over 18 months is interesting, wonder if that also includes wages?

fella. what is this 45 mill everyones banging on about?

[paulcooper4]

lol

I was saying that just because the club has been given £45m of working capital that doesn't mean thats how much we've got for transfers like has been suggested. It could be more or it could be less.

i havent read the thread mate. Has someone given us 45 mill?

Who was it, and what does working capital mean?

[baz87]

i havent read the thread mate. Has someone given us 45 mill?

Who was it, and what does working capital mean?

As part of the refinance: Of the £350m loan, £105m has been put into the club with the rest going to the Yanks to pay off the old loan etc. £60m of the £105m is going towards the ground and the other £45m is working capital.

Working capital is basically the money used to run the club from day to day, wages etc.

[carrsim]

i havent read the thread mate. Has someone given us 45 mill?

Who was it, and what does working capital mean?

part of the sweetener is that apparently rafa (or the next manager) will have 45 million to spend on players in the next 18 months
of course, whether that includes wages, net or gross spend, CL revenue, cup run money, or any of the next payment of sky money is anyone's guess.

if the 45m even materialises.

i'll show you 45m in 18 months but you'll have to pay us 30 million a year for the privelige.

the hand truly is quicker than the eye

[paulcooper4]

part of the sweetener is that apparently rafa (or the next manager) will have 45 million to spend on players in the next 18 months
of course, whether that includes wages, net or gross spend, CL revenue, cup run money, or any of the next payment of sky money is anyone's guess.

if the 45m even materialises.

i'll show you 45m in 18 months but you'll have to pay us 30 million a year for the privelige.

the hand truly is quicker than the eye

quicker than my eye, I still havent a ****in clue whats goin on

anyone got any crayons?

[carrsim]

quicker than my eye, I still havent a ****in clue whats goin on

anyone got any crayons?

we're in the process of becoming a middle of the road club challenging manchester city, newcastle united, spurs and even our annoying cousins for the 4th champions league spot (until it cuts back to the top 3 in 2009 when we'll need to play 3 rounds of qualifiers) by which time we will do our best impression of leeds and sell some of our best players in the "anfield fire sale" (or similar)

imo of course

[Alpha]

From Rash's mate David Bond:

American owners tighten their grip on Liverpool

By David Bond
Last Updated: 1:26am GMT 26/01/2008

Liverpool's American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett strengthened their grip on the club yesterday as they finally clinched a £350 million refinancing deal with banks which should, temporarily at least, restore some much needed stability to Anfield.

After months of delays and amid growing uncertainty, Liverpool's parent company Kop Holdings announced they had secured the backing of the Royal Bank of Scotland and America's fourth largest bank, Wachovia, to refinance £298 million of borrowings taken out when Hicks and Gillett bought the club last February. They also unveiled scaled down plans for the club's new £300 million stadium at Stanley Park, which had been sent back to the drawing board last year after costs spiralled out of control.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett near £350m deal
Putting away their wallets: Tom Hicks and George Gillett have finalised their £350m refinancing package

Having alienated large sections of the Liverpool faithful with their financial plans and Tom Hicks' ill-judged admission that the club sounded out Jurgen Klinsmann as a replacement for manager Rafa Benitez, Hicks and Gillett will be hoping the refinancing draws a line under an unprecedented period of turbulence.

Hicks tried again to reassure Benitez yesterday that he had a long-term future at the club. In doing so, however, he sounded like he was giving the Spaniard the dreaded vote of confidence.

"I am solidly behind Rafa and am confident of the team's competitive prospects under his continuing leadership," said Hicks.

Whatever the future holds for Benitez, yesterday's refinancing unquestionably makes it more difficult for Dubai International Capital, the investment arm of the Maktoum royal family, to wrench the club from the Americans' grasp. But, despite the latest knock-back, DIC are unlikely to abandon their pursuit of the club.

While the Americans may have narrowly averted a crisis by clinching the new loans just 10 days before an existing one-year loan with RBS expired, many questions remain unanswered. Such as the relationship between Hicks and Gillett, which looks to have been seriously damaged by the events of the last few weeks.

Gillett's name was a glaring omission in the two statements made public by Kop Holdings yesterday and it is understood his refusal to sign them off delayed the announcement by at least 24 hours. When asked why Gillett was not quoted, a spokesman for Hicks explained he was only authorised to speak for the Dallas billionaire and insisted the refinancing deal proved there were no tensions with Gillett.

Hicks added: "This new refinancing package is a strong vote of confidence in the club's financial strength. With the refinancing process now done, club supporters can look forward to the timely commencement of construction work on the new stadium and renew their focus on actions on the pitch."

Steven Gerrard

Under the terms of the new loans, £105 million will be placed on to Liverpool's balance sheet. This is made up of £45 million of working capital for, among other things, player acquisitions. A further £60 million has been set aside to start work on the new 71,000-capacity stadium which, after a review by the owners, will be built by Dallas architects HKS.

The remaining £245 million is split into two chunks: £60 million of club debt inherited at the time of last year's takeover and £185 million of acquisition debt, borrowed by Hicks and Gillett to complete their original buyout.

Hicks and Gillett are thought to have provided Liverpool with assurances that the interest and service charges for that part of the loan, which could be as much as £20 million, will not be funded from the club's cash flows. But, when asked definitively whether he could guarantee that would be the case, Hicks' spokesman was unable to provide any answer.

[kurtangle01]

we're in the process of becoming a middle of the road club challenging manchester city, newcastle united, spurs and even our annoying cousins for the 4th champions league spot (until it cuts back to the top 3 in 2009 when we'll need to play 3 rounds of qualifiers) by which time we will do our best impression of leeds and sell some of our best players in the "anfield fire sale" (or similar)

imo of course

That's a scary prospect.

[carrsim]

That's a scary prospect.

is that far fecthed?

both citeh and barcodes have chairman with more money than they know what to do with- one looking to spend before he has to give it back and one spending cause he wants respect from his fat buddies in the stands

thats discounting spurs who finally have a manager who knows what he's doing and villa who are quietly going about their business.

chelsea who have just spent more this jan to cover a few injuries and the ACofN absentees than we do in a summer

arsenal who will have plenty of cash sloshing about if arsene decides he needs it

and i'm not even thinking about the mancs, berbatov and the money availble to replace giggs which will be available if required (giggs is man utd's weak attacking link imo and he'd still walk into our team)

happy days

[Alpha]

I have a couple of questions about yesterday's events.

Why the silence from EVERYBODY except Hicks, most notably, his equal partner, George Gillett?

And why, after looking like a corpse for the past few weeks, did the color return to Rafa's cheeks on the day his arch-nemesis strengthened his grip on the club?

All is not what it seems, people.