For Sale: Football Club with Great History and Passionate Fans

After building up a debt of over £237million for Liverpool F.C, current owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks have ‘thought it best’ to sell the club.

The decision to put the club up for sale comes after three miserable years under the ownership of the two clueless American businessmen, but at least they had fun destroying the club’s finances;

"Owning Liverpool Football Club over these past three years has been a rewarding and exciting experience for us and our families”. (Quote from BBC Sport)

A self-confessed Chelsea fan and owner of British Airways, Martin Broughton has been brought in to help Liverpool find a buyer.  Broughton will use his expertise to manage Liverpool’s finances and has stated he will find a new owner for the club within the next few months.  A Chelsea fan helping out Liverpool in their time of crisis, whatever next?

Over the last five years the Premier League seems to have been a playground for rich American tycoons and they’ve proved extremely unpopular, and unsuccessful in owning their clubs. 

The Glazer family took over Manchester United in 2005 for £800million and have since raked up a debt of £700million for the club.  Then along came Gillett and Hicks, a pair of 'good old boy' Americans with a spare £435million to inject into Liverpool.  They promised a new stadium, but in three years the only thing they have brought to the club is considerable debt.

The two Liverpool owners brought a sense of turmoil within the club when Hicks blocked Gillett’s effort to sell his 50% share to the Dubai International Capital group (DIC) in 2008.  Hicks turned down a potential £500million investment from the DIC because he was planning to buy the club outright himself.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez then fell out with the board because he wasn’t getting enough money to spend on transfers, and its showed during the this season that there is a lot of unrest behind the scenes.  Liverpool are having their worst season under Benitez and are struggling to achieve fourth place.  If Liverpool do fail to reach the final Champions League spot then their value will depreciate significantly and it could prove harder to find a buyer.

Liverpool F.C and its fans deserve an owner that will keep to their promises and provide enough money for transfers and a new stadium to take the club forward. It's not just the fans who want to see more quality players wearing the red shirt, star striker Fernando Torres has spoken publically about how he wants the club to make several big signings in the summer.  I'd love to see the likes of David Silva, David Villa and Sergio Aguero being the new team mates of Torres and Gerrard.

In a season of disappointment and underachieving, there is finally some positive news coming out of Anfield.  Gillett and Hicks are at long last selling the club and now Liverpool can look forward to good things to come in the near future.

Will these two ever play together in club football?