Anfield sale saga could force Benitez to leave soon
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Anfield sale saga could force Rafael Benitez to quit Liverpool in the summer for Juventus
Liverpool’s ownership war could drag on through the summer, increasing the likelihood of manager Rafa Benitez walking out to join Juventus or Real Madrid.
Co-owner Tom Hicks, who put Liverpool up for sale on Friday, has claimed he and George Gillett expect close to £800million for the Anfield club – nearly four times what they paid for it in 2007.
His sky-high demands for a club independent analysts value at just over £300m indicate that he is going to use the full six-months’ grace offered by the Royal Bank of Scotland to sell the club, leaving a power vacuum until then, despite the arrival of new chairman Martin Broughton.
Weighing up his options: The ongoing ownership dispute at Liverpool may force Rafa Benitez to head for Italy or Spain
The biggest casualty of Hicks’ bullish stance could be Benitez, who has become increasingly impatient with the off-field uncertainty. Unless a new owner is found quickly, it is unlikely Benitez will be able to spend the £60m he said he needed to mount a title challenge next term.
He is being courted by Madrid and Juventus but is reluctant to leave Anfield without a pay-off worth up to £16m.
Hicks said he would not be forced into a quick firesale of Liverpool despite hostile feelings from fans. He added: ‘Liverpool Football Club has been a great investment.
‘There’s a strong business rationale. I should make four times my money.
‘The club has probably tripled in value. Our EBITDA [Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] has more than doubled. Liverpool will be the
most profitable investment I’ve ever made.’Hicks and Gillett paid about £220m to buy Liverpool from David Moores, but put the club in debt as a result. They are under pressure to sell, with about £237m owed to RBS and Wachovia.
Proposals to build a new stadium at Stanley Park have failed to take off following the impact of the worldwide recession.
A search over months has failed to attract any new investors, but Hicks is adamant he will not be forced out of the door in a hurry.
He said: ‘We have doubled player spending both gross and net and the new stadium is now fully designed and permitted.
‘With fresh capital from the new owner, the new stadium will be operational from August 2014.
Up for sale: Tom Hicks and George Gillett have put Liverpool on the market
‘Liverpool will be as profitable as any other club in the Premier League and can compete financially on and off the pitch.’
Sources close to Hicks threw out a proposal from New York-based investment bank The Rhone Group, who offered to buy 40 per cent of the club for £105m, saying, ‘We will not look at opportunistic low-ball private equity firms.’
The saga will effect Benitez ahead of a big week in which his side meet West Ham in the Premier League on Monday and then travel to face Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semi-final, first leg on Thursday.
To add to his problems, striker Fernando Torres is likely to miss both games amid fears that a knee injury might require surgery that would keep him out for the rest of the season.
His trip to Spain to see a specialist on Friday was cancelled because of flights being suspended across Europe and Benitez said: ‘I honestly don’t know when Fernando will be back. At the moment the knee is fine, but we need the opinion of the specialist, who will decide on an operation.’
Hicks and Gillett put Liverpool up for sale as part of the deal which saw the RBS extend July’s deadline for the Americans to pay back £100m of their debt.
Yet West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady, appointed at Upton Park when David Sullivan and David Gold bought half the club for £52.5m, believes Liverpool are overpriced.
She said: ‘Some of the world’s biggest financial institutions are floundering in their quest to cut the Gillett-Hicks demands for Liverpool. It seems a lot of money to pay for a club in need of costly changes on the playing side, restructuring and a new stadium.
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