Pepe Reina will soon sign a new contract to stay at Liverpool for the long term. The next few years however, could be some of the tumultuous in Liverpool’s recent history but the Spanish goalkeeper seems pretty happy about staying at Anfield. It will certainly be great news when Reina does sign a new contract with the club in the near future, but what sort of future will he be staying on for? Fernando Torres has already expressed his concerns about the current standard of the squad and Reina echoed his fellow Spaniard’s views:
“I can talk about the players but not the investment – that is not in our hands. But I hope we can compete with these kinds of transfers (by Manchester United and Chelsea) and spend some more money in the market, maybe go toe-to-toe with them. All I want and the team want is to be competitive as the others. There is nothing apart from winning the league with Liverpool once which makes me feel excited. That is a dream to get through and hopefully in a short period of time we will see it come true.”
Such a dream seems ever further off I am afraid Pepe, and the investment that you crave to make this come true is yet further away. £237million debt cannot be swept under the carpet and any new investment will go straight to servicing this debt. RBS is demanding that £100million of that debt must be repaid by July and Managing Director Christian Purslow has been furiously searching for investment. That search appears to have come up trumps with the bid from American private equity firm, the Rhone Group. It seems that rather than going straight into the pockets of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, this money would be used to repay the £100million required by RBS. For sure, it would herald a brighter future for the club by halving the annual debt interest payments of £30million but it would not be earmarked for buying new players.
Certainly, if the bid is accepted, it will give the board more room for manoeuvre financially and encourage greater investment from other interested parties, but next summer won’t see any transfer fees matching what both Reina and Torres believe the team need to compete at the top level. In a letter to a fan, Tom Hicks promised that there would be significant investment in the summer after a quiet January transfer window, which Hicks believed to be an inflated market, but any potential investment in the playing squad will surely be questioned if the Rhone Group’s offer is accepted.
Both Agostinelli and Langman, the two men behind the Rhone Group, are no nonsense businessmen and will certainly have their own vision for the club. They will not be investing £100million of their own companies’ money as a gift; they will expect a return on their investment and will want to take control of the future direction of the club financially. Of course, this is all speculation, especially because the bid from Rhone has not been accepted but both Hicks and Gillett are aware they need new investment before the July deadline and even a low cash offer which is being proposed by the Rhone Group may have to be considered. Reducing their stake in the club would subsequently reduce Hicks and Gillett’s power in determining the manager’s transfer budget in the summer and anything Hicks says can be disregarded even before we consider his trustworthiness. I am afraid Pepe; you may have to wait a few years before the investment you want is in place.
