Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Stephen Hester believes that Liverpool’s American owners were allowed to borrow too much when they bought the club. Hester, whose bank loaned Hicks and Gillett the majority of the money, said in an interview with the Liverpool Echo:
“With hindsight, I think there are some businesses which borrowed too much money and Liverpool FC was one of them.It is very clear Liverpool FC has a huge resonance with many people. We understand that and we try to be extra-sensitive in the way we behave. I think like any business we have to be sensitive to the context in which we are doing business. That is why we have been exceptionally understanding when working with this issue. It seems to me that it is in everyone’s interest to have an early resolution. Everyone involved is working hard to try to get that but it has to be the right resolution. I think obviously the club needs to have stability for the future and that is not just a question of ownership. It is not just about who owns the club, but also about what their plans are. We have not starved Liverpool of money and we have been working closely with the owners. But I think all football clubs in the UK would say borrowing in the future is likely to be lower than it has been in the past.”
According to LFC chairman Martin Broughton, an auction of bids will start in mid July with the best bid not necessarily being the largest offer. Barclays Capital will oversee the auction and decide on the winning bid but a sale of the club is not expected until the end of August at the earliest.
Hester’s statement should have read “with hindsight there are some banks who loaned too much and RBS is one of them” I don’t disagree with him that Tom & Jerry borrowed too much, but the banks have a lot to answer for here too – I seem to remember the tax payers helping them out just a little in the recent past. Thankfully Liverpool are too high profile (& owe them too much!) to be allowed to fold but these parasites have not been so “sensitive” when it comes to the scores of small businesses who they have pushed to the brink. If he’s expecting gratitude for being “extra-sensitive” he can look elsewhere. Lets hope Standard Chartered and Barclays Capital can take us out of the grips of RBS along with Hicks & Gillett – can’t come too soon.
I wouldn’t trust Barclays either but because the middle eastern arabs bailed barclays out so they dnt have to ask the government our next owners are going to be from that region, this is why they have amanda stavely looking for the buyers on their behalf as she was the one who got the arabs to agree to bail barclays out.
I quote ,
“That is why we have been exceptionally understanding when working with this issue. It seems to me that it is in everyone’s interest to have an early resolution” (I add ” especially the nice little earner of the multi-million interest we at RBS pocket”).
Bloody cheek!
Hester has a bloody cheek making this comment now. Liverpool fans have been practically begging RBS since the beginning of 2009 to stop lending our taxpayer money to the Yanks’ and stop helping finance the Yanks’ rape of LFC. If RBS had called in the loan and forced the Yanks to sell in July last year we wouldn’t be in this mess right now. Hester has his head up his own a**e if he thinks we can’t see his complicity in creating the current situation.