After more revelations, it’s best to sit tight and not panic!

The Liverpool FC ownership story took a new twist on Wednesday night when a number of newspapers revealed that the Liverpool Board had cancelled their scheduled meeting on Thursday — a meeting which had originally been been planned to discuss official bids submitted for the club, and to confirm evidence of funding for those bids.  The Telegraph suggested that the meeting had been called off because there were currently no ‘serious offers’ to buy the club:

“The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the decision to postpone was taken amid continuing doubts about the credibility of potential bidders and after the date had been well publicised in the media.”

Following claims in the media of CIC involvement in Kenneth Huang’s potential bid for the club, the glamour of limitless resources at our disposal, and some fans on various forums including the likes of Kaka and Messi in their team line-ups for the season (really!), these developments are certainly discouraging, and may even threaten to undermine the fans’ nascent sense of optimism following Roy Hodgson’s appointment, the signing of Joe Cole, and the relief that Torres and Gerrard have committed their futures to the club.

The fact that CIC have since distanced themselves from any offer by Kenneth Huang and his associates, along with the revelations from the unpopular Yahya Kirdi that he was close to agreeing terms to buy the club (and providing Gillett and Hicks with a substantial return for their (lack of) investment) made for more depressing reading for Liverpool fans, particularly considering the early euphoria and the anticipation of finally  having new and responsible custodians of the club — and before the end of the transfer window too!

According to the latest reports, not only will there be no resolution of the ownership issue by the end of the transfer window — subsequently preventing us from signing Messi (!) — there are genuine doubts as to whether a sale will be agreed by the time the American owners’ current re-financing deal expires in October.  Every day there seems to be yet another story about how either Huang or Kirdi are trying to deceive the Liverpool faithful, do not have the finances to mount a successful bid, or worse will fail to fulfill their promises once taking over; or are simply puppets of Gillett and Hicks, and are seeking to manipulate Broughton etc etc.  In a matter of days, Huang’s reputation has been demolished and Kirdi’s proposal has been any one of the following: condemned as a diabolical plan to increase the price of the club; dismissed as a joke; considered a serious bid or has already been accepted by G&H (I didn’t think that was possible without the Board’s agreement anyway?), depending on what source you were reading.  The speculation over the identities of both parties’ backers has intensified, with some suggestions that they must have a sinister agenda.  I am now just waiting for the papers to exclusively reveal that a drugs trafficker, war criminal or The Emperor from Star Wars will be supplying the funds behind the purchase of the club (well, The Emperor did supervise the construction of the Death Star, so a new stadium shouldn’t be a problem).

My advice, for what it is worth, would be to either completely ignore any of these rumours, no matter how legitimate they may seem, or at least try not to take them too seriously.

Journalists often exploit times of turmoil and transition just to sell papers and manufacture a sensation.  I would argue that this is especially true of Liverpool FC, which has hardly had fair treatment from the media in the past.  When Broughton was appointed to help find a successor to the Americans, he made it very clear what his position would be until the sale of the club was finalised, and what we should expect:

“…ignore all ridiculous speculation. Any serious owner would surely want to do it privately, which is how we want to do it. We anticipated a lot of interest, it’s a great club. There’s bound to be a lot of interest and there will continue to be lots of conjecture. Every media person wants to be the one who can go back and say, ‘I told you back on such and such date that these people were interested’. Expect to see all sorts of names in there – ignore the whole lot.”

There have been all sorts of conspiracy theories circulating about Broughton.  Ultimately, however, he has to act in an objective, professional manner and achieve what is expected of him.  The last thing he wants is to lose respect for having engineered a disaster.  Obviously, we can’t trust the motives of Gillett and Hicks, but I am convinced that the other board members (i.e. the majority vote) will act in the interests of the club.  Call me naive if you like, but I refuse to be caught up in the negativity and scepticism that some other websites propagate.  I also don’t necessarily agree that a takeover this summer would be in the interests of the team anyway — we have a very strong side and some excellent young players, and personally I would hate to see a last minute Robinho-style marquee signing.  It is not what we need right now.  I suggest it isn’t worth worrying about events off the pitch for the time being… let’s just look forward to the football. Everything else will be resolved in due course.

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