[Good news!] Liverpool could be saved!

• Poignant

  23 Dec 09, 13:38

  Prince Faisal returning to Liverpool as buyout talks revived

  George Gillett's 50 per cent stake in Liverpool could be sold to a Saudi prince.

  The Daily Mail says Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah announced on television that he was flying to England to attend the Barclays Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield on Boxing Day as a guest of Gillett.

  Sources in Saudi Arabia immediately insisted that the wealthy prince was serious in his intent to acquire the holding and that Gillett was now ready to sell. They also understood that Gillett’s partner Tom Hicks would no longer block the sale.

  This will be the second visit this season to Anfield of Prince Faisal, who watched the 6-1 hammering of Hull City in September.

  Christian Purslow, who was appointed managing director by Gillett and Hicks earlier this year, has been leading talks with a number of parties about a share issue.

  There has been particular interest from the Far East and there remains hope that a deal to raise at least £120m could be concluded in the new year.

• the Bear

  23 Dec 09, 13:54

  they're going to sack Benitez too?

• Poignant

  23 Dec 09, 14:04

  i hope so.

   

• Rooney9

  23 Dec 09, 14:14

  who take over if rafa is sacked.

• Poignant

  23 Dec 09, 14:38

  anyone can luh.

  cin cai lar

• CKeer

  23 Dec 09, 14:55

  Not to be a wet blanket but i thought news linking "saudi prince", "rich shiekhs", "Arab tycoon" to Liverpool has been circulating but none materialise?

  Is Liverpool going to be another City in the making? I hope not.

• zocoss

  23 Dec 09, 15:01

  I think even Avran Grant can do a better job...

  And if its not for John Terry, he would have been a Champions League winner as well... lol

• Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1)

  23 Dec 09, 15:04

  good news though
  
  another good news
  
  This will be the second visit this season to Anfield of Prince Faisal, who watched the 6-1 hammering of Hull City in September.
  
  
  if he watch again
  
  dun tell mi pool thrashed wolves?

• sg_forum

  23 Dec 09, 15:30

  Originally posted by Rooney9:

  who take over if rafa is sacked.

  
  Mourinho will come if he is given $ to spend...

• charleslee

  23 Dec 09, 22:39

  zhun bo? will the yanks lower their valuation?

• fudgester

  23 Dec 09, 22:50

  Originally posted by Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1):

  good news though
  
  another good news
  
  This will be the second visit this season to Anfield of Prince Faisal, who watched the 6-1 hammering of Hull City in September.
  
  
  if he watch again
  
  dun tell mi pool thrashed wolves?

  Wolves may just turn the tables and defeat Liverpool this time.

  At which point, the prince may change his mind about buying the club.

  FML.

• zocoss

  23 Dec 09, 23:29

  Here's the part I was just thinking... If he does buy one of them out... That would mean he also will have only 50%... And what good can he do if the other one is still there and has equal power?

• Medicated Oil

  23 Dec 09, 23:33

  Under Ah Ben, he will play ultra defensive formation and lose on the end.

  As for the Prince, he will ask for a lower price if Liverpool lose.

  Cos he know there is a business potential to milk the Liverpool club.

  At the same time, to buy Liverpool to hao lian and compete with the rest of the rich men.

  Now, english club is rich men playground for showing off.

   

• charleslee

  24 Dec 09, 00:17

  Originally posted by Medicated Oil:

  Under Ah Ben, he will play ultra defensive formation and lose on the end.

  As for the Prince, he will ask for a lower price if Liverpool lose.

  Cos he know there is a business potential to milk the Liverpool club.

  At the same time, to buy Liverpool to hao lian and compete with the rest of the rich men.

  Now, english club is rich men playground for showing off.

   

  
  problem is that will hicks and gillett lower their valuation?n who's going to be responsible for the debt that this 2 paupers did?one thing for sure, it's not the two paupers, it's going to be under the new owner....

• charleslee

  24 Dec 09, 00:22

  Originally posted by CKeer:

  Not to be a wet blanket but i thought news linking "saudi prince", "rich shiekhs", "Arab tycoon" to Liverpool has been circulating but none materialise?

  Is Liverpool going to be another City in the making? I hope not.

  
  at least, it's better to have more $$ than no $$ rite?with this prince, he can push  liverpool to a higher level of spending and stabilise the ship, after that when he's done with the club, by then LFC's debt can be serviced by LFC's revenue...

  some plp don't like it as we may seem to be the nxt man city or chelsea.. but look at the facts, ever since chelsea gt tt russian fella, they gt BPL, n nw man city looks forward to breaking into the big four n maybe evening winning the BPL?

• zocoss

  24 Dec 09, 01:22

  Actually, part of the loans are also from the purchased of players like Masch and Torres... The club originally had debts already, something like $45m... The 2 Americans bought them together with the debts.

  Of course the additional debts came from the new owners taking out loans for the purchase of the club. But this wasn't the only reason they took the loan... They took the loans for the purchased of new players as well like Masch, Babel, Pennant, Benayoun, Lucas, Leto and Torres... That year the 2 Americans came, Rafa bought 27 players in one season... Not to mention paying extra 27 players salaries...

  So to blame the 2 guys I feel is rather unfair, Its not that they didn't gave him money to buy... And again I say for every player he brings in, the club will need to pay the extra salaries for the extra head...   

• -Wanderer-

  24 Dec 09, 01:34

  I seriously thought Roberto Mancini would go to Liverpool and try to save them. Guess my prediction was wrong. :( Liverpool is screwed this season...

• hamidisaidi

  24 Dec 09, 08:50

  zocoss...Good Post!

  I find it particularly amusing that Liverpool fans are buying into the crap that the owners are at fault for the predicament they are in and selling to a rich  Arab will now svae Liverpool. 

  The 'facht' is the amount Rafa has spent is on par, if not more than Man Utd. It is Rafa who's buying crap players and piling up his reserves without ever adding much quality to his first-team.

• La Nina

  24 Dec 09, 12:57

  How are the owners not at fault? They loaded hundreds of millions of debt onto the club. Originally every season, Rafa is given 20m to buy new players. But now, the 20m includes contract renewal and all that shit, effectively meaning that he has to sell before he can buy.

  The amount Rafa has spent is on par, if not more than Man Utd? Google up some statistics mate. Rafa might also have a big squad and hardly any of these youngsters make it to the first team. But u have to keep in my mind that they are sold to other clubs instead and this generates profits. To name a few: Guthrie, Anderson, Adam Hammil. You just need one out of five to succeed in becoming a professional to recoup your losses for these five players.

• zocoss

  24 Dec 09, 15:51

  Hundreds of millions? Its only 2 hundred. But first we have to see how these debts came about...

  Well, why i said we can't fault them is because they have given Rafa more money then people realise... He have got more than any other Pool manager ever received... Liverpool were bought by American owners, so is Aston Villa. So we take Villa as a more likely comparable.

  Villa's American owner Randy Lerner have given Martin O'Neill a lot lesser to purchased players during this period compare to Rafa... Liverpool were amongst the top clubs before Rafa took over, Villa on the other hand wasn't. They went from bad to worse before O'Neill took over, they were fighting relegation and ended the season on 16 position in the table of 20... These were all in 2006 only. 

  Rafa on the other hand, had good support when the 2 Americans came... They immediately bought Mascherano for a then club record of $18m... And they follow that up with another new record of $20m for Torres. And if you add those I mentioned earlier, the Babel, Pennant, Benayoun, Lucas, Leto and of course Torres and Masch, all bought in year 2007, Its already close to $70m here... What about those undisclosed fees for the others? And all these in year 2007 only... Rafa follow that up with another $45m in 2008... 

  And lets not forget how badly he has also squander in Keane as well and Johnson looks like another one... So how can anyone even think of blaming the 2 American owners is beyond me... Cos the $240m loan they owe, You can see its like almost half of it went into the purchased of players alone... and $45m was the original debt before they came...

  Now we look at O'Neill... with little fundings, he bought players that are useful. His selection of players and match tactics is the reason Villa is current above Pool... If you talk about who spent more, Villa will be way below Liverpool in the money league... Their most expensive player is maybe $12m i think in James Milner...

  Another good example we see is... Rafa spent $11m for Babel while O'Neill spent $8 on Ashley Young... They joint about around the same time. Today Young is probably worth 2 to 3 times his original value but Babel probably 2/3 of his now...

  And its true that there was a report that Rafa has spent more or almost level with United these last 5 years... And if we take into the account of players sold during this time, United also recoup more to Rafa's Pool...

   

• Medicated Oil

  24 Dec 09, 17:35

  Ah Ben got it right for:

  - Torres, Masche, Reina, Bellamy, Agger, Skrtel, Crouch, Reira, Benny,

  He got it wrong for all the rest.

  No youth matured from the youth team although they have done well in the youth league.

   

• Poignant

  24 Dec 09, 17:38

  reira?

  he's out for me.

• charleslee

  24 Dec 09, 18:18

  Originally posted by zocoss:

  Hundreds of millions? Its only 2 hundred. But first we have to see how these debts came about...

  Well, why i said we can't fault them is because they have given Rafa more money then people realise... He have got more than any other Pool manager ever received... Liverpool were bought by American owners, so is Aston Villa. So we take Villa as a more likely comparable.

  Villa's American owner Randy Lerner have given Martin O'Neill a lot lesser to purchased players during this period compare to Rafa... Liverpool were amongst the top clubs before Rafa took over, Villa on the other hand wasn't. They went from bad to worse before O'Neill took over, they were fighting relegation and ended the season on 16 position in the table of 20... These were all in 2006 only. 

  Rafa on the other hand, had good support when the 2 Americans came... They immediately bought Mascherano for a then club record of $18m... And they follow that up with another new record of $20m for Torres. And if you add those I mentioned earlier, the Babel, Pennant, Benayoun, Lucas, Leto and of course Torres and Masch, all bought in year 2007, Its already close to $70m here... What about those undisclosed fees for the others? And all these in year 2007 only... Rafa follow that up with another $45m in 2008... 

  And lets not forget how badly he has also squander in Keane as well and Johnson looks like another one... So how can anyone even think of blaming the 2 American owners is beyond me... Cos the $240m loan they owe, You can see its like almost half of it went into the purchased of players alone... and $45m was the original debt before they came...

  Now we look at O'Neill... with little fundings, he bought players that are useful. His selection of players and match tactics is the reason Villa is current above Pool... If you talk about who spent more, Villa will be way below Liverpool in the money league... Their most expensive player is maybe $12m i think in James Milner...

  Another good example we see is... Rafa spent $11m for Babel while O'Neill spent $8 on Ashley Young... They joint about around the same time. Today Young is probably worth 2 to 3 times his original value but Babel probably 2/3 of his now...

  And its true that there was a report that Rafa has spent more or almost level with United these last 5 years... And if we take into the account of players sold during this time, United also recoup more to Rafa's Pool...

   

  but i thought majority of the debt came from buying the club itself and the new stadium plan?

• zocoss

  25 Dec 09, 02:11

  Originally posted by charleslee:

  but i thought majority of the debt came from buying the club itself and the new stadium plan?

  
  They indeed took a loan to buy the club... But look at the sum Rafa spent since they came to Liverpool... About $120m in 07 and 08... Where do you think those money came from?

  These 2 guys bought the club for less than $220m, $45m were debts from the previous owner they inherited... But now they owe the banks $240m? Obviously they can't be owing more then what they purchased the club for right unless... 

  The way I see it is, They took a loan to purchased the club... But they also took extra to finance Rafa's $120m year 07 and 08 purchased... Cos if they can't even afford the club outright and took a loan to buy it, then where did Rafa's shopping spree came from?

  And I think we don't even need to talk about the new stadium yet... I believed the money for it isn't accounted for yet with the current loans... I think the current $240m debts is just for the purchased of the club and players... I guess there should be more to come if they intend to build the new stadium... Maybe to a tune of another $300m.

   

• Ythakisoka09

  26 Dec 09, 09:45

  Ten signings who could save liverpool..