“THE STANLEY PARK STEALERS”

The fans who sang “You sold your soul to Sky” after Murdoch's bid for United in September '98 are strangely muted in opposition to their history being bought by a pair of Yanks armed with empty promises.

From the Guardian:

Liverpool yesterday agreed to a £470m takeover by George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, and the American tycoons will waste little time getting down to business. Work will start on a £215m ground in Stanley Park within 60 days as the pair, who have impressive histories in stadium building and development, promised supporters "the greatest facility in the sport".

There was also a one-hour meeting with the team manager, Rafael Benítez, to discuss transfer policy for the summer, and a bold claim that the new owners would try to take on Chelsea and Manchester United at the summit.

Gillett and Hicks seized the opportunity to score public relations points by demonstrating their openness and willingness to address supporters, and by the fact that they had not borrowed against the club to fund the purchase, in contrast with the takeover of Manchester United by the Glazers which met with hostility.

For a group of fans who have not seen their club win a league title in 17 years, however, the details of the takeover will have been of far less interest than the message from the two Americans, whose sporting interests include Gillett's ice hockey club, the Montreal Canadiens, and Hicks's baseball franchise, the Texas Rangers, and ice hockey team, the Dallas Stars.

“This club is not far from being the best in the world, not very far from being truly a dominant side. That's what we want,” said Gillett. “We need to look at all the resources we possibly can to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea. It's wrong to say we want to match Chelsea in terms of spending but we do want to match or exceed Chelsea in winning, and there are many ways to do that. It's not just about spending money.”

To take advantage of a variety of local and EC grants, work on the stadium has to start within 60 days and Hicks indicated he would have his own experts look at the plans to assess whether his know-how could be used in the 60,000-seat project.

Their £470m investment is, reportedly, broken down as a £175m for the shares, £80m to cover the club's debt and £215m for the stadium.