Source: Liverpool_Echo
Anfield timeline of broken dreams - how Liverpool FC ended up in such a financial mess
June 2000: Liverpool unveil initial plans for a new £60m, 70,000-seater stadium at Stanley Park.[LNB]March 2004: Redrow Founder and boyhood Kopite Steve Morgan makes an offer to invest £70m into the club as part of a share issue. His proposals are rejected by the Liverpool board, and Morgan withdraws his interest in December of that year, claiming Chairman David Moores was using his offer as a 'stalking horse' to attract other bids.[LNB] December 2006: After LFC held preliminary talks with Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who would later buy Manchester City, Dubai International Capital makes a formal bid of £451m to buy Liverpool.[LNB]January 31 2007: Liverpool's board ask DIC for more time to consider their offer, having received a rival bid, worth around £8m more to Moores, from American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks. DIC react with fury, withdrawing its offer.[LNB]February 6 2007: Hicks and Gillett complete a £470m takeover of Liverpool. In the pair's opening press conference at Anfield, Gillett promises work on the Stanley Park stadium will begin immediately, stating; 'the spade needs to be in the ground within sixty days'.[LNB] May 2007: Liverpool are beaten by AC Milan in the Champions League final, with Hicks promising afterwards that serious transfer funds will be made available to manager Rafael Benitez. It results in the infamous soundbyte: 'If Rafa said he wanted to buy Snoogy Doogy, we would back him'.[LNB]November 2007: Benitez and the owners fall out over transfer targets. Gillett and Hicks tell Benitez to 'concentrate on training and coaching the players he already has'. Benitez responds with a frosty press conference in which he repeats that phrase in answer to every question. Liverpool's form, impressive in the early weeks of the season, begins to deteriorate.
