Source: Telegraph
Liverpool sale: how club dissolved into crisis
Feb 2007 Tom Hicks and George Gillett complete their £218.9 million buy-out of Liverpool, promising a spade in the ground on the club's new stadium within 60 days, vowing to buy manager Rafael Benítez 'Snoogy Doogy' should he so desire and insisting they are suitable custodians. [LNB]Nov 2007 Hicks and Gillett's relationship with Benítez breaks down as it emerges the Americans, who have heaped £237 million of debt on to the club, have discussed the Spaniard's position with Jürgen Klinsmann. [LNB]Jan 2008 The first protests against the regime appear on the Kop, with calls for Hicks and Gillett to sell their stakes to Dubai International Capital, the suitors rejected by former Chairman David Moores and chief executive Rick Parry a year earlier. No deal is agreed, despite talks reaching an 'advanced' stage. [LNB]Oct 2008 Eighteen months after Gillett's 'spade in the ground' remark, the little work which had been done on a new stadium grinds to a halt. [LNB]Jan 2009 The Kuwaiti Al-Kharafi family emerge as the latest contenders to oust Hicks and Gillett, but they fail to agree a deal. [LNB]June 2009 Christian Purslow replaces Rick Parry as managing director, tasked with securing £100 million of fresh investment into the club to reduce the debt as a condition of refinancing. [LNB]April 2010 After rejecting an offer of £110 million for 40 per cent stake in the club from the Rhône Group, RBS refinance Hicks and Gillett's loans for six months on condition Martin Broughton is appointed as chairman and Barclays Capital brought in to find replacements as owners. Hicks, though, later suggests he would expect to receive £800 million for the club. [LNB]June 2010 An attempt by the Americans to refinance their debt is blocked by the non-owner directors on the five-man board — Broughton, Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre — after consulting legal firm Slaughter and May. [LNB]Aug 2010 Potential bids from the Chinese entrepreneur Kenny Huang and Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi fail to materialise and Broughton's initial hopes for an August sale recede. It emerges Hicks is attempting to secure refinancing with the hedge fund Blackstone, among others. [LNB]Oct 2010 Liverpool's board confirm sale of club in principle to New England Sports Ventures.[LNB]
