Liverpool takeover: NESV complete £300m deal but Tom Hicks to sue for £1bn

16 October 2010 16:25
Liverpool's new owner John W Henry will travel to Merseyside to meet manager Roy Hodgson and his players on Saturday and tell them: I'm here to win the Premier League.[LNB]Another day of twists and high drama in the battle for Liverpool ownership ended at 4.30pm on Friday when Henry's American company New England Sports Ventures paid the £300million needed to wrestle control from the discredited Texan duo of Tom Hicks and George Gillett.[LNB]On Friday night Henry immediately convened an emergency board meeting in the London offices of Liverpool's solicitors Slaughter & May to discuss the way forward for a club who are third from the bottom of the Barclays Premier League ahead of Sunday's Merseyside derby at Everton. [LNB][LNB] [caption[LNB]The Boston Red Sox owner brieflyaddressed the gathered media, saying: 'We are not going to say what weare going to do. But we are here to win.' [LNB]It is understood Henry will head toLiverpool's training ground, where he is expected to address the club'splayers this morning and meet manager Hodgson, who earlier in the daypleaded publicly for time to turn his team's season around.[LNB]Henry talked of his new acquisitionto the media gathered outside Slaughter & May, adding: 'We have ahistory of winning and we will do whatever it takes. I am proud andhumbled to be here and we have a lot of work to do.[LNB]Relief: Cole (right) and Gerrard raise a smile on the day Liverpool changed hands[LNB]'I can't tell you how happy I am tohave finally done this deal. I have no idea about how much the deal isworth as at the moment I can hardly tell you what day it is.'[LNB]After a day that saw a final,desperate bid from Hicks and Gillett to thwart the deal fail,Liverpool's creditors, the Royal Bank of Scotland, signalled they hadreceived the £237m owed to them late in the afternoon. [LNB]Henry spoke only briefly to say thathe won't be present at Sunday's derby game preferring to attend ahome game at Anfield first and stopped short of making any firmpromises about how much he will spend on players or when he will committhe club to a new stadium.[LNB]He added: 'It is too early to saywhat we are going to do. We are not here with a lot to say but we willbe doing a lot of listening. We have a lot to learn but our actionswill speak for themselves.'[LNB]Henry confirmed he had not borrowedto complete the deal. He was flanked by chairman Martin Broughton andchief executive Christian Purslow, who between them saw off thechallenges of Hicks and Gillett in the courts this week. Broughton willremain as chairman in the short term but, having been appointed by RBSmerely to arrange a sale, it is thought unlikely the chairman ofBritish Airways will be asked to extend his involvement with the club.[LNB]He was cheered by Liverpool fans inLondon on Friday, and said: 'Every football fan knows that the mostnerve-wracking way of winning a match is by penalties. But theimportant thing is we have won and we have got the right result. I willstay on as chairman in a transitional role as the new owner decides howhe wants to run the club.'[LNB]LIVERPOOL TAKEOVER: The NESV and Martin Broughton statements in fullEarlier in the day, manager Hodgsonwas asked questions about his future as he looks to beat Everton andbring relief to a side who have won once in the Premier League thisseason. [LNB]He said: 'It's a sad day foreverything if, after a bad start of six or seven games, people thinkthe solution is to find someone else with a magic wand. We all know amagic wand solution doesn't exist. [LNB]'I would be very disappointed if,after such a short time to do the job, people decided they wanted toget someone else in. I know I can turn the situation around. But I willhave to be given support and I will have to be given the patience to doit. [LNB]'I have a three-year contract. If someone wants to get rid of me, presumably they would have to pay it up.' [LNB] Centre of attention: The tug of war for Liverpool has been big news on Merseyside and beyond[LNB]Hicks and Gillett agreed at 7amTexas time on Friday (1pm UK) to a High Court order to drop arestraining order that had been blocking the deal. [LNB]However, sources said on Fridaynight news that the former owners were trying to raise finance throughthe US hedge fund Mill Financial to pay off RBS had left Henry 'alittle twitchy' until it emerged they would have been in breach of anagreement made with RBS in April.[LNB]Battle: Hicks (left) is not going quietly[LNB]Sources revealed the strain of thelast few days. One told of a bad-tempered board meeting involving Hicksand Gillett on conference call on Wednesday while another described thefrantic activity as being 'like a farce' with 'people running from roomto room'.[LNB]Henry made his first attempt to buythe club after a board meeting on October 5 and he reaffirmed hiscommitment during Wednesday's gathering, when he flew over from Boston.[LNB]Hicks and Gillett had talked ofsuing Purslow, Broughton and RBS for $1.6billion, claiming they hadsold the club too cheaply, but they gave up that claim. [LNB]Liverpool chief executive Purslowsaid: 'NESV have cleared us of all the debts which, frankly, shouldn'thave been on the club in the first place. [LNB]'They've done so in a way whichleads me to believe they will learn the lessons of the past andapproach the challenge of owning Liverpool Football Club in a way whichI think our fans will judge over time and which I'm optimistic willprove to be a very positive improvement on what we've been through. [LNB]'Our club has been transformed financially this afternoon.'[LNB][LNB] Liverpool FC official takeover statementsLiverpool boss Roy Hodgson looks forward to having cash to spend as he admits takeover joyWhy Hodgson's Liverpool are twice as likely to go down as Fagan's flops of 84Court hears Hicks and Gillett branded scurrilous, outrageous and grotesqueLIVERPOOL FC

Source: Daily_Mail