New Reds owner faces 'real challenge'

16 October 2010 09:17
ew Liverpool owner John Henry admits there is a "real challenge" ahead but plans to start work on a strategy for improvement today.[LNB] New England Sports Ventures, of which Henry is head, completed their protracted £300million takeover yesterday.[LNB]NESV have a good track record in improving teams, with their significant investment in the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise after a 2001 buy-out bringing two World Series titles after a long drought.[LNB]Henry has had plenty of time to make an assessment of the situation at Anfield as a sale was agreed 10 days ago but has been the subject of numerous court disputes by former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.[LNB]And now his group have taken control the project can begin.[LNB]"We're going to have to work very hard," he said.[LNB]"There's a lot of work to be done to get this club to where it needs to be in the grand scheme of things.[LNB]"We really, through all the work we've done over the last two months, saw the challenges and problems which exist and we've got to work to address those.[LNB]"There is a great nucleus here off the field and on the field and we think we can build from that, but it's not going to be easy.[LNB]"We've got real challenges but we've got a very strong organisation, financially and otherwise, we have some terrific strategic thinkers and we're going to be attacking this head-on."[LNB]Liverpool will at least move forward as a virtually debt-free club as the takeover wiped out all the loans and costs associated with the purchase of the club three-and-a-half years ago by Hicks and Gillett.[LNB]A result of those loans was the crippling interest payments of £40million a year - which are now a thing of the past.[LNB]NESV said the club's debt servicing costs would drop to between £2million-£3million annually and manager Roy Hodgson already has his eye on an expanded transfer kitty.[LNB]"The mere fact the debts are wiped off immediately puts us into a different financial position to the one we have been in," he said.[LNB]"It will mean in future we can invest in players in a different way to what has happened in the last transfer window."[LNB]Although the sale has been completed, there remains the threat of further legal action from Hicks and Gillett.[LNB]Even though they withdrew their £1billion lawsuit, claiming an "epic swindle", lodged in Dallas, they are plans afoot to return to the High Court in London - where their attempts to block a sale were thwarted this week.[LNB]"Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett have withdrawn without prejudice their Texas lawsuit in order to fully comply with the order of the English court," said Fish & Richardson attorney Tom Melsheimer.[LNB]"We believe the order is overbroad and unfair, yet Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett respect the legal process.[LNB]"We believe that once the English court finally has a chance to hear all the facts, a very different picture will be painted."[LNB]Hicks, who with Gillett has lost £144million in the deal, claimed Royal Bank of Scotland - the club's main creditors who forced the sale - and chairman Martin Broughton had breached his trust.[LNB]"This has been an organised conspiracy over many months," he told Sky Sports.[LNB]"I can confirm there were funds available to pay off the bank completely but between RBS, the chairman and employees that conspired against us, they would not let us.[LNB]"I just want the truth to come out in the courts. It isn't over."[LNB]

Source: Team_Talk