David Prentice: SOS warning which all Liverpool FC fans should heed

SOS warning which all Liverpool fans should heedDEBT. Lies. Cowboys. Whichever statement you analyse, The Spirit of Shankly posters which have sprung up around town this week ring uncomfortably true.Cowboys? Well it was Texan Tom Hicks himself who proudly showed off his club crested cowboy boots.Lies? It was pardner George who suggested: 'We intend to have a shovel in the ground in 60 days' or claimed 'This is not a takeover like the Glazer deal at Manchester United. There is no debt involved.'Then there's the biggest four letter word of the lot. Debt.Liverpool are in alarming hock.An official UEFA report published this week, The European Club Footballing Landscape, revealed that Premier League clubs owed more than the rest of Europe put together - and Liverpool and Manchester United make up more than 50 per cent of that debt.That's a serious, club breaking, Leeds United style debt mountain.The Spirit of Shankly group is sometimes accused of being zealous, old-style Militants who'd start a fight in an empty room.But their poster campaign is not just well intentioned, it's justified, because it highlights a very real threat to the future well-being of Liverpool Football Club. And it's time everyone took heed.In 2004, 2005 and 2006 Liverpool's end of year accounts showed debts of £14m, £15m and £26m.In the first accounts posted after the American takeover, those debts instantly rocketed into 'Oh my God' territory. In 2007 Liverpool Football Club and parent company Kop Holdings owed £288m.In 2008 it soared £385m into the red.That startling figure reminded me of a conversation I'd had with that outstanding Anfield administrator Peter Robinson in what seemed like a quainter era, way back in 1988.After a fixture foul-up left the Reds without a home game for a month, he told me: 'We've had to approach our bank for an overdraft for the first time I can remember. It's left us with cash flow problems and we're in the red.'That was an era when Liverpool's financial results were of no real interest.

Source: Liverpool_Echo