Liverpool Stronger than Ever! Parsing George Gillett
Usually we take the time to parse carefully through the statements of football’s big wigs as they bury the truth deep below their public statements. But George Gillette’s blather in an interview with a Toronto radio station hardly needs a lot of in-depth analysis.
Seeing through his palpable nonsense is easy from the start as he claimed Liverpool were “in outstanding shape” as a club because “Economically, it’s never been stronger.”
How does he draw this far-fetched conclusion, given that in recent months ownership has been notably quiet in the transfer market, admitted their new stadium won’t be built, and spent months in tortured negotiation with their bank over their debt, only taken on to fund Gillett and Hicks’ purchase of the club in the first place?
- On selling his share in ice hockey’s Montreal Canadiens: this was done to fulfill “family commitments” (it obviously had nothing to do with the desperate shape Gillett and Hicks were in with the banks this year, as they demanded boatloads of money to refinance an otherwise unsustainable debt taken on by Gillett and Hicks just to purchase the club).
- On why he sold the Canadiens and not Liverpool: the former was more “sellable” than Liverpool (translation: Liverpool are obviously in such “outstanding shape” that nobody actually wants to buy them).
- On future plans: That Gillett is in it for long-haul with Liverpool is “probably the correct conclusion”. But, on the other hand, “If someone gets beamed in who’s got bags of money, things may change.” (Translation: he can’t give this investment away fast enough, but he knows that because Liverpool are in such obviously “outstanding shape” that will, well, not happen until he can find an even bigger sucker than himself).
- On the (lack of) a new stadium for Liverpool: “We were going to build an iconic stadium previously. The world economy has certainly suggested that that would be a good suggestion. But in the normal world, building a stadium in the 65,000 to 75,000 seat range – we would look forward to that.” (Huh? Nonsense, but we can simply conclude this is never going to happen as long as Gillett owns the club).
Maybe because it’s Friday afternoon and I’m missing something, but it seems like old George is barely even bothering to cover up the failure of his investment in Liverpool any longer. Perhaps that Share Liverpool FC scheme can save the club?
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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He may have sold the Montreal Canadiens but he’s hardly going to tell you it’s because he needs the cash. Even if it was at least he is showing a commitment to sell his other interests to ensure that the debt taken on when buying Liverpool is serviceable by him.
If you’d spent any time actually analysing the debt servicing arrangement you’d realise that the negotiations at the start of the year were less troublesome than some would have you believe. No bank is going to turn down refinancing when they know that they stand to make so much from interest payments on the loan.
Canadiens were more sellable than Liverpool because they cost less and he had a buyer readily available to pay the price he wanted (the new owners were minority owners with gillett in the canadiens). He is asking for a huge amount to sell Liverpool and whilst their are people willing to purchase, none has so far been prepared to meet his asking price.
Liverpool in Premier League is very good
He bought the canadiens for 185mm and sold for 550mm. He would take a loss or breakeven on a lfc sell. Which would you do? Just use your head.