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Posts Tagged ‘owners’

• Scot confident an overhaul of squad is not necessary
• ‘We want to get the highest quality of player in that we can’

Kenny Dalglish has outlined his plans to sign players only of the highest calibre for Liverpool this summer and confirmed his expensive strategy has the full support of the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group.

The Liverpool manager believes his squad do not require an overhaul, having shown their quality during a strong second half to the season, but an injection of proven quality to enhance prospects of a return to the Champions League. Ashley Young of Aston Villa and Blackpool’s Charlie Adam are among the targets and Dalglish admits FSG will make substantial funds available.

“The squad only needs tinkering,” said Dalglish. “If people want to see the best players and assets of the football club wearing a red shirt, that’s what we want to try and provide. We want to get the highest quality of player in that we can. That’s what position we have been put into, and that’s what we will try to do.

“The owners just want the same as the football club. Everything they can afford to put into transfers they will put in. There’s no figure on it, and even if there was we wouldn’t publicise it. But the desire is there and the intention is there. A good way to judge it is that the owners were disappointed we didn’t bring more players in in January.

“People might be cynical and say we got Ryan Babel and Fernando Torres out and almost balanced the books with bringing in Luis [Suárez] and Andy [Carroll], but Luis was coming in anyway before Fernando went, so the owners’ intention was there. Damien [Comolli, director of football] has done a fantastic job identifying players and whittling it down to a small number to make it more manageable for us to look at what we want. It’s all in place ready to go. We just need to get somebody to say yes.”

Defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday could cost Liverpool a place in the Europa League next season but Dalglish is confident a lack of European competition would not deter his targets from coming to Anfield. He added: “Whether it affects people positively or negatively, you’ll need to ask the individuals. But our football club is much bigger than just one season not being in Europe.”

LiverpoolKenny DalglishTransfer windowAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

The Premier League clubs collectively lost close to half a billion pounds in 2009-10 but how in debt are they? Find their income and expenditure by club
• Get the data

The premier league season has drawn to a close for the season, with Manchester United winning a historic, 19th league title but how are the clubs operating financially?

Despite a record income, the 20 premier league clubs collectively lost nearly half a billion pounds. Rises in revenue saw a £2.1bn total revenue for the premier league clubs in 2009-10 but large debts and interest rates have stopped the income from soaring as 16 out of the 20 clubs recorded losses.

David Conn has written:

Across Manchester, United made £286m turnover, more than any other club if Arsenal’s property income is discounted – yet the costs and interest on the debts the owners, the Glazer family, have loaded on to the club, pushed United into a losing £79m.

Double-winners in 2009-10 Chelsea, whose owner, the Russian oil oligarch Roman Abramovich, is always cited as a supporter of Uefa’s break-even “financial fair play” principles, made the next biggest loss, £78m. Tottenham’s successful push for Champions League qualification was achieved with a £7m loss and £15m investment from the owners, principally Bahamas-based currency speculator, Joe Lewis.

The table below shows turnover plus income from things such as gate/matchday and tv and broadcasting as well as net debt for each club and wages as a percentage of turnover. The spreadsheet to download includes additional accounts details such as losses, profits and which money put in by the owners.

There’s a pdf of the accounts too. What can you do with the data?

Data summary

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• DATA: download the full spreadsheet

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Premier LeagueArsenalAston VillaBirmingham CityBlackburn RoversBlackpoolBolton WanderersChelseaEvertonFulhamLiverpoolManchester CityManchester UnitedNewcastle UnitedStoke CitySunderlandTottenham HotspurWest BromWest Ham UnitedWigan AthleticWolverhampton WanderersAmi SedghiDavid Connguardian.co.uk

• How the day at the high court unfolded in our blog
• RBS accuses Hicks and Gillett of ‘breathtaking arrogance’
• Owners claim more time is needed to resolve issues

The battle over the future ownership of Liverpool is set to be decided tomorrow by a high court judge. Mr Justice Floyd said he would adjourn his ruling after a day of courtroom clashes between the American owners, club directors and its major creditor, the Royal Bank of Scotland. He is expected to offer his judgment at 10.30am.

RBS lawyers accused the owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, of changing the running of the club to “frustrate” its sale this Friday. Paul Girolami QC, representing the owners, said his clients “were not trying to throw a spanner in the works” of the proposed sale deal. He said there had been other offers for the club which potentially were better than the one approved by the board.

Richard Snowden QC, representing RBS, said the owners now admitted “a calculated breach of contract” by seeking to change the constitution of the football companies controlling the club and the boards involved without the consent of the bank. He said this was “to frustrate the sale necessary to repay the bank £200m by this Friday”.

The bank secured an injunction on Friday to prevent the Americans sacking the independent chairman Martin Broughton or any other board members.

Snowden said Hicks filed evidence that if RBS did not like what he was doing, then it could enforce its security rights. “This would derail the carefully planned process designed to achieve a sale of the club in a timely manner.”

He said that plan would not carry the risk of Liverpool losing the nine points deducted by the Premier League when a team goes into administration.

The judge was asked to impose injunctions on the owners requiring them to restore the original constitutions of the companies and managing directors.

This would remove the final stumbling block to a £300m takeover by New England Sports Ventures (NESV), which will see the RBS recoup its original £237m loan to Hicks and Gillett when they bought the club in March 2007.

The bank says that when the owners renegotiated an extension to the refinancing to allow a sale to be completed, they agreed that Broughton could come in alongside the managing director, Christian Purslow, and the commercial director, Ian Ayre. This gave them a three-to-two majority to prevent the owners blocking any sale they did not feel was in their interests.

It was also made clear that Broughton was the only person who could change board members, so when Hicks tried to sack the English directors last week on the eve of the meeting to approve the NESV bid, the chairman rejected the move. Snowden said evidence filed to the court showed “breathtaking arrogance on the part of Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett”.

Girolami, opposing an immediate injunction, said all the issues involved needed more time to determine and “should not be rushed into”.

“What has happened is that the English directors have gone forward with the NESV bid without properly considering alternatives when those alternatives at least appear to give better prospects.”

Lord Grabiner QC, representing the Liverpool football club companies, said his clients were supporting the RBS application and wanted to see the issues resolved by the end of this week. He told the judge: “No court stops a board from acting as it sees fit in the best interests of the company.”

LiverpoolBusinessRoyal Bank of Scotlandguardian.co.uk