Is Tottenham Striker Robbie Keane a Liar, or Just Confused?

baggins09 - February 2nd, 2010 at 4:47 pm

to be fair i always use to watch italian football when i was younger and really like juventus even had the shirts if i’d played for liverpool and been shat on like keane and juve came in for me i’d be over the moon. i’d still wish i’d had a fair crack at liverpool but juve would be a good second choice

spota - February 2nd, 2010 at 6:17 pm

who cares let the finyan play for the timms come on rangers 10points clear

Retryboy - February 2nd, 2010 at 6:34 pm

Liverpool and celtic have been linked for years we even let them borrow ‘you’ll never walk alone’ every now and again lol well they did give us king Kenny!!

Red_Phoenix - February 2nd, 2010 at 7:40 pm

Who cares. We all know it is a bit of a PR stunt but you don’t have to crucify him for it. Frankly, its not really anything worth writing about.

I support Liverpool but I always want Celtic to win Scottish Prem, do i have therefore have a split personality? It would have been different if he went Man U, wouldn’t it?

dr.Barnard - February 2nd, 2010 at 8:07 pm

Analysis: Liverpool Bilion Pound Problem
From: World Football Insider, by James Corbett

Twenty-four hours after Liverpool were held to a dire goalless draw at Wolves a week ago, the club’s increasingly grim predicament was starkly illustrated a mile away from its Anfield Road stadium.

Across a darkened Stanley Park, on which Liverpool hopes to build a new home, neighbours and bitter rivals Everton were cruising to a 2-0 victory against a poor Sunderland team. Midway through the second half, Sunderland’s Trinidadian center forward Kenwyne Jones, found himself in space in the Everton penalty area after the opposing defence fell asleep.

Jones, a transfer target for Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez but who on current form combines the mobility of a Zeppelin with all the menace of a rabbit, poised himself and seemed certain to score – before unleashing a shot that ballooned so far wide that it resembled a sliced defensive clearance.

Among the watching Evertonians an acerbic chant built from the Park Stand, encircling the entire stadium until it was clearly audible to the watching television audience: “Rafa, Rafa sign him up.” Tellingly, Sunderland fans joined in as well.

Nothing symbolises Liverpool’s decline like their hapless attempts in the just-closed January transfer window.

Their big name buys of yesteryear read like a who’s who of English football aristocracy – Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, John Barnes, even Fernando Torres – but their failed pursuit of Jones, who cannot currently hold down a place in a relegation threatened Sunderland team, signifies their hard times.

Indebted as far as the banks will lend following the 2007 leveraged buy out by American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett, there appears to be no money to spend. Worse still, out of the Champions League and far from assured of qualification for next year’s competition, the club have become a less attractive destination for Europe’s elite players. Jones and his ilk seem to be the summit of Liverpool’s means these days.

Dark clouds hanging over Anfield
The off-the-pitch problems facing Liverpool are well documented. Hicks and Gillett financed their purchase of the club with a £350m ($559m) loan from Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia; the club effectively pay interest on this mortgage, reckoned to be 4% above the base rate (which is far less onerous than the 16.5% interest Manchester United’s owners were recently paying).

Last year, the club boasted record turnover of £164.2million, but partly because of the costs of servicing Hicks and Gillett’s debts it suffered a £42.6m loss. This has reduced Liverpool’s ability to compete with their rivals, particularly in the transfer market where a new austerity has taken over.

Despite claims that work will soon get underway on a new 60-000 seat stadium, Liverpool’s debt problem combined with the global economic crisis has also meant that financing for it has been impossible to secure. So Liverpool will remain at Anfield for the foreseeable future, which has contributed to the torpor. This self-perpetuating circle of stagnation has now threatened to turn into decline.

While most supporters still back Rafael Benitez, that majority is declining as the realization dawns that the club have underachieved under his rule.

But just as Liverpool cannot afford to significantly bolster his squad, his sacking also seems beyond their means. Paid £4 million a year on a contract that runs until 2014 and with a backroom staff of 20 plus, his dismissal might cost the equivalent of the British transfer record of £32 million.

One well-connected source told World Football Insider that there’s a growing acknowledgement within the club that Juventus’s reported pursuit of Benitez might provide “the most convenient solution” for a manager they cannot afford to sack.

The club no one wants to buy
Earlier this month Liverpool’s managing director Christian Purslow said that there was a “serious possibility” of investment in the “foreseeable future”.

Hicks and Gillett are seeking to sell a 25% stake in the club, but unless they are willing to give up more control via a rights issue or some other mechanism to turn the club around, it seems unclear why anybody would buy into Liverpool.

“It’s very difficult to see that [investment] happening for all kinds of reasons,” said football finance expert Tom Cannon, professor of strategic management at Liverpool University Management School.

He doesn’t believe that an additional £100 million is anywhere near enough to turn around Liverpool’s fortunes.

“What does that £100m buy you? It doesn’t buy you a stadium. It probably buys you three ‘marquee players’. But £100m in the world of Chelsea and Man City isn’t a lot of money,” he told WFI.

“Then you have the incredible unpopularity of the current owners. Does the new investor buy into their unpopularity? They’re still going to be a minority owner and if you’re talking 25 per cent they’re not even going to be the largest minority owner.”

Indeed, the Americans represent nobody’s idea of ideal business partners. A year after taking over Liverpool the two had fallen out to such an extent that Gillett publicly declared their partnership “unworkable”.

Although acrimony has since been played out in private, factionalism remains rife at Anfield with “dual administrations” operating from different offices within the city. The buyer of a minority stake in Liverpool would effectively be buying into a family on the brink of divorce.

Liverpool’s reported valuation of £400-500 million also seems inflated, and represents a considerable increase on the £218.9 million Hicks and Gillett paid three years ago.

Quite what they’ve added to the club besides a massive debt burden is unclear: the promised new stadium is mothballed, Benitez’s squad is no stronger – and arguably weaker – than when they took over, and no further trophies have been won to add to the club’s “brand value”.

Cannon believes that the “perception” that Liverpool, in common with Manchester United, are a “global franchise” has inflated its price.

“It’s probably the case that there’s 20 plus million people who say they support Liverpool worldwide,” he said.

“The reason that you buy into these clubs is that you can in some way tap into that global market place.

“But most [overseas fans] are in very poor countries. Most of them are very poor people in poor countries. Most of them are not going to spend anything other than watching them on television. And nobody’s demonstrated any mechanism apart from the sale of international TV rights that you can make any money out of that.”

The billion pound makeover
Unless he knows some very rich and naive Liverpool supporters, the assumption must be that Purslow’s search for a minority investor will be forlorn. No right-minded investor would buy into the current status quo.

But what if someone bought Hicks and Gillett’s stakes at the asking price? What further capital expenditure do Liverpool need – on top of an initial £400-500m investment – to be able to keep challenging at English football’s top table?

With Manchester City and Chelsea floating on oil fortunes, the equation is less fair than in the past but the proposed new stadium seems essential to Liverpool’s long term planning. Each week Liverpool pull in 32,000 less fans than Manchester United and 16,000 fewer than Arsenal and so immediately face an uphill struggle to keep up.

But the projected cost of this scheme is anything between £250 million and £400 million.

Besides Arsenal – whose Emirates Stadium project was fraught with funding difficulties and supported by the sale of high-value real estate on the site of Highbury – no club in Europe has ever embarked on so bold a project. Arsenal’s difficult move to the Emirates occurred during the boom years; no bank is able or willing to help finance such a project now, so cast iron financial guarantees are imperative for it to progress.

Then there’s the state of Benitez’s squad.

The spending curbs are a recent thing, and until last year the Spaniard spent a net average of £18 million in each of his first five years at Anfield.

Some of this was spent wisely, for example the £20 million used to buy Fernando Torres in 2007. But much more has been wasted on overpriced foreign players who have brought little return and eroded the club’s local roots. A very minimum of £100 million – perhaps as much as double that – is necessary to revitalize this flagging Liverpool team.

A new manager might also be provident. Benitez has had money before and largely wasted it. Many fans back him, but why would a hard-nosed outside investor give him a second chance? Throw in the £30 million alimony needed to get rid of the Spaniard and his entourage and the total cost of turning Liverpool around stands at around a cool £1 billion.

“Most of the evidence is that Hicks and Gillett want some kind of return – they’re not going to go away and say, thanks for the memory,” said Tom Cannon, who puts a more conservative figure of £750 million on turning Liverpool around.

“You’re probably talking about some philanthropist, who has not put in an appearance in recent years. An oligarch, like the Abu Dhabi people or Abramovich. Or somebody who’s got a magic solution to making a return out of that sort of investment.

“There’s no evidence that there’s a queue of people out there, is there? It’s hard to see who’s going to pay that kind of money and get any kind of return!

dr.Barnard - February 2nd, 2010 at 8:40 pm

So the crux of the matter is all laid out here, by author interviewing financial experts, who looked at our financial situation professionaly, and rejected “wishful thinking” scenarios disseminated by some people blinded by their love and loyalty to LFC. The Hicks and Gillette, bit more than they can chew, we are at a limbo. They can’t or do not want to invest their own capital in the club, they are hoping for some naive investor to show up ond overpay. Remember the last purchase of the club was that of Man City, the price was around 200M, for the club and a modern stadium, the previous owner was on the ropes, took the best offer, The Sheik Maktoum, who was buying, was getting a good (not great) club, with a relatively new stadium.
In our case, in order to put us on the same, level playing field with Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan etc. we have to find a billionaire with lots of money and no brain.
So much for the stories “weaved” by Hicks about upcoming big summer spending spree on new players. Without new owner(s) the stalemate will continue. Something will have to give eventually. either H&G will be forced to sell at a price market is willing to pay (much less, than 500M, asked for at the moment), the owners will have to find their own capital or we will go into bankcruptcy protection. Things will accelerate if we don’t qualify for the Champions League.

Donavan Ried - February 2nd, 2010 at 9:30 pm

Mad Dog and Glory sorry this is not directed at you, but rather the story……. Ah Who Gives a F*ck!…..

He is no longer a Liverpool player

Donavan Ried - February 2nd, 2010 at 11:05 pm

anonymous – February 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 pm thank you for at least add a name to your post Roy …

Leon - February 3rd, 2010 at 11:36 am

This is PR business man…if he says he loves celtic that means he is looking for support from the fans…..it aint a big deal whether he has 20 clubs that he would want to join or ever thought of joining when he was a kid….

Retryboy - February 3rd, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Dr barnard-reports are saying that that the £100m H&g are trying to raise is to all go on reducing the debt, if they don’t raise it then the banks will force them to sell. Interested parties are wanting 34% with the americans having 33% each. H&g know if they can stick around and get the stadium built as well as taking advantage of our marketability in asia and other untapped areas they will make a mint. Think hicks is a lot more commited so don’t think we will see the back of them for a long while if anything can see gillett selling his whole stake. Things have to improve on the field first as well as the season we have had is putting off buyers too.

Retryboy - February 3rd, 2010 at 8:16 pm

Chosen one-not old enough to know for sure i’ve heard two versions one that tommy smith took it to shankly who loved it when it was first released and they started playing it over the tannoys. Other one was that we started singing it with the celtic fans during a game. Looking it up though does look like the reds got there first! Don’t know if it was after hillsborough they took it on or earlier.