amokop

This is agony!! It's like seeing the injury time board being held up showing 6 minutes to go against Chelsea in 2005!!!

The Higher offer, we don't know if it's the better offer, NESV haven't disclosed ( I think rightly) how much it is willing to let the Manager invest in January, Lim in all his statements has talked about money but not the stadium... as Broughton said, the winning bidder may not necessarily be the highest bidder but the best for the long term future of our club, he hasn't let us down so far, i'm willing to let him run the course, and if that means studying this bid again then so be it, as long as the jusge sides with RBS then I frankly don't mind another week of exploring any new options including Lim. I ultimately think we will be owned by NESV by Novemeber 1st.

http://www.kermanco.com/site/ourpractice/webcam/ Live feed outside the courts, SOS coach doesn't seem to have arrived yet..

This.

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Sky Sports News.....Marty B still thinks we've got it in the bag. Liverpool's independent chairman Martin Broughton remains confident of winning the High Court battle regarding the ownership of the club despite the judgement being delayed until Wednesday morning. A ruling on the case was expected on Tuesday afternoon, as current co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett attempt to block a proposed sale to New England Sports Ventures, who have seen a £300million offer accepted by the club's board. Hicks and Gillett's lawyers are also disputing Friday's deadline for the repayment to major creditor Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) of a £237m debt. As a result, Mr Justice Floyd has decided to make his judgment at 10.30am on Wednesday, which leaves Liverpool fans anxiously awaiting the decision on the future of the Premier League club. But Broughton, who agreed the sale against the wishes of Hicks and Gillett, is optimistic. He told Sky Sports News when leaving court on Tuesday evening: "Judgement reserved, I'm not allowed to say anything. But we remain confident. "For everybody it is nerve-wracking. But we will find out at 10.30 tomorrow." Meanwhile, Singapore billionaire Peter Lim has made a cash offer in excess of £320million to buy Liverpool should Hicks and Gillett win the hearing.

Thats the way I see it Judgement tomorrow that there will be a full trial next week as he can't give a ruling by the end of the week to suit RBS.....

The thing is though, the Judge is only ruling on whether the sale was in the remit of the board at the time. his QC has already admitted that they breached that contract, so by going over the paperwork in the next few days the Judge hasn't changed anything really. The sale process can continue as RBS have an injunction against Hicks from changing or sacking the board, once the Judge has been through everything he hands down his judgement and the sale is sealed. As someone said, we've waited this long, whats a few more days??

They are an Investment firm, not LBO specialists, im not 100% clued up on this but my assumption ( i know, dangerous things) is that as an investment firm they invest in the club, make it profitable, stadium, squad, commercial etc and then reap the rewards with a future sale making a profit on their investment, exactly as the cowboys wanted to do, difference being the club has a chance of making that money because it isn't leveraged to the hilt and as such doesn't have to make crippling payments which swallow up any profit the club makes. The commercial department has raised the profile of the club, we've gone from Carlsberg to SC, from Reebok to Adidas, our TV station is free to air and according to Ayres its a great advertising and selling tool because of it. Many, many positives and reasons for a sensible investment firm to acquire a club with a behemoth and largely untapped worldwide fanbase, run it properly, i'm sure they will make annual dividend payments to the investors but again, not to the detriment of the club as that would not make sense. As has been reported and even crowed about by Hicks, we are the most profitable club in the PL, just the small issue of the debt the two t***s have saddled us with!

Hicks ; ' I just did' slams the phone down The man is delusional, how can someone who has been in business as long as he apparently has think he can just act like this? HE SIGNED the covenants giving Broughton the authority!! the man is a cancerous vermin.

Hicks in putting his hand in his own pocket shocker!!

I think Broughton's comment about if it not being won in the court that then they had a couple of other things they could do (or words to that effect) speak volumes, as someone said, since about 9.30pm last night this thing has taken off like a rocket ship to Mars, and it's pretty clear that MB has his hand on the controls. From the opening statement on the clubs own website (which is a massive f u) letting us know about the attempted boardroom coup. Then the official announcement this morning followed by him giving 3 seperate TV interviews, to the club, BBC and SSN (anyone notice that even though all the interviews were conducted in the same place one after the other the club interview had some red mood lighting over the fireplace) and on hot on the heels of this has come countless newspaper and radio interviews. He knows he has them by the plums and that this is going to happen. I would think NESV also would have been briefed on on the maelstrom that was about to be unleashed and were happy for MB to initiate countdown and take off...... so to speak. He's kept his mouth shut for 6 months and now it's flowing off his tongue like Niagara, the man is clearly not stupid, yes there is a legal hearing to conduct but he has given no indication in his language or actions that he feels the boards decision will be over turned. They gave him and RBS wriiten consent to sell to the most suitable bidder and they gave him written consent to be the only man who could change the members of the board. If they could have done something about it, they would have done, but instead they trawled the world for refinancing, when it dawned yesterday afternoon that MB, IA and CP were ready to announce their preferred bidder they took the only option left to them. I think we may finally have reached Fyds fabled .... END GAME.... (ps, still not buying my Napoli ticket until after the court hearing )

Good piece by the BBC business guy with more of a business slant on it, especially the bit about what RBS is planning to do if the worse happens and the judge rules against Marty B..... Broughton: 'I have the power to sell Liverpool' Robert Peston | 14:08 UK time, Wednesday, 6 October 2010 I've just interviewed Martin Broughton, chairman of Liverpool since April. And what struck me was his confidence that he can sell the club from under its owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. He told me that when he took the post of chairman, he received explicit undertakings that he was in charge of selling the club - and that Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett surrendered any right to block a sale to a bidder he deemed most suitable. Those undertakings will now be tested in court, probably in the middle of next week. But bankers tell me that if the courts rule against the transfer of Liverpool FC to the new ownership of John Henry and New England Sports Ventures, the sale will still probably go through - although via the ungainly mechanism of Royal Bank of Scotland putting Liverpool into administration (see my earlier post on how this would work). So it looks like the parent company of the Boston Red Sox will be the proprietor of the Liverpool Reds. It is proposing to pay £300m, of which £200m would pay off the longer term bank debt provided by Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia of the US (three quarters of that £200m goes to RBS). Another £40m would pay off other creditors, such as the local council. And £60m would stay in the business as debt secured on the stadium plus working capital facilities. Not even a brass farthing will go to messrs Hicks and Gillett, which means they stand to lose the £140m they've put into the club - and it's why they will do all they can to frustrate the deal. If, as seems likely, the deal goes through one way or another, Liverpool will once again have relatively modest debts - around £60m -which, as I've said, should feel like something of a liberation. And Mr Broughton told me he was confident that the new owner wouldn't simply take money out by foisting new borrowings on the club as and when financial markets recover sufficiently - though there aren't any cast iron guarantees to that effect. Nor has he extracted a binding commitment to build the new Stanley Park stadium. But Mr Broughton pointed to the track record of John Henry in developing sporting facilities in an imaginative way. Mr Broughton believes that Mr Henry wants to own Liverpool for what the Kop would see as the right reasons - namely to turn it again into a winning club on the field, as the sine qua non of commercial success. Mr Henry's record at the Boston Red Sox - which has won two World Series under his ownership after decades of ignominy and failure - would make that a plausible assertion. But although globalisation is increasingly a phenomenon in sport as well in finance, there are still huge cultural differences between sports clubs in different countries. Mr Henry will find much about Liverpool FC unfamiliar, even alien. So perhaps astutely, Mr Broughton refused to make any prediction of when silverware would once more grace the Liverpool trophy cabinet, to follow the silver raining into Royal Bank of Scotland's coffers.

Sooooooo.... tickets go on sale for the Napoli game tomorrow, is it safe to lift my self imposed ban due to the current owners? or should I just wait another week for the scarves above head pictures?

Just had a few snippets on SSN, he said that being American is not the problem, leveraging the club was the problem, we promised the best owners for the club, keep the faith, apologised for not giving fans running commentary on the saga but reminded that he did say at the outset that he wouldn't be doing this, and said the line keep the faith a couple of times (directed at the fans)

The odd thing is, I feel nothing, not even embarrasment.... I just want it all to be over, the game, the ownership, the managership (is that a word) everything, this nightmare just isn't going away.

Thats great news if true, and as some said, maybe the emails we sent filling up their inboxes over the weekend just helped with the 'blackstone walk away' news being published. It just shows that we can all make a difference in any small way, any tiny effort, no matter how insignificant it may feel needs to be made. Can't remember who posted 'that right now it's half time in Istanbul'.... well now is our time, Didi's on the pitch shutting down Kaka and freeing up Stevie to push on, we have got to see this through guys, we just want our club back!

GSO Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Blackstone, has offered Hicks a two-year funding package worth around 280 million ($437 million) pounds ahead of the October deadline facing the owners to repay the club's debt to Royal Bank of Scotland. thats the bit that scares me, we are all talking about this as though Hicks is trying to push it through and that the investment bank would be crazy. Yet in that piece highlighted it says they've made him an offer

I'm not a finance man, but if Gillett is about to default and Hicks is trying to raise cash to buy that debt, can't another would be buyer just do the same thing and buy Gillett's 50% from this Mill Financial lot??

Well I am boycotting this season, haven't been to any home games and will refuse to do so until they are gone. However I will happily drive to the city and be involved in any march, protest, blockade or anything else, we are only going to get one chance at this, smithdown is right, inactivity is not an option!

First I've heard of this RBS open day on Sept 25th, could we not organise coach loads to go up there and protest peacefully? or is it just too late in the day, something like that would be amazing, i'm sure there are enough hardcore fans out there that number in the thousands who would happily 'bunk off' work for a day trip on a coach to Edinburgh, or am I being wildly optimistic and starry eyed about what we are really like? I remember being in Istanbul and Athens and the ingenuity that we showed to get there, and then to get in the ground.... surely a few thousand of us turning up on planes, trains and automobiles on Sept 25th with flags and banners will show them exactly how we feel. We can't just sit idly (sp?) by....

Done

1. N/A 2. Yes 3. YES 4. Already boycotting all home games (started this season) and merchandise (for the last 2 seasons)

I remember Rafa saying in an interview once that they have a saying in Spain that sometimes 'you can feel the colours of the club' and that this is how he felt about us. He definitely ' got us' as some have said. One of our greats in my eyes and I wish him nothing but success with Inter and wherever else he may coach. YNWA Rafa

Apart from all the obvious one already mentioned I have a personal one. It was just before the game against the mancs, I think it was Morientes first game for us. I had a seat in the main stand and had come down to the front while the players were warming up to get his autograph and get a picture with him. I didn't have a pen so he got one from the steward and then I couldn't get the camera to work!! Took me what seemed an eternity to get it going, he didn't move while I fixed it, he just stood there smiling, and once I got the camera working I was about to take the picture and he handed my camera to the steward and looked at me and said 'together, no?' Thanks for everything Rafa YNWA....