Kop legend speaks out as Liverpool FC face fresh financial threat
Phil Thompson has made a passionate plea to Liverpool's owners to sell amidst reports that failure to qualify for the Champions League could cost the club up to £25 million.
In an exclusive interview with Click Liverpool, the Kop hero gave his damning verdict on the turmoil that has plagued Anfield since the takeover by George Gillett and Tom Hicks in February 2007.
The Reds currently find themselves £237 million in debt and could miss out on between £20-£25M in revenue should they fail to qualify for Europe's premier club competition next season, which follows news that they could also be forced to repay continental grants.
If the planned new stadium in Stanley Park is not built, the club face the prospect of having to cough up the £8.2 million they secured from the European Regional Development Fund in conjunction with Liverpool City Council to make improvements to the site that would allow work to begin.
But a series of financial setbacks have left the project indefinitely on hold with Christian Purslow, the club's managing director, currently seeking an investment of at least £100 million to reduce the debt owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland following a refinancing agreement.
The Americans have come under heavy fire from Liverpool supporters and those flames have been fanned further after ex-player and lifelong fan Thompson, 56, called for the pair to leave following a series of broken promises made upon their arrival three years ago.
He said: "We wanted our new stadium well before Arsenal, but they've now got a 60,000-seater stadium that they’re filling every week and are taking in vast amounts of money every week compared to what we are.
"The club, the stadium and what's happening on the field just seems to be secondary in the Americans’ minds. They're all about money and getting the debt down which shouldn't have been there in the first place.
"When they came in I was one of those who thought that they were saying the right things but they didn't keep to their word of having a spade in the ground after 60 days and not heaping debt on the football club.
"They've been offered decent money [to sell]. If they can't see the future and if they're not going to invest in the team, whether it's Rafa Benitez or somebody else, they're not magicians and you can't work [like that] at the top of the Premiership."
A disappointing campaign has seen pressure mount on manager Benitez after Liverpool have failed to build on last season's finish as Premier League runners up.
Thompson, the club's assistant manager between 1999 and 2004, feels that the Kop boss has been forced to book balance after failing to be backed fully in the transfer market by the Anfield chiefs.
"I can remember myself and Gérard Houllier being given a budget in the summer of £12 million," he revealed.
"That’s not a lot of money but we did it, we got by. We bought some decent players, and some bad ones as well, but I think Rafa's not had any money to spend last summer and no money to spend in January.
"We're a team who finished second last year and that was a chance to consolidate our position.
"People say that we’ve spent £40 million but we’ve also recouped that £40 million so [effectively] Rafa's spent nothing and that's wrong. There should have been money in the kitty for the manager to spend.
“The only thing we as fans can see that they're paying off the debt while we as a football club and a team suffer, and that is wrong. it should be all about the football team.
"They have to have a serious look at what they have been doing and if they haven't got the commitment to invest in the team as Rafa and the supporters see fit, they've got completely different views."
Kirkby-born Thompson, who captained Liverpool to European Cup glory in 1981, called on senior players to speak out against the current regime after Fernando Torres hinted that he would consider a future away from Anfield if the club did not sign reinforcements this summer.
He added: "Fernando Torres said he didn't want to be fighting for fourth place every year and he is absolutely bang on. He's a player, a foreign player, who has come to the club. They have to listen to him.
“He and Stevie Gerrard should be saying 'if you're not going to invest, why would we want to remain here?' They need to give them some ultimatums."
http://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/liverpool-fc/128505-exclusive-kop-legend-speaks-out-as-liverpool-fc-face-fresh-financial-threat.html
