by account deleted by request » Wed May 28, 2008 6:49 pm
Fresh ‘dispute’ brews at AnfieldMay 28 2008
By Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post
IT SEEMS there’s more chance of the UK winning the Eurovision Song Contest than there is of getting a straight answer out of Anfield these days; and in both cases you sense that politics are becoming more important than the game itself.
No sooner had Rick Parry declared the Premier League to be our ‘number one priority’ for next season than Rafa rushed into print calling winning the league ‘an option’, while reiterating just how hard it is going to be to break the United/Chelsea axis due to their enormous financial resources.
You’d have to be very cynical indeed to think that Parry, recovering from his very public mauling at the hands of Tom Hicks, is playing to the gallery and trying to build popular support by repeating the mantra that will resonate with the vast majority of the fans.
By turn, Rafa has been quick to try and manage expectations, drawing attention to the vast amounts of money at our competitors’ disposal and, rather more subtly than in previous years, making a plea for strong funding support to strengthen the squad.
The extent of financial disadvantage suffered by Liverpool in recent years, and its potential consequences, were brought into stark relief last week with the publication of the ‘top two’s’ latest accounts.
In case you missed it, Chelsea’s debt stood at £736m, of which £578m is owed to Roman Abramovich by way of an interest-free loan.
So while Chelsea are not picking up any crippling interest costs, the Russian can demand full repayment at 18 months notice.
You can understand why everyone at Chelsea is so anxious to keep him happy now can’t you? If he gets bored, and takes his toys (i.e. money) away, then the Londoners would have a mighty battle on to prevent themselves going the way of Leeds United.
The goldfish would have to go for starters. As for United, their debt level stood at £764m, of which £666m (rather appropriately, the devil’s number) represents the cost of buying the club which the Glazers ingeniously got the club itself to pay for – which is of course the mechanism which Liverpool fans, and certain members of the board, are fighting to avoid from Mr Hicks and Co. Total interest payments at Hogwarts in the year in question were £81m.
Now you could argue that Chelsea have got the better deal here, since all the debt they have incurred has been spent on players and their wages rather than on buying themselves out. Yet United can meet those enormous interest payments, acquire top-class players and still make a profit – mainly thanks to the sums generated by their enormous stadium and associated marketing efforts – in other words, they’re a going concern, which Chelsea certainly aren’t without Abramovich.
This underlines just how important the new stadium is to our future aspirations – until this comes on line, we will fall further behind unless our owners advance more funds which in turn will increase our levels of debt.
It’s unlikely therefore that there will be any more Torres-style acquisitions, unless Rafa raises substantial amounts from the sale of fringe players. If this leads to more quality and less quantity, then I and many others will see that as a desirable trade-off.
On the other hand, if it means the arrival of more sub-standard free transfers, then Rafa’s caution will be well-placed. And we’ll be as far away from winning the Premier League as we are from triumphing in the annual songfest that, coincidentally, will arrive in Russia next year – I wonder if Roman is thinking of starting a supergroup?
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