I am not sure whether this is good news for us or not: George Gillett has sold ice hockey giants Montreal Canadiens to the brewers Molson for £340m – almost exactly double the price he paid them for an 80 per cent share in 2001. This sale means that Gillett has made £178m profit. Now will Gillett pump this money back into Liverpool or is he going to keep it for himself? Really, he is not forced to put a cent of it into Liverpool but if he wants the club to succeed as he told us when he bought the club with Tom Hicks then surely he has to give us atleast some of it!
It is clear for all of us to see that we are struggling with our finances. When Gillett and Hicks bought the club in 2007 they took out a £350m loan and have made no progress with a new stadium which they promised us. The club’s accountants issued a chilling statement about two weeks ago admitting there is ‘significant doubt’ whether the company which runs the club can ‘continue as a going concern’ after results showed we made a £42.6million loss last year.
If Gillett has ambitions to remain in control of Liverpool then I hope he will put in some of this cash from Canada into Liverpool. It would be nice if it goes to fund transfers or even if it goes to building a new stadium. Hopefully now that Gillett has done this, Hicks will follow suite and sell his stake in the Texas Rangers and generate more cash! On the other hand, could Gillett use the cash he has made to buyout Hicks??? I may not like these two guys but if they decide to use all the money they make from selling their American sports teams, and put it into Liverpool then I will give them a chance.