Reds' risky business from the Guradian
The Liverpool manager, Rafael BenÃtez, made a net profit in the transfer market of £14.3m in the 12 months to 31 July last year and had added another £5.8m to that by the end of January. But the club still managed to make a pre-tax (and, crucially, interest) loss of £5.7m in 2007/8. The co-owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, have raised their investment in the club through loans from their Cayman Islands-based investment vehicle to a total of at least £70m (don't weep for them, though: they are charging handsome interest). Some £21m of that, injected between last July and this February, was "to provide for player trading arrangements". But, even before the £17.5m deal for Glen Johnson, existing transfer-market obligations were already apparently £15m. Now Liverpool have to pay down £60m of their £350.5m loans to Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia in pretty short order. Can the multimillion-pound saving associated with not having to pay up Xabi Alonso's contract after he put in writing his transfer request been coincidence? More sales will surely follow.
The Liverpool manager, Rafael BenÃtez, made a net profit in the transfer market of £14.3m in the 12 months to 31 July last year and had added another £5.8m to that by the end of January. But the club still managed to make a pre-tax (and, crucially, interest) loss of £5.7m in 2007/8. The co-owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, have raised their investment in the club through loans from their Cayman Islands-based investment vehicle to a total of at least £70m (don't weep for them, though: they are charging handsome interest). Some £21m of that, injected between last July and this February, was "to provide for player trading arrangements". But, even before the £17.5m deal for Glen Johnson, existing transfer-market obligations were already apparently £15m. Now Liverpool have to pay down £60m of their £350.5m loans to Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia in pretty short order. Can the multimillion-pound saving associated with not having to pay up Xabi Alonso's contract after he put in writing his transfer request been coincidence? More sales will surely follow.
