Liverpool FC have survived for another six months, but only just – and their future remains very much in the balance.
Their banks have given the club half a year to repay £350.5m – it was due to be repaid in full on 25 January to Royal Bank of Scotland (partly owned by all British citizens) and the American bank Wachovia.
Liverpool Insolvents (as they are now known) have to pay £30m a year interest, but this part of the money they owe is cheap – only around 5% pa. Normally loans which are not secured on the club’s ground are deemed very risky, and so have much higher interest rates. So if the banks agreed a new loan in July they will want to double that interest rate – and demand a high signing on fee.
Meanwhile George Gillett himself is in trouble. He is involved in Booth Creek Management Corp which deals in cars in the US – not a good idea at the moment. Also they did try like mad to sell the insolvent Liverpool club to Dubai – but Dubai has now closed the doors on that, so they are stuck.
Now on a totally different note: this saturday there’s a new HIGHBURY HIGH on sale, containing amazing, extraordinary, and quite remarkable articles of a type hitherto unseen in the world of football publishing. I heartily recommend it to every supporter, not least because there’s something by me in it. If you hold positive views about Arsenal and the Lord Wenger, this is the place to be reading.
Highbury High will be on sale outside the ground on Saturday for only two pounds. (Listen for the jolly cries of “Brand New Highbury High”).
Subscriptions cost £12 for 6 issues (£15 in Europe, £18 for Rest of the World). Send a cheque for £12 to Highbury High, 11 Tannington Terrace, Gillespie Road London N5 1LE. If you don’t I shall be very upset.
I see the question of overpriced english players has appeared again. What about the price of Lennon and Robinson? £1m each for players who were not exactly rubbish? Its very easy to say British players are over priced but you are talking about the highlighted few such as Bent which nobody can understand but if you look at their policy at the time you would get it. What surprises me is that people somehow manage to adopt and tow the Arsenal line on pricing. Tell me, are Arsenal doing so well that we can dictate the pricing policy for the world to follow? I don’t think so in fact it could be said that our penny pinching ways have seen us drop dramatically from grace. The other point is that revenue has upped hugely from year to year n the EPL and this reflects in the pricing it seems that only Arsenal fans and the board do not seem to have managed to grasp this. How long can Arsenal fans continue to live in the past or more importantly accept a board that lives in the past.I would have thought it was obvious that when you are buying players within the wealthiest league in the world they are going to cost more money. The clubs have expectations and want to get the best return. It happens believe it or not that the majority of English players play in England, the EPL is the most expensive and wealthiest league therefore this reflects in the players cost. Values are relative to the club and league they are in. So if Arshavin costs £20m then he is completely over priced but even at £15m he is to. I doubt relatively he is worth any more than £10m so should we sign him will people be saying he is overpriced? The whole English player price thing to me is an ill thought out bandwagon that quite simply allows teams or boards like Arsenal’s to get away with more profiteering.
Arsene Wenger is usually very quick to deny any transfer rumours that head Arsenal’s way but he hasn’t for Andrei Arshavin.
He obviously rates the Russian but the amount of publicity over the move has put slight doubts about it actually happening in my mind.
Arsene Wenger is very secretive about who his targets are and a signing normally comes out of the blue.
The Arshavin business has become very public, not Wenger’s usual way, and I wonder if Zenit Saint Petersburg and Arshavin’s agent are just using Arsenal’s interest to try and create a last minute bidding war for the player.
A club like Manchester City who can throw silly money away may become interested because Wenger is and outbid Arsenal or anyone. I’m sure Zenit would prefer this.
Wenger has not denied any interest in Arshavin and why would he? It gives Gooners hope that a big name maybe arriving at the club but Wenger is smart enough to use the story to his advantage.
The media are over this like a rash and it gives Wenger an opportunity to sign someone else. While attention is drawn to the Arshavin deal, Wenger may use it as a smokescreen.
Who really knows though? He maybe actually trying to buy Arshavin!
Interesting one this. When I first thought through this I couldn’t see where he would fit in once Fabregas returns – now I think I do and I think this could be a smashing signing if he is anything like the player we have seen in the big games – which to me is a sign that he is something good, that he does it then.
Think about our best play last season. It came with Hleb in behind Adebayor linking up with Fabregas. We have lost that ability because while Nasri is talented, he doesn’t have Hleb’s ability to run in the tightest of spaces or pick a pass in similarly tight spaces (vital when teams defend so deep against us) – he relies more on an open field and doesn’t really play behind the front man like Hleb could. Arshavin has similar attributes to Hleb but is quicker and will get into the box and finish as well; in other words he is just a better player. So that is what we will do when we play 1 up front. In other games like Hleb he will play wide left but drift inside constantly to link again with Fabregas and Van Persie as well. He may also drive into the box a bit like Pires could do on his right foot. With Walcott offering a very different threat from the other flank with his pace we would have a threatening side again, with a top player like Nasri on the bench as another option.
This is of course if the deal comes off and it could well not do but think it would be a positive deal if it went through and would offer us a far more cohesive attack than we have at present – let’s face it our attack is a problem as well at the moment, it’s not just the defence, although a defensive midfielder especially and also a centre back should be sought urgently.
Arsenal has to seal this deal if they want any chance of challenging for the title this season. Despite the fact that they are 10 points behind Liverpool and with 18 games left to be played, I still believe that the title is still within their reach. As their title rivals are still very likely to drop points basing on the performances during the first 18 games. None of the other top 3 teams are convincing enough to proven that they can go unbeaten in the remaining 18 games.
However, if Arsenal really intends to mount a serious tilte challenge this season, it is iminent that they seal this deal to acquire the service of Arshavin. Arsenal must pull together a winning streak in the remaining games but with the injury problems to their midfielders, they will not be able to do so.
Wenger must make sure that this deal comes through as this will significantly strengthen their depleted midfield as well as silent the critics that they are not serious title challenger.
Let see if the Board are ready to cough up money when its really needed, I see must of you now realise that Arsene isn’t buying players with his own money. Arshavin will bring balance to a squad that is constantly plagued by injurys as he can play across the midfield and as a second ST, his coming(should it happen) will stop the likes of Diaby and Denilson being played out of position. It used to be okay/managable not having wingers as we could play through the middle due to the presence and vision of one Cesc but since his injury it is evident that cannot continue, and on another note we finally have 4wingers should dear Tomas recover and Theo’s shoulder stay in its place. Arshavin will bring us his vision, pace which we have lacked in counter-attacks, shots from outside the box and dribbling ability. To say that he is un-known is abit fresh coming from Arsenal supporters, as I constantly say not many of you knew Drogba until a season before he joined Chelski, other players have worked hard to reach their peak at later ages and Andrei’s peak is in line with the best of them. You don’t become the 6th best player in the would without doing somethings right, just because he comes from the russian league don’t mean his abilities only works for the players there as you can’t say Eduardo’s finishing is less lethal when put infront of a PL goaliee in comparison to a croatian league goaliee. Lastly, Our most recent signings being Nasri, Eddie, Sagna and even Ramsey have all settled in quickly so I am sure the trend will continue with Arshavin(should he arrive). Hope we can come up with a good song for him.
Gary at 11.23 a.m. you’re the only person here who mentioned nationality and cost of players. The Arsenal board would be wasting their time ‘profiteering’ when they do not take dividends out of the club. Any profit made is ploughed back into the club and because we are trying to run a proper self-sustaining business, we have to consider value for money in all our transactions. If money is no object you can pay over the odds but eventually someone (the banks or billionaire backer) wants a return on their investment. Ask Liverpool how they are going to pay back £350m in 6 months even if they won every piece of silverware available to them.