Soccer:Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson welcomed the club's potential new American takeover as a positive move and pleaded for patience from the fans as he tries to turn around problems on the pitch.
Liverpool accepted a €343 million offer from New England Sports Ventures (NESV), who also own the Boston Red Sox baseball team, although
the deal is still subject to a legal challenge as well as approval from the Premier League.
"It's very positive and of course I'm delighted," Hodgson said. "It's been going on a long time and I know how hard the board have worked to set things up.
“I know it's not easy for them because the owners have other ideas in terms of the sale of the club and what is achievable. But I was delighted to hear the news and have it confirmed that it looks like it is going to go through."
While the board wrestles with the financial issues, Hodgson, who replaced Rafa Benitez this season, has to address the club's worst start for decades.
They are currently third-last in the standings with just six points from seven games having lost at home to Blackpool last weekend. They were also knocked out of the League Cup by Northampton and have made a limp start to their Europa League campaign.
"Unfortunately when you lose matches, especially games like Sunday that people don't expect you to lose, it colours everything," Hodgson said. "It comes on the back of a (League) Cup defeat, albeit with a second team, so that adds to the woe - but in actual fact not much has changed.
"We know what we've got to do, we know we need some new players, we know we need investment, and we know we are weak in certain areas of the team - these things have been the case since I arrived at the club and we haven't had chance to put things right.
"What I ask of the fans is their patience, their trust and their belief, because we will get it right - there are no doubts about that. The club will be in a pretty healthy situation in general terms if the sale goes through."
Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks, meanwhile, is determined to fight to hang on to control of the club after refusing to recognise chairman Martin Broughton’s authority.
Broughton, appointed in April to oversee the sale, revealed yesterday that Hicks attempted to sack managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre and install his own people in order to block the sale.
That was blocked by Broughton, who insists Hicks signed agreements not to oppose the sale when they received an extension to their refinancing deal with Royal Bank of Scotland earlier this year.
Hicks and co-owner George Gillett stand to lose over €150 million if the NESV deal goes through. Hicks’ New York-based spokesman Mark Semer said that Broughton’s claim was disputed by the Americans.
“There were no such undertakings given to Broughton, the board has been legally reconstituted, and the new board does not approve of this proposed transaction,” Semer told Bloomberg News.
After rejecting the attemped coup, which would have seen Hicks’ son Mack and Lori McCuthcheon, of Hicks Holdings replace Purslow and Ayre, Broughton continued with the conference call board meeting even though Hicks had put the phone down.
The chairman is confident he and the other two England-based members of the board have acted appropriately but they will not be able to have that confirmed until the issue is thrashed out in court next week.