The £350 Million is effectively a loan taken out by the owners to cover the purchase of the club, enabling them to avoid dipping in to their own wealth to purchase the club outright.
However, it seems highly unlikely that another institution will be happy with to loan the duo this amount and the two options facing the owners are to sell the club, or to finally fund the club purchase themselves.
George Gillett in particular has looked the most likely to walk away from Anfield out of the pair, but according to a report in the Daily Post, he could be willing to even dispense with his stake in his much-loved Montreal Canadiens ice-hockey franchise.
North-American based BMO Capital Markets have been hired to take stock of Gillett’s assets, and is considering anything from a restructuring of his interests to a sell-off.
The Canadiens team-president Pierre Boivin said:
“The process has been started but we’re only at the beginning.
“We’re not hiding it; we’re going through a very difficult economic period.
“Banks are reticent to finance even very good projects. We see it in real estate.
“These (BMO) advisers will make sure to maximise the company’s assets and re-orient if needed the Gillett family’s financial strategies.”
The Montreal Canadiens could be worth around £250 million, but with debts – surprise, surprise – of around £180 million, even the sale would only give Gillett around £70 million – not even enough to fund his 50% purchase of the reds.
Speaking last night Jay McKenna, of fan group Spirit of Shankly, said:
“If they are having to sell stakes in other sports franchises, as they call them, it shows that they have not got the financial clout that they claimed they had.”
Too true.