The longest-running transfer saga of this close season has been the on-off transfer of ownership of Liverpool Football Club to numerous interested foreign parties and prospective bidders.

Liverpool appointed former British Airways chief Martin Broughton in April to the post of Liverpool chairman and to oversee the sale, part of a deal struck by current club owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, which extended the club’s deadline for repayment of £237m to its bankers Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) from July to October 6^th.

Since then, “Liverpool to be sold” stories have been a staple of UK newspapers broadsheet and tabloid. But we still await the “Liverpool sold” headlines. And we are likely to have to wait a good bit yet.

Interest was expressed in April by former Wall Street stockbroker Huang Jian-hua – “Kenny Huang” to his mates – and Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi, whose public spokesperson was the unlikely Andy Lynch, a 1970s Celtic player.

However, it is only recently that they, and three or four other bidders, have hogged the headlines. A five-man Liverpool board set a Friday 13^th August deadline for “firm offers” and “proof of funds” to be on the proverbial table. The date has proved appropriate.

 

Each time a potential bidder makes the headlines, there follows stories casting doubt on their backgrounds, foregrounds, motivation and finances. And an August 12^th board meeting to discuss any bids was postponed because…there weren’t any bids.

Huang was apparently backed by the Chinese government, Kirdi was by Sharjah’s royals. All such reports have been confirmed and denied on a daily basis all week.

Kirdi’s bid will reportedly pay Hicks and Gillett for their “services” to Liverpool, which is why it is the Americans’ preferred bid…and everyone else’s least preferred bid.

But initial reports suggested that Hicks and Gillett could be outvoted by the other board members, Broughton, club MD Christian Purslow and club commercial supremo Ian Ayre. Since when, naturally, those reports have been denied.

So it is that Liverpool, heavily in debt and in ownership limbo in April, start the EPL season…heavily in debt and in ownership limbo. Madness.