Qin Xiong appreciated the corporate style of doing things. At least part of the proposal was a detailed introduction of Liverpool's internal development summary over the past 20 years and the club's real situation.
This part of the information would give investors a relatively transparent analysis of the situation.
Liverpool's previous owner was David Moores, a respected old man. He took over the club in September 1991, and half a year ago, the Liverpool team fell into a slump due to the resignation of manager Kenny Dalglish.
Moores had been committed to bringing the team back to the glory of the 1970s and 1980s, and his efforts had also paid off, such as Houllier's Quintuple Championship era and Benítez's Champions League peak.
However, Liverpool F.C.'s outdated management system and backward business operations had hindered the club's further development.
The British media had a very vivid metaphor at the time: "Mr. Moores has always been a hardworking driver, but he can no longer drive Liverpool, an increasingly cumbersome old cow."
In the summer of 2006, Benítez wanted to sign Dirk Kuyt, the Eredivisie golden boot. Feyenoord Football Club offered around 9 million pounds, but Liverpool, which was cash-strapped, could only fork out 3 million pounds. The rest of the money needed Benítez to lead the team into the UEFA Champions League group stage.
However, the Champions League group stage only started in September, and the transfer market had already closed by then. Moores had no choice but to mortgage his property to the bank to raise the money for Benítez to buy Kuyt.
This incident strengthened Mr. Moores's determination to sell the club. He handed the sale over to Rick Parry, who finally recommended George Gillett from the United States. However, the old man did not have enough money on hand, so he pulled in his business partner, Tom Hicks.
Both of them had their own teams in the United States, and Parry saw this and persuaded Moores to sell the club to them.
If Mr. Moores could foresee everything that would happen in the future, he would probably continue to mortgage his property rather than invite the two American gods of plague.
Around 2007, American capital slowly ventured into the Premier League. Manchester United was the first to be bought by the American tycoon Glazer, because the club was overwhelmed by the high debts.
The Manchester United fans had never given up on their "anti-American" stance. Therefore, when the Americans entered Anfield, the Liverpool fans were also very dissatisfied.
However, Liverpool F.C. was worried about whether the Americans could understand the English football culture.
In early 2007, the two American owners completed the acquisition of Liverpool.
At that time, one of the American bosses, Gillette, was a man of few words. The reporters asked him for a long time, but they didn't get anything out of him.
On the other hand, Hicks, who was Gillette's partner, was different. He spoke beautifully, such as building a new stadium in Stanley Park and signing three or four top players for the club every year.
Hicks spoke clearly. Although many of his words were not precise enough, it could be seen that he was a quick-witted person.
Mr. Moores was basically the same old routine, which was to say that he was unable to lead Liverpool to greater progress and that he hoped the Americans could fulfill his wishes.
The Echo was the largest newspaper on Merseyside in England. In terms of football, it was the second official media outlet of Liverpool and Everton.
Generally speaking, before an important news event happened, the club would spread some gossip in the Echo. Firstly, it was to test the public's reaction. Secondly, it was a warm-up. Therefore, the Echo also became one of the ways that many media outlets paid attention to Liverpool.
On the day of the successful acquisition, Anfield held a press conference to announce that Gillette and Hicks had officially taken over Liverpool F.C..
The people in the front page photo of the Echo were the confidants of Gillette and Hicks. They would become sworn enemies in six months and start an internal battle.
At the press conference, Gillette and Hicks made a total of four promises:
1. They would provide Benítez with a transfer fee of £20 million per season.
2. The price of tickets would increase and the money from the increase would be used for the construction of the new stadium.
3. The naming rights of the new stadium would be sold.
4. Within two months, the construction of the new stadium would begin.
Looking at this paragraph more than two years later, one would find a big logical flaw: 1. More than half of the £20 million transfer fee for Benítez was actually obtained from the sale of players.
In addition, the implementation of the second and third points had to depend on whether the fourth point was valid.
Therefore, the final result was that the new stadium was not built, the naming rights were not sold, but the ticket price had risen ridiculously …
On June 3, 2007, the 115th anniversary of Liverpool's founding, Liverpool's new stadium plan took a turn.
As early as 1892, Everton F.C. split because of the rent issue at Anfield, and Liverpool was born.
Now, Liverpool was at a crossroads because of the stadium issue.
Everton had always wanted to share the stadium with Liverpool, but Liverpool refused.
Gillette and Hicks actually wanted to adopt Everton's suggestion. They felt that it would save a lot of money. Before the construction of the new stadium was delayed, the two Americans also specifically asked the Echo to publish an article titled "Liverpool and Everton Share Stanley Park Stadium" to test the reaction of the fans, mainly Liverpool fans. Later, after seeing the fans' fierce rhetoric, they decided to extend the construction period. The excuse they found was very clever – "hope to get a higher price for financing".
Liverpool fans thought that the Americans were really thinking for the club, so most people still took a wait-and-see attitude. But on the second day of the construction of the new stadium, a supernatural event occurred at Stanley Park.
At around 11 o 'clock at night, many workers saw the back of an old man in Liverpool's 1950s training uniform, shaking his head in disappointment at the new stadium.
After a while, someone recognized the old man as the late Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly. People ran up to him, but the old man slowly walked away and disappeared.
The incident was interpreted by the media as Shankly's nostalgia for Anfield's old stadium, and he did not want the team to move to Stanley Park.
During the period when the new stadium plan was postponed indefinitely, Liverpool made great strides in the UEFA Champions League.
Benítez coached Liverpool for three years and led them to the Champions League final twice, which somewhat diluted the sense of loss caused by the suspension of construction of the new stadium.
When the summer transfer window opened, the club signed strong reinforcements such as Torres, Babel and Yossi Benayoun. Benítez and the American boss entered a honeymoon period.
However, this beautiful time only lasted for nine months.
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