NESV - bottom of the barrel?

[Coro]

FORMER Liverpool FC managing director Christian Purslow described selling the club to New England Sports Ventures as a "bottom of the barrel" deal, a court heard yesterday. Liverpool Daily Post, 11/02/11

 

In an astonishing email sent just a month before the deal with NESV was completed, Mr Purslow told LFC board members:

 

He did not believe NESV had the money for a new stadium

 

Their bid was at the "extreme bottom end" of what was wanted

 

John Henry's background as a hedge fund financier "could not be worse” in PR terms

 

The only positive was that they actually “existed”.

 

The email was disclosed by Tom Hicks and George Gillett's legal team as they try to have an anti-suit injunction stopping them from suing for damages outside the UK or European Union lifted at London’s High Court.

 

They want to show the deal accepted for LFC undervalued the club and ignored other, higher offers.

 

The email was sent to fellow LFC directors Ian Ayre, Phillip Nash, and then chairman Sir Martin Broughton on September 15.

 

It is not known if Mr Purslow’s opinion of the deal changed in the month leading up to the sale or if the NESV bid was subsequently improved.

 

Mr Purslow urged the trio to "avoid the natural temptation to jump straight into the deal with NESV", and then lists all the negative elements in their bid.

 

He wrote: "So what is positive? Answer, they exist. Which is not a lot, but it is not to be underestimated in importance."

 

He then suggests that they "double check that none of the possibles who have come and gone in the last 18 months to apparent levels lower than Sharjah but higher than NESV are not there.

 

“So I repeat this is a bottom of the barrel outcome."

 

The reference to Sharjah is believed to refer to an alleged £600m bid for LFC from the Middle East.

 

The club is back in court as Sir Martin, RBS, and NESV are asking the court to extend indefinitely an injunction stopping Hicks and Gillett suing for damages abroad.

 

The injunction was taken out when Mr Hicks launched a $1.6bn lawsuit in Dallas trying to halt the £300m sale of the club in October last year.

 

Hicks and Gillett want the restriction removed leaving them free to pursue a legal claim in the USA.

 

The court heard from David Chivers QC, acting for NESV, who said Hicks and Gillett were cynically trying to manipulate international law in their pursuit of damages.

 

He said the pair had not proved why a court order stopping them suing for damages outside the UK or the EU should be lifted.

 

“The appropriate place for the dispute to be heard is in England”, said Mr Chivers.

 

Earlier Sir Martin's barrister, Philip Marshall QC, returned to the issue of how Hicks and Gillett had sought to mislead the Texas court in October.

 

“The conduct in Texas was quite extraordinary," he said.

 

Lawyers acting for Hicks and Gillett told the Texas court they needed an injunction to stop the sale of the club and that no other injunction had been sought – despite the fact that just hours earlier a UK court had refused it.

 

"I find it just incredible. It was utterly dishonest."

 

Sir Martin Broughton is also asking the High Court to confirm he acted "honestly and reasonably" in the £300m sale of the club to NESV.

 

Hicks and Gillett say there should be nothing to stop the case being held abroad.

 

Paul Girolami, their QC, told the court that Hicks and Gillett's holding companies Kop Football Cayman and Kop Football Investments (registered in Delaware) through which they once controlled LFC, had separate rights to those of the two Americans.

 

He drew the court's attention to a letter of appointment for Sir Martin when he was made chairman of the club last April.

 

It was on Kop Investment headed notepaper that said Sir Martin was liable, for his responsibilities as a manager of the company, under Delaware corporate law, and that any disputes arising from his appointment were to be dealt with under English law.

 

He then revealed a number of emails. The first dated August 22, 2010 from Phillip Hall of Inner Sports, acting for NESV, asked Sir Martin to keep their communications "confidential from the current owners".

 

Sir Martin sent an email confirming that this was fine.

 

Mr Girolami said an email between lawyers on September 9 spoke about a share purchase agreement to buy the club.

 

He then revealed the Purslow email, dated September 15, and said that at this point his clients were still unaware of what was going on.

 

Indeed it was not until after Sir Martin called a board meeting for October 5 to ratify the deal that Hicks and Gillett became aware of NESV, Mr Girolami claimed.

 

The pair have recently been told by lawyers acting for Sir Martin that they have 75,000 emails involving the sale.

 

The case continues today.

 

Liverpool FC’s ex-managing director Christian Purslow said new owners’ bid was ‘bottom of barrel’, court hears - Liverpool News - News - Liverpool Daily Post

[derrickt]

Will be interesting how Nesv "bottom of the barrel" become preferred owner in just 1 mth.

[TommyW]

Purslow in being clueless shocker

[Antynwa]

Interesting that.

 

But it's very disappointing if he's suggesting that it's the bottom of the barrel bid purely on the size of the bid.

[Trucker Paddy]

Have to say when I heard hedge fund and Henry in same sentance I was worried, it's obvious now that's not the NSEV way.

 

Intresting that he says "they actually exist" unlike Kenny Haungs bid which didn't.

[JohnnyH]

That's not going to help. Nice one Christian. Hopefully, the fact this e-mail still exists means that Broughton and his team have evidence to show that these fears were allayed.

 

More importantly, I hope this doesn’t mean we’ve got ourselves another bunch of skint owners. I’m pleased that they clearly re-invested the Torres money, but I hope we will have actual money to spend in the summer. Once bitten, twice shy. As they said, I’ll judge them on their actions. Let’s see if they spend.

[Trucker Paddy]

I'll never get bored Reading how them 2 were fucked over, it's truly poetic justice

[ritchie]

But Purslow is a hero and we all owe him an apology for ever doubting the genius of the man.

 

Isn't that right Chris Bascombe?

[Antynwa]

Have to say when I heard hedge fund and Henry in same sentance I was worried, it's obvious now that's not the NSEV way.

 

Intresting that he says "they actually exist" unlike Kenny Haungs bid which didn't.

 

Thats what came to my mind as well.

 

But anyway, he was there, fighting our corner, and got the result.

[JohnnyH]

I'll never get bored Reading how them 2 were fucked over, it's truly poetic justice

 

We didn't fuck them over. They got a very fair deal. *taps nose*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The walls have ears*

[Trucker Paddy]

That's not going to help. Nice one Christian. Hopefully, the fact this e-mail still exists means that Broughton and his team have evidence to show that these fears were allayed.

 

More importantly, I hope this doesn't mean we've got ourselves another bunch of skint owners. I'm pleased that they clearly re-invested the Torres money, but I hope we will have actual money to spend in the summer. Once bitten, twice shy. As they said, I'll judge them on their actions. Let's see if they spend.

 

Johnny we were buying Suarez and had bids in for Young and Adam before the rat said he wanted to go, kenny himself said they were dissapointed they didn't get more players in, I understand your concerns after the 3 years previous though

[Andy K]

On the face of it this is really shocking and does not move the club forward at all and questions NESV financial muscle and commitment to get LFC back at the summit of English football. Although NESV may argue that during the month from the sent email to the club being purchased their offer was improved (although we do not know this happened at this stage), Purslow questions their integrity to not borrow money i.e.

leverage the debts and claims that the debt is only half paid off.

 

I think there could be a danger of the supporters being charmed by NESV as they have said very little and of course it appears that they spent big in the January transfer window (braking the transfer record twice in the process), when if fact the net spend was zero.

 

From the day Hicks and Gillett took over the club it has always been vitally important to scrutinise, how the club is being run, where the money is coming from and how the clubs revenues are being spent and I think this must not stop. NESV have to date been quite coy on the issue where their money comes from, claiming it would not be fair to disclose this information as there is a consortium of investors.

 

I just hope that the likes of SOS and the LFC supporting top journalists keep on probing and calling NESV to account at every stage. Time will tell if we have a wolf in sheep’s clothing, although if we spot this too late the consequences for the club will be dire.

 

It would be good if Purslow could now come out and clarify his initial comments i.e. do they still hold and if not, why not.

[Coro]

After lying to and insulting the intelligence of supporters, after interfering in team matters, ignoring Dalglish, declaring NESV as 'bottom of the barrel' etc. he was still there fighting our corner :lol:

[lfc_sotorious]

We don't need rich owners we need responsible owners which nesv so far have been, having rich owners is void now due to FFP, lfc pays for itself

[Trucker Paddy]

But Purslow is a hero and we all owe him an apology for ever doubting the genius of the man.

 

Isn't that right Chris Bascombe?

 

Do explain, serious what are you going on about, Purslow and Broughton obviously checked the pros and cons of the bid, which they were happy with. As they checked out Haung and realised he was a conman

[Trucker Paddy]

We don't need rich owners we need responsible owners which nesv so far have been, having rich owners is void now due to FFP, lfc pays for itself

 

Correct

[Kevin D]

But Purslow is a hero and we all owe him an apology for ever doubting the genius of the man.

 

Isn't that right Chris Bascombe?

 

He clenched his fist outside the courtroom. What more do you want?

[donnyred]

75,000 emails??? Its a wonder they had time to actually do anything else other that tyope messages to each other...

[Unrighteous]

The yanks are retarded. They were going to lose the club in a matter of days to RBS, so what does it matter?

[Il Fenomeno]

The yanks are retarded. They were going to lose the club in a matter of days to RBS, so what does it matter?

 

I'd imagine the news that Purslow thought NESV couldn't afford a new stadium matters quite a lot.

[JohnnyH]

Johnny we were buying Suarez and had bids in for Young and Adam before the rat said he wanted to go, kenny himself said they were dissapointed they didn't get more players in, I understand your concerns after the 3 years previous though

 

Don't think we had any bid in for Young and we bid £4m for Adam having sold Babel for £6m The Suarez deal was dragging on with us been accused of embarrassing bids and Ajax saying that they’d only even talk to us if we came out with a proper and respectful bid. It was only after the Torres deal went through that we out in a proper bid. We went from £12m (a bid that never had any chance ever of been accepted) to £22m. Quite a difference.

 

Look, I’m hoping as much as anyone else that FSG turn out to be excellent owners. The fact they handed the £50m from the Torres to deal to Dalglish was certainly a good start. But it also shows how far our trust has fallen that we celebrated actual spending money received from a top player being sold like we’d just spent £100m with no one leaving. We broke even in the transfer window and everyone is going around like we’ve the best owners in the world who’ve just ploughed all their hard-earned into the club. They haven’t. And so far they are sitting on a fantastic deal. Until I see work starting on either a new stadium or refurbishment, and real money spent in the transfer window, not £60m or £70m, but profits such as £30m, then we should look at talking this guys up and trusting them.

 

They are hard-nosed multi-billionaire ruthless businessmen. They will find it very easy to pull the wool over any fans eyes about what their plans are and what they’ll spend and making us great again. I will not trust them until they have 100% shown themselves to be trust worthy. The last 2 ½ years are too fresh in the memory for me to bend over for another set of “custodians” .

[ritchie]

Do explain, serious what are you going on about, Purslow and Broughton obviously checked the pros and cons of the bid, which they were happy with. As they checked out Haung and realised he was a conman

 

Purslow is a cunt and a moron.

 

He could even show Moores and Parry a thing or two about incompetence - as bad as they were. At least they got the managerial appointments right and didn't intefere so much in team affairs.

 

Purslow is the worst employee in Liverpool FC's history - just ahead of Rick Parry and Roy Hodgson. At least he signed Joey Cole, though.

[Trucker Paddy]

 

Purslow is a cunt and a moron.

 

He could even show Moores and Parry a thing or two about incompetence - as bad as they were. At least they got the managerial appointments right and didn't intefere so much in team affairs.

 

Purslow is the worst employee in Liverpool FC's history - just ahead of Rick Parry and Roy Hodgson. At least he signed Joey Cole, though.

 

Ok so

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

It seems that, because NESV knew the position H+G were in at the time, they got the club for a bargain. Some people might call that bottom of the barrel based on the bid size alone, but it sounds like hard bargaining and good business on the part of the buyer, in my opinion.

 

Don't get me wrong, they might turn out to be shit owners. Once bitten, twice shy. They're doing well at the moment and the summer will be a real test of how much they're willing to improve the team and the club. I'll judge them on their actions, not opinions or possible outcomes in the future.

[JohnnyH]

The yanks are retarded. They were going to lose the club in a matter of days to RBS, so what does it matter?

 

It's the new yanks that this e-mail makes me more worried about. If Purslow had this view of them then, other then promises, what else could have changed to all of a sudden not make them a "bottom of the barrel" choice?