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Hodgson expects to be retained as Liverpool manager

Roy Hodgson expects to be retained as manager © Getty Images

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Roy Hodgson says the news that Tom Hicks and George Gillett have finally admitted defeat in their opposition to a takeover of the club by New England Sports Ventures (NESV) marks the end of a "very difficult couple of weeks" for the Premier League club.

Days of bitter legal wrangling have given way to a satisfactory conclusion for Liverpool supporters after the co-owners dropped a restraining order that prevented the Royal Bank of Scotland and the club's board from pushing through the £300 million sale of the club to NESV.

Although further litigation may follow, with the Americans pledging to pursue a claim for $1.6 billion in damages, Hicks and Gillett have now been expelled from Anfield and their divisive rein ended.

Friday's news has been welcomed by Hodgson, who is currently preparing the team for Sunday's Merseyside derby against Everton. Liverpool sit 18th in the table after a poor start to the season.

"It is a very positive situation, and a very good day for the club - a day everyone at the club will welcome and the new owners will welcome," Hodgson said, when speaking before official confirmation of the deal. "It is a relief. It has been a very difficult couple of weeks.

"For this long drawn-out court battle to take place and Liverpool's name to be on the television screens and in the newspapers every day for anything other than positive reasons has been a bad time. We've had to live through that bad time but hopefully now, if NESV are going to take over, that would be very good news for us going into the important match at the weekend.

"All people and clubs need stability, all managers and players need stability and it is becoming a very hard thing to find. We live in a world where you are either on top or at the bottom and the middle line is not appreciated by the mass media.

"I am hoping the new owners coming in will stabilise the situation and give us a chance to concentrate on the football and, most importantly of all, will wipe out debts. That will mean in future we can invest in players in a different way to what has happened in the last transfer window when money was in short supply and we weren't even certain there would be any money to spend or even if the club would be there.

"The mere fact the club will be taken over and the debts wiped off immediately puts us into a different financial position to the one we have been in."

Hodgson has spoken to John W Henry, who fronts NESV and has been in London to oversee the progress of the takeover, and although the manager has a clause in his contract which can be activated by a change in ownership, he expects to be retained by the new owners.

"There hasn't been any talk about my position at the club," Hodgson said. "He called me and his message was that he was hoping the deal would go through, he was very much looking forward to becoming the new owner and he was looking forward to working with me and the people who were here but we didn't talk about investment."

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