By Duncan Mackay
December 11 – Liverpool’s problems, already serious following their elimination from the Champions League and struggling in the Premiership, could become even worse, former Manchester City and England star Rodney Marsh has warned today.
The five-time European champions have already been burdened with a debt estimated at more than £300 million after the refinancing of loans with RBS and Wachovia negotiated by owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who have also failed to keep a promise to build a new stadium.
Failure to progress to the knock-out rounds of the Champions League could cost Liverpool up to an estimated £30 million in lost prize money, television revenue and other related costs and add to the growing fear that the club is slipping out of England’s top four clubs.
Marsh, writing exclusively for insideworldfootball, has predicted that the club’s star players like Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will want to leave soon if the downward spiral continues.
He wrote: ”I can see an exodus of the major players next season.
“Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres could play in any team in world football, why would they want to hang around with a team that’s going nowhere?
“If you take out those players Liverpool become an ordinary football team along side the likes of Aston Villa and Spurs, who, whilst being top clubs, never rise to the level of challenging for the most coveted domestic trophy.”
Marsh lays much of the blame at the poor tactics of manager Rafa Benitez, whose immediate future appears safe because Liverpool cannot afford the £20 million compensation package it would cost to get rid of him.
Marsh wrote: ”Only the Football Association’s contract with Sven-Goran Eriksson when he was England manager comes close to this lunacy.
“It has put the club in a ridiculous position in my opinion.”
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