Dalglish: Reds will ride the storm

Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish insists the club will not go backwards despite their current ownership issues and speculation about the futures of manager Rafael Benitez and star players Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

Former chairman David Moores yesterday gave a full and frank account of his reasons for selling to American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett in 2007.

After a tumultuous three-year reign the pair officially put the club, whose parent company Kop Holdings have debts of £351m with interest payments of £40m a year, up for sale last month.

That has led to increased instability off the pitch with constant conjecture about whether the manager and players will remain at Anfield.

Torres did little to quell that speculation yesterday when he side-stepped questions about his future, while Jose Mourinho, whose appointment as Real Madrid boss appears imminent, has spoken of his admiration for Gerrard.

However, Dalglish said the club was bigger than any individual.

“Liverpool FC is much more important than any one individual – it always has been and always will be,” said the Reds former player and manager, who now has an ambassadorial role with the club’s academy.

“It will move forwards and move upwards.

“It is not the greatest time in the club’s history at this time but I don’t think they will start to go backwards.”

Dalglish, voted Liverpool’s greatest player, also said he had some sympathy with Moores for reacting to the criticism aimed at him for selling to the Americans.

“David has got his own opinions and wanted to get something off his chest but everyone knows where David’s heart lies,” Dalglish told Sky Sports News.

Two other Liverpool greats, Alan Kennedy and John Aldridge, have joined the growing calls for Hicks and Gillett to engineer a swift sale.

Kennedy, a two-time European Cup winner, said the current state of uncertainty had affected the team this season, which saw Liverpool finish seventh – their worst league placing for 11 years.

“We have to move on. We are stagnating and it has shown in the performances of the players, who have been disappointing as well,” said the 55-year-old.

Former striker Aldridge was more outspoken, criticising Hicks and Gillett for loading huge debts on the club and dismissing the former’s claims that Liverpool were in a better position now than they were three years ago.

“Any club that is losing £110,000 a day (on loan repayments) is in big trouble - whether they are Liverpool or not,” he said.

“We are in a massive mess. It is ridiculous to say we are in a good situation - absolutely ludicrous.”

Aldridge does take some comfort from the fact that the off-field problems may result in increased stability in the dressing room after speculation about Benitez.

“The manager’s future looks more tenable at the moment,” he added.

“There is no stability at the club and to lose the manager as well would put them in disarray.

“Would the two Americans really replace Rafael Benitez considering they don’t know an awful lot about football?”

The future of some players seems less secure and Mourinho did his bit to encourage any seeds of doubt which were growing in the mind of Gerrard.

“I like players in the final part of their careers,” said the Portuguese.

“I love to have some players who are 33 or 34 years old...they are players that you buy and you won’t recover this money, but if they give you good performances for two or three years you’ve got your money’s worth.

“Both (Gerrard and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard) are great players who always give everything.”