Kop ready to turn on owners

ANFIELD will echo to the sounds of mutiny tonight as Liverpool’s fans re-enforce their displeasure about the way their club is being run, although resurgent Aston Villa could yet re-focus attention to the Reds’ other major headache.

The Dubai International Capital group, encouraged by rumours of an apparent split between the current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, are preparing a €525million bid for the club which could be lodged by the end of the week.

Hicks yesterday insisted he has no intention of accepting an offer for his stake in the club.

“I have not received any offer to purchase the club from the DIC or anyone else,” he said. “Nor do I have any intention of doing so.

“The facts are that I and my family have always been, and remain, fully committed to co-owning the club; that no-one in my family has ever indicated any intention or desire to sell our stake in the club; and that we expect and intend to be co-owners of the club, and to actively and enthusiastically support the club’s manager, players and fans for many years to come.”

Yet that is unlikely to prove sufficient to quell the simmering discontent at Anfield. After the fanfare and contented silence that greeted the Americans’ arrival 11 months ago, it is hard to think of anything that could have gone worse.

Having been forced to change the design of the club’s new stadium due to rising steel prices, they have also struggled to appease fans uneasy at the club’s huge level of debt. Hicks’ recent admission that he spoke to Jurgen Klinsmann about replacing Benitez was the final straw for many Reds fans.

Back in November, dissent was focused on support of their Spanish saviour but that will shift to a definite anti-American feeling tonight and protests will be more organised than for the 5-0 win over Luton last Tuesday. A group branding itself Reclaim the Kop is set to produce banners demanding the Americans leave Anfield, all of which should make for an uncomfortable evening in the directors’ box.

The recent turmoil has started to over-shadow on-pitch matters but Liverpool are 15 points off the Premier League leaders Manchester United and more than half-way through the season, they are only two points ahead of ninth-placed Blackburn.

Benitez, who will again be without Daniel Agger tonight, is maintaining his “eyes-down” approach.

“We don’t think about the gap between us and the clubs above us because the only way we can change things is by winning games,” he insisted.

The Villa manager Martin O’Neill, who is finding life much more pleasant under another American Randy Lerner has warned against a repeat of last season’s performance at Anfield. Villa were unbeaten in his first 11 matches in charge before they were thumped 3-1 at Anfield in October 2006.

“Last year we went there and it was our 10th game in the league and we were unbeaten in nine, which was terrific,” he said.

“But we came a cropper there. Effectively we were well beaten. This time we go there with the season more advanced and with the players in fine form.”