We really, really don’t want Robert Kraft anywhere near Liverpool after hearing these comments.
The American billionaire is 76-years-old and owns the New England Patriots, and actually held talks to buy Liverpool in 2005 before we foolishly sold to Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
Kraft is ‘interested’ once more in buying a Premier League club, with the Mirror mooting Liverpool and Newcastle as potential possibilities, but it’s clear the man hasn’t got a clue what he’s buying into or any knowledge of the game, either.
He currently owns MLS franchise New England Revolution and would prefer English football to be run in a similar manner to it is stateside, with salary caps and (probably) no relegation…
“I like to win at whatever I do,” he told BBC Sport.
“But without a salary cap I’m concerned that we might be at a disadvantage.
“We helped found MLS in America. Our league here is starting to really develop, and with our soccer team we’ve gone to the championship game five times in 21 years.
“I’m just concerned in the Premier League that we might not, with all the different ways of operating, we’re not as familiar with all of them.
“Let’s say people from all over the world come in and buy teams and maybe they have different reasons for doing it and managing it. And you have to compete with that and I’m not sure. But I’m still intrigued.”
The Mirror state Kraft’s wealth is $4bn – roughly – which while being a monumental sum, is less than half Roman Abramovich’s and nowhere near Manchester City’s.
Is he really going to come in and pump in the kind of money that makes him an automatic upgrade on FSG, who’ve had seven years now to learn the business they’re in?
Definitely not.
Our current American owners though have stuck a £1bn price-tag on the club and we can’t imagine it’ll be too long before potential buyers do emerge.