Twelve years have now passed since this writer spent one of his most unproductive days at work ever, constantly pressing F5 on a keyboard.
The reason for this act of apparent lunacy was a fairly serious one, at least as far as I was concerned. Holed up in a London High Court room were representatives of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, desperately trying to hold onto ownership of Liverpool Football Club. In the opposite corner were Ian Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, a trio who were trying to push through the sale of the club to New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
My mission was a simple one, follow a live blog online and pray to God that the Reds' current 'custodians' were stripped of their asset and passed to a new owner who could rebuild the club and push it towards future success.
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The story which unfolded that day could have made it into a Hollywood script, but ultimately that prayer was answered as Hicks and Gillett, who by this stage weren't even talking to each other, were forced to sell the club for £300m in what Hicks called "an epic swindle". On reflection, he was probably right.
NESV, now known as Fenway Sports Group (FSG), have announced that they are open to the idea of selling the club to a new investor who can take the club to the next level. And when we say the next level, what we really mean is compete financially with the might of Arab-owned Manchester City and Newcastle United.
The asking price is believed to be somewhere between £3-£4billion. Given that FSG bought the club for £300million only 12 years ago it is little wonder that an offloading of the asset would be very appealing. An outright sale is not the only option however, with FSG making it clear that passing on their ownership is just one option. Another is to invite partial investment from a third-party into the club that could significantly boost the transfer kitty for Jurgen Klopp.
Supporters have differing views regarding which would be the best approach. Whoever invests in the modern-day Liverpool needs to be a billionaire. If FSG opts for the partial investment route, how many billionaires are going to be content with just owning a portion of the club, perhaps even without an overall say on matters?
Should a big American player or a group from the Middle East assume outright control, then supporters could reasonably expect to see their side stand shoulder-to-shoulder with City, Newcastle and Chelsea when it comes to acquiring the world's best players. Exciting times? Well, be careful what you wish for.
FSG have received criticism from some quarters for not investing heavily enough in the transfer market. The club's policy of getting their number one target or no one at all seems to have initially served Liverpool well, but not so much now, with the Reds clearly lacking in certain areas of the pitch in comparison to the magnificent standards they have been able to sustain for the past few years.
The (for now) failed European Super League project, coupled with the emergence of Newcastle as a new super-power have probably prompted Liverpool's owners to put a possible exit plan into operation, but I am not convinced that is good news for the club.
Regardless of a perceived lack of investment in new players, I am strongly of the opinion that FSG have been good owners of this football club. They took an English sports team that had been plunged into financial disarray and first steadied the ship before going about revolutionising its commercial operations and infrastructure.
They grew a team off the pitch as well as on it and also brought long-held stadium development plans to fruition without the need to bulldoze Anfield. As a club, Liverpool has advanced significantly over the past 12 years, leaving old adversary Manchester United - once the dominant force in English football - in their wake.
The 30-year wait for a top-flight league title was ended, a sixth European cup was claimed with appearances in two other Champions League finals achieved. Recent domestic cup success only rubber-stamps a period of happiness for supporters, even if truly toppling Manchester City in the league has been the hardest challenge.
The fact that this has all been done under the stewardship of a consortium of Americans that most supporters had never heard of and started by knowing next to nothing about Liverpool Football Club makes it all the more remarkable.
But how lucky can you actually be? These days, football club ownership is in the news as much as the players themselves. Since the Moores family relinquished control of LFC back in 2007, the Reds have had both terrible owners and good ones. This is what makes me nervous.
Should the club be sold to a billionaire somewhere in the world, how will we know if they are the right people to control one of sport's most famed institutions before it is too late? Of course, you could argue that no one knew of FSG when they took over, but what we do know is that they have been steady owners that have built a relationship with the fans.
It is for this reason that I favour a partial sale of the club over a complete sale. Bring in an investment arm that can continue the fine work of the past 12 years and advance the squad with greater financial muscle.
It is probably a case of better the devil you know and that points to sticking with the current owners. Football sold its soul to big business decades ago and that is never going to change now, so there is little point in moaning over the ridiculously vast sums of money involved in the game right now, but globally we are entering a period of financial uncertainty and in a situation like this I would much prefer a trusted safe pair of hands to a billionaire speculator who maybe doesn't understand the consequences or the risk of not getting things right.
Liverpool can still buy players like Jude Bellingham this way, but with continuity in ownership underpinning everything that we do. No-one wants another Hicks and Gillett, that's for sure.
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