The Emporer's New Clothes

Today has seen us catapulted into the media spotlight for non footballing reasons once again. I had quite liked putting the TV on or logging into Twitter to discover who we had been linked with in the transfer market, and even one or two of the rumours coming to fruition, Joe Cole and Fabio Aurelio being the notable inclusions in this list.

But today we are the talk of the city again. Who, how, why and when are the questions on all supporters lips tonight.

Who? - Well the first to put their head above the parapet seems to be Kenny. No not the King but from Hong Kong. Kenneth Huang has been outed (by his spokespeople I presume) as putting together a bid for The Reds. At first this morning, it looked as though Kenny was in the box seat and would have the deal tied up in a few days. Liverpool fans were immediately buoyed by the prospect of Statdler and Waldorf vanishing from the boardroom, never to darken our doors again.

How? - Well it sees that Kenny has a cunning plan. Instead of giving the yanks their dollars, he intends to do what all good bailiffs would do. Buy the debt, force a payment default on the owners and send in the heavies to remove anything of value that they own and ... well that is my problem. Normally the bailiffs see what they can get their hands on so that they can sell it on to recover the debt. Which brings us to the why.

Mr Huang has said all the right things today. Completion of the deal in time to invest in the squad. Build a new stadium. retain our best players. But where have we heard all this before? Oh yes, I seem to remember a certain Muppet saying that there would be a spade in the ground within 60 days.  Pledges mean nothing to me any more.Only action is good enough. And any investor will be judged on what they do, not what they say.

So when? Well the sooner the better. The one thing that can be guaranteed is that there will be no investment coming from Uncle Sam. So hope needs to spring eternal.

Over the course of the day the story has developed and it now seems that Kenny's wasn't the only pound in the frame. Up to 6 bidders have made offers depending on who you believe and we do seem to have had some concrete word from our Blue chairman on the subject who believes a deal could be done by the end of next week.

Meanwhile it looks as though Kenny is the front for the Chinese government investment arm (cue the repeat of the moral dilemma when it looked as though Thaksin Shinawatra was about to buy the club). George Gillette has a preferred bidder who may just be able to thwart Kenny's cunning plan by showing as a credible buyer to RBS and the whole thing rumbles on until H&G get their thirty pieces of silver.

So the next week or two promise to be interesting to say the least. I foresee claim and counterclaim, offer and counteroffer. Will we have new owners by the end of the transfer window? Possibly. Will they be the right owners is more to the point. We've worn the Emperor's New Clothes once. I'm not prepared to do it again.