Liverpool's owners seek wriggle room

Liverpool co-owner George Gillett wants room to expand when the Reds go ahead with their plans to build a new stadium.

Gillett and fellow co-owner Tom Hicks completed their takeover of the club this week and were at Anfield yesterday as Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-1 to climb to third in the Barclays Premiership.

Former chairman David Moores and the board had gained planning permission to build a new stadium in nearby Stanley Park, but Gillett and Hicks are looking at ways the stadium can be improved within the accepted proposal - most crucially that there is an option to increase capacity should they want to in the future.

Gillett said: 'To be competitive we must be patient because any decision we make today will have to last for 50 or more years.

'And so with this in mind we want to be very cautious. What I am asking for is that everyone shows patience and gives us a little time. We have to be very mindful and respectful of the planning process.

'There is a plan in place for which approval has already been granted and we have to operate to the extent we can within that process and approval. Decisions about modifications will be taken very carefully. What we want to do is build a stadium that will comply with the seating capacity approval but be expandable. As the fans demand more seats we want to be able to give them to them.'

The original proposal was for a 60,000-seater stadium, but Gillett clearly has in mind a desire to eventually have a ground rivalling Old Trafford in size.

Success on the pitch will enhance demand for tickets, and to that end he and Hicks are to meet with Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez to listen to how he believes the Reds' fortunes can be improved in future.

'I'm very much looking forward to meeting with Rafa. He's a very special man. He's obviously a great coach and a brilliant manager,' Gillett told the club's official website www.liverpoolfc.tv.

'A lot of people have been asking what are we going to tell him but that's not what we're here to do. We are anxious to hear from him and hear what he'd like to do, what his thoughts and ideas are, what his plans would be to build this wonderful, wonderful, club up even more than it already is.'

Gillett looked on yesterday as a Peter Crouch hat-trick helped the Reds see off Arsenal, and when asked how it felt to take his seat in the directors' box he said: 'It was like an out of body experience. It was surreal, amazing - a moment you can't even dream about. It was everything I expected and a lot more.'

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