Liverpool, Man U renew rivalry

Ayre concern over Anfield expansion funding

LONDON, Oct 12, (RTRS): Liverpool will be looking to end a dismal Premier League run against Manchester United and build on a promising start to the campaign with victory over their bitter north west rivals on Monday.

Resurgent Liverpool are three points ahead of United in the table as Jose Mourinho’s rebuilding programme stutters, but their current run of four successive league defeats to the Old Trafford club is their worst against them for eight years.

Liverpool, who knocked United out of the Europa League last season, have not beaten them in domestic competition since March 2014, but they meet for the first time in this campaign with Juergen Klopp’s men in supreme form.

They have won their last four Premier League matches and suffered only one defeat in all competitions so far.

In contrast, Mourinho’s men have won just one and lost two of their last four in the league, crashing 3-1 at Watford and being held at home by Stoke City.

Despite the heavy investment in new players that followed Mourinho’s much-heralded arrival at Old Trafford, his team currently have three points fewer than they managed from their first seven games of last season, when Louis van Gaal was in charge.

Reigning champions Leicester City meet their leaguewinning predecessors Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but neither club has looked like title material so far this season.

Chelsea currently lie seventh, five points behind leaders Manchester City, while Leicester, who shocked the football world with their title success last May, are marooned in 12th place, with just two wins from their first seven games.

Leicester’s record against the Londoners hardly instills confidence that they can get their title defence back on track on Saturday.

They have beaten Chelsea only four times in 20 Premier League games — although their most recent success was less than a year ago as they stormed to the title.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri will be hoping that N’Golo Kante, one of the key figures in his brilliant titlewinning season, does not make him pay for his decision to let the influential midfielder move to Stamford Bridge.

Manchester City still lead the Premier League, despite their first defeat of the season, at Tottenham Hotspur, in their last outing.

After crushing all before them in the first two months of the campaign, City will be bidding for their first win in three games in all competitions on Saturday when they host fifth-placed Everton, who are four points behind them.

Second place Spurs are waiting to pounce should City slip up and Mauricio Pochettino’s side visit West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, when Arsenal host Swansea City — who will be led for the first time by new manager Bob Bradley.

Liverpool’s chief executive says the 60-70-millionpound cost of redeveloping the Anfield Road end of the club’s iconic stadium is difficult to justify as a business deal.

Ian Ayre told a meeting of Liverpool Supporters’ Committee (LSC) that it could take 15 years to pay back, which he said was “not a smart investment for the business”.

Liverpool opened their redeveloped Main Stand earlier this season, raising seating capacity to more than 54,000, and have outline planning permission to extend Anfield Road by a further 4,800.

However, at the meeting, Ayre said it was difficult to justify the latest expansion from a business perspective.

The 114-million-pound ($141.76 million) construction of the Main Stand was funded by an interest-free loan from Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, which the club expects to repay in six years, mainly because the stand now contains more income-generating hospitality seats.

“A stand behind a goal doesn’t have the benefit of hospitality that would go a long way to meet the redevelopment costs,” Ayre said.

“If you consider the redevelopment of Anfield Road from a purely general admission perspective, building, say, 6,000 extra seats to take the capacity up to 60,000 would cost somewhere between 60 million pounds and 70 million pounds.

“At 12,000 pounds-to-13,000 pounds per seat, it would take approximately 15 years to pay back, which is not a smart investment for the business.”

The chief executive said FSG was still looking for a “rounded solution” and appeared to leave the door open to the idea of supporters playing a part in raising the amount needed to redevelop Anfield Road.

When asked by LSC member Graham Smith if the club would appeal for financial support so that fans could get involved, Ayre said he could not speak for FSG or its plans, but said the proposition was an interesting one.

“We should have that conversation,” he said.