Liverpool's stock may rise with Wall Street graduate Kenny Huang

Once bitten, twice shy. The identification of Kenny Huang, the Chinese entrepreneur, as the man fronting a bid to oust Tom Hicks and George Gillett, after three long, debt-ridden years, from Liverpool may have excited the club's fans, but bitter experience has taught them that football contains no knights in shining armour. The doubts have already set in. 

Huang's background will hardly allay their fears. He may have been voted China's philanthropist of the year in 2009, but his motives in lodging a £325 million bid for England's most decorated football club are hardly likely to be altruistic.

Born in southern Guangdong province in 1964 and apparently a fine badminton player in his youth, Huang was the first Chinese graduate to work on Wall Street, working as a public relations executive before moving to private wealth management.

He has invested in companies as diverse as Xinxin Mining, the Longrun Tea Group and China Railway. He has forged a reputation as a deal-maker, mostly brokering agreements between Chinese and American companies. He is a money man.
That sport appears to be an abiding passion provides little solace. His reach extends into Chinese baseball and basketball, and he has struck deals to market NBA side Houston Rockets and Major League Baseball outfit the New York Yankees in China. In May last year, he took a 15 per cent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise.
Kenny, born Jianhua, Huang is clearly no sugar daddy, though. "There are really three keys to playing the sports business," he says. "Media, sponsors and capital markets. You may know sports, but you may not know capital markets. But if you know capital markets, you may not know the media well. I think I have got all three successful ingredients."
It should be of no surprise that Liverpool fans remain sceptical. They may be desperate to rid their club of Hicks and Gillett, who have brought them debt, broken promises and misery, but they will not make the same mistake twice.
The Americans entered Anfield in 2007 on similar promises, of being able to maximise the club's earning potential, dragging a brand run as a corner shop into the age of the supermarket. Three years down the line, the club's financial plight is all-consuming, improved commercial performance or not.
Yet to suggest Huang, Hicks and Gillett are cut from the same cloth could be unfair. Huang has enjoyed nothing but success. The Cavaliers, hardly traditional heavyweights in the NBA, may have lost their star turn, LeBron James, to the Miami Heat when his contract expired this summer, but it was not because of financial constraints. Huang's connections have brought a stream of Chinese multinationals to Cleveland's door. They were able to better any offer put to the biggest star in world basketball.
Though basketball's earning potential in China is enormous – some 300 million youngsters play the game – the connection with Liverpool seems a perfect fit.
In the 1980s, when Chinese state television began to show English football, Liverpool were dominant. Millions of Chinese watched Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and the like in a succession of cup finals. The red strip probably helped, too. They remain a powerful brand in the world's largest emerging economy.
Huang, no doubt, is attracted by that. He is, in all likelihood, planning how to capitalise on it. Modern football is, like it or not, about money. That is no reason to dismiss Huang as another vulture, looking to run Liverpool into the ground. If his track record holds true, he could be the perfect man to return them to their perch.