Hodgson Not Following Takeover Talks

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson
insists continual speculation
about the future ownership of
the club is having no effect on
him or his players.
An October 6 deadline is looming
when owners Tom Hicks and
George Gillett's £237million-plus
loan with the Royal Bank of
Scotland is due for refinancing or
repayment.
It emerged on Thursday that RBS
have placed the debt with its
restructuring team - where all
their 'toxic' assets are handled -
and with the club no nearer
being taken over the chances of
the Americans finding a solution
which avoids a messy and
potentially-complicated forced
sale is unlikely.
But Hodgson said it was
business as usual at the club's
training ground.
'I am kept abreast but I don't
keep abreast [of the current
situation],' he said.
'The people dealing with it, who
have a tough job on their hands,
are kind enough to keep me
informed if anything is
happening.
'But I have a job to do here and
frankly it doesn't affect us that
deeply in our day-to-day work;
the players come and train, we
work hard, we get paid.
'It is a major issue for the club I
know but it is something we at
Melwood can't actually do
anything about and I can only,
like the rest of the club, wait and
hope a solution is found which
everyone finds satisfactory.'
'I can't say it is a distraction and I
don't think I've seen any
distraction with any of the work
on the field or the games we
have played.
'It is an area where we at
ground level can do nothing
other than keep playing, keep
doing our best and hoping the
solution is found which everyone
at the club finds acceptable.'
Liverpool, who beat West
Bromwich Albion in their last
Premier League game two weeks
ago, travel to Birmingham on
Sunday.