Henry Denies Liverpool Bought On Cheap

Liverpool's new owners, New England Sports Ventures, insist they did not buy the club on the cheap. NESV, led by John W Henry, finally wrested the club off Tom Hicks and George Gillett on Friday. Henry and one of his business partner's, Tom Werner, attended Sunday's Merseyside derby for their first taste of English football as owners. Speaking about NESV's £300million purchase, Henry disputed claims that they purchased the club for less than they should have paid. Hicks had claimed that he and Gillett were the victims of an "epic swindle", but Henry is adamant that the duo got a fair price for the financially-crippled club. "I know some people are saying this was a cheap price for the club but there is no way we look at it like that," said the American millionaire, who also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team. "As you do due diligence, if you are really diligent you are trying to find everything that's wrong - and we found plenty. "There is a huge amount of work to do here and it will take a long time. There were big financial issues but in the end we decided we really wanted to compete at this level. "We have to be smart, bold and aggressive because it's a great challenge. There were lots of reasons why we could have decided not to go through with this. "There were many times we thought it was too big a challenge but this club is worth it - and we are excited by that challenge."