Well with the collapse of the DIC deal, the internet and phone-ins have gone into meltdown. If you listen to some naysayers we’re on the verge of bankruptcy and will be relegated next season.

Some seem concerned that Gillett’s people have completed “due dilligence” in just three days, but the true story is he’s been looking at our books for ages, not just the last three days. The initial examination only stopped when DIC came forward with what looked (initially) like a better proposal.

Gillett was at the Community Shield game in Cardiff in August to see us beat Chelsea before flying up to speak to the club the day after. His people were then at the club for a number of days at the start of November and then later on the same month looking at contracts etc and around that time he was considered favourite to takeover the club, ahead of both DIC and the John Miskelly consortium.

All this seems to have been forgotten in the rush to embrace DIC and Sheikh Mohammed’s vast resources.

Gillett’s sporting record also seems to have been glibly dismissed. Not only did he own a substantial share of the Miami Dolphins at one stage but also made a fortune out of the Harlem Globetrotters. He bought and then built Vail ski resort into the massive success it is today twice taking the World Skiing Championships there. He achieved this by investing heavily in the facilities in the same way LFC needs to do with the new stadium

Gillett was also the driving force (if you excuse the pun) in taking motor racing back to the streets of Denver and he has owned the Montreal Canadiens, who are the NHL equivalent of Liverpool in terms of prestige and success, since 2001.

This is no naive US businessman. Was he bankrupt once? Yes but then many successful businessman have been. His company got caught up in the massive hike in interest rates in the very early 90s after the junk bond scandal - this caught out many people at the time. Since then he’s totally rebuilt his wide and varied business empire, though still resolutely refuses to invest in razors.

Before condemning all and sundry on the Liverpool board, isn’t it wise to hear what Gillett has to offer? And possibly what DIC didn’t?

Well the result’s in and Michael Platini, one of the greatest footballers the world has seen, is the new President of UEFA. In a close vote he usurped longtime head Lennart Johansson by 4 votes.

His campaign was partly based on a promise to reduce the representation of clubs from the top ranked countries (currently Italy, Spain and England) in the Champions League, and give these places to the smaller countries such as those from the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union. This clearly attracted votes and it all sounds great in principal.

Redistributing the places in the Champions League towards the smaller countries is fairer, but will mean sod all unless the whole basis on which the prize money is distributed is revamped. The TV rights aren’t shared equally, with the largest countries getting the share paid by their broadcasters. The rich clubs in the rich countries getting richer by the year.

On a domestic level those clubs entering the Champions League have far too big a financial advantage over non-participants, and as seasons have slipped by this has built and built so new entrants become less likely. How can you compete for one of the qualification places when your “rivals” have had an in-built advantage of 20m to 30m a year over a number of years?

In fact Platini’s proposal as it currently stands will probably mean the biggest clubs in each league getting even more money. The same large Chanpions League TV pool will be shared 3 ways rather than 4 in England, Spain and Italy thus reducing domestic competivity across Europe in the largest leagues whilst at the same time locking out the chance of a club from a smaller country winning the big eared cup.

Beware the midfield maestro bearing gifts.

Apparently it’s great news for everyone.

On top of the £1.7 billion in domestic TV rights and £400 million from internet and mobile phone rights, the Premier League has now revealed deals have been concluded to the value of £625 million for overseas TV rights. This brings the total rights package to £2.7 billion for the three seasons starting 2007/08.

The League’s chief executive Richard Scudamore has been busy running from TV studio to TV studio extolling the deal as being great for football. He’s even been linking up from India where the League is investing a small proportion of this, via its Trust, in football projects to benefit the world’s poor. Give a little to charity and assauge the guilt.

So who will benefit? Well clearly the players and the agents with wages and fees expected to rocket. This was euphemistically called “investing in the product” by the chairman of one of the Premier League clubs yesterday. “It’s all part of the virtuous circle,” said Scudamore. “We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off.

All well and good. But try telling that to the clubs in the Championship who see little trickle down in finance and the gap between the leagues accelerate by the year. Are they benefitting?

But more importantly try telling it to the fans of the clubs in the Premier League. Try telling us when ticket prices rise once more by 10%. If the deal is great news for everyone, why do we see no benefit? Why not call for a league-wide freeze or even a reduction in ticket prices, after all the clubs don’t need the extra revenue as it has been more than compensated for by the new TV deals.

Isn’t it time for the Premier League to “pay it back” to the fans?