Liverpool co-owner, George Gillett, has sold his Canadian ice hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, in order to provide more funds for the Merseyside football club. The sale means that Liverpool can now possibly address some growing debts as well as being provided with a few funds to go and approach new players.

There were wide spread reports last season and the one before that over the power struggle at Liverpool between the co-owners who had fallen out. They disagreed on a number of issues and it was an episode that nearly saw Rafa Benitez walk away from the club, when he clearly wanted to stay on. There were reports of Jurgen Klinsman becoming the next manager and the whole scenario was a mess.

Now Liverpool are positioned as the closest challengers to Manchester United and they were always going to have to make improvements this summer in order to get closer to the current champions. The owner clearly recognised that there were financial implications that meant this might not be possible for a long time and he has taken a big personal gamble in selling off another franchise in order to help Liverpool.

The fans of the club will wake up today and view the news quite possibly but there should be caution among the optimism. First of all because of how financially committed to the club Gillett is, he is likely to use large portions of the money to clear debts. Although this may seem positive on the surface it could mean that Benitez is left with a shoestring budget and success could carry on being elusive for another season at least.

However, the positive nature of what the owner is doing will put a smile on faces. It will create a renewed enthusiasm and energy that Liverpool clearly need. It was obvious that towards the end of last season, a lot of fans were getting tired of Liverpool getting so close but never quite crossing the finish line. They would prefer the scenes of Liverpool players going mad after winning the league as opposed to Liverpool players going mad as they thumped Manchester United 4-1 on their own ground.

There could be similar news on the part of the other co-owner, Tom Hicks, who is said to be looking to offload his share in the Texas Rangers baseball team. This could bring in another couple of hundred million and put Liverpool in an even stronger financial position than they would be after these current debts are cleared. This is important for the club at the moment when you consider the financial power that a lot of clubs currently hold.

It would also mean that Liverpool could entertain the thought of signing one or two players that previously seemed to be limited to a choice of only two or three privileged clubs. The immediate future for Liverpool is shaping up quite nicely but they still have a long way to go if they are to cope with the financial competition from Real Madrid and Manchester City.