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A former Celtic player has revealed how the "greed" of former Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett scuppered a takeover deal he was involved in back in 2010.

Andy Lynch played 130 games for Celtic from 1973-1980, but he has revealed that he was involved in a takeover of Liverpool back in 2010.

The 65-year-old says he was heavily involved in a Dubai Sheikh's bid to buy the Reds - but the deal was scuppered by “greed” on the part of all parties involved.

“Now I can’t say everything because I signed a confidentiality clause which is unfortunate because I could have said a lot more,” Lynch told the Glasgow Evening Times .

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“I was in Australia when my agent, based in Montreal and a fly-man, told me he was representing a conglomerate that wanted to buy a football club. He didn’t know much about football, asked me to get involved and that there would be plenty of money in it. I was always dubious and wanted to know more.

I asked what club it was and he told me Liverpool. He then said; ‘They’re good, aren’t they?’ This was all from a Sheik in Dubai who had serious money and things quickly developed.”

“The bottom line is their greed – the agent and his partners – and Liverpool’s greed, they were owned by the Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks back then, is what scuppered the deal."

Lynch says that the deal fell through at the 11th hour, after former Reds owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett changed their mind about the price of the deal.

New England Sports Ventures, now Fenway Sports Group, would later complete a deal to buy the club after a high court battle in London, in a deal Hicks called an 'epic swindle'.

Lynch added: “This went on for months. I was flown first class everywhere, stayed in the top hotels in London, they put me up in a £1000 a night suite and I’m thinking ‘These guys are awfully generous.’ The penny then dropped.

"They were using Liverpool’s money and not their own. They ran up a huge debt at the club. The-then owners were only paying the interest on a bank loan. They put nothing into the club.

“Right at the end the Sheik’s representative didn’t trust anyone, and rightly so, although he quite liked me. He had the cheque for £400m, I was there, and he is about to put the cheque in and as this happening I’m thinking I’m going to be a big player at Liverpool Football Club, in fact I was already looking in Scotland for some professional people to help me.

“But then Hicks, Gillett and this agent guy decided they got the money too easily, there was no question about the original figure so they added on something extra and the Sheik told his guy to tear up the cheque and come home.”

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