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Liverpool are closing in on the Premier League title... just four years after dragging themselves from impending disaster.

Ian Ayre, the Reds' managing director, makes no attempt to hide the fact the club was on the verge of extinction only as recently as 2010, before current owners Fenway Sports Group rode to the rescue just as the banks were about to pull the plug on massive debts.

"It is no secret, it's like that TV programme - Seconds From Disaster. We were sort of in that vein. It was horrific to see the football club in that state.

"I do not think there was a Liverpool fan in the city or anywhere who was not worried we would not get to this position we are in now, for many reasons.

"People sometimes forget how bad it was. I speak to people now and they have really short memories. When you think about that day when we tipped it over the edge and finally pulled it back, we have come such a long way."

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Incredibly, it was barely three and a half years ago that the club were facing going into administration, and they were only saved by a coup from board members Ayre, Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow.

That trio managed to outmanoeuvre then-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillet and sell Liverpool from under their noses to another US duo, John Henry and Tom Werner... and save the club from disaster in the process.

Now, with the Reds finally set to reap the rich harvest of Champions League money, and also hoping to increase Anfield's capacity to 60,000 - work on phase one of that project is set to be complete by 2016 - the MD envisages a healthy rate of growth that will catapult the club back into the ring with the biggest financial hitters.

But it has taken three years of incredible hard work, he insists:

"The real Liverpool fans do not change their team or commitment - it was more to do with the governance of the club.

"It's easy to say we were 10 years into a stadium move and it's about time we're back in the Champions League, but if you think about where we were financially, just because you're LFC it does not mean you have a right to get back up there.

"There are plenty of teams who have slipped and slipped, despite new owners, so it's an unbelievable achievement to get back where we are today. That is testament to the people who invested in it and worked on getting us back there."

And the lowest point? For the genial MD personally, that was the moment when Hicks and Gillet tried to sue him directly...

"Being told I was being sued for a billion pounds was pretty bad!" he laughs.

There were other shocking moments, which illustrated just how far Liverpool have slipped, but now the club believe they are on the right track to cash in on the massive worldwide appeal of such an iconic brand by growing commercial revenues.

"One of the things we have done in a similar way to how we have gone about plans for the stadium, is to give us strength in the commercial department," Ayre explains now.

"When I came here seven or eight years ago, there were all these stories of the club shop being closed the day after the Champions League Final, and only having a couple of sponsors and stuff like that.

(Image: Getty)

"So, over a long period of time, we have been trying to lay the foundations and build the infrastructure that services a great club like Liverpool.

"You'll have good years and bad, but a club of this size, with this level of fan-base, you have to be set up to service that demand and that wasn't the case."

Now, Liverpool have one of the healthiest commercial bases of any football club in the world, with a series of global partners joined only this week by US sandwich-bar brand Subway.

And Ayre insists this is only the start of real growth that will eventually allow the Kop club to compete with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid on a global financial basis.

"The reality of football is that everything has to be done on the basis of whether you are winning and losing on the pitch, because whoever you are you have no right to win or be successful," he explained.

"So we have to build and find solutions that are in the long term interests of building the club and strengthening the team on a sustainable basis for the club.

"We are in a far better position now to capitalise on our success. It's definitely not built on sand. It's built on a lot of hard work and a lot of analysis and a lot of looking at different solutions."