GILLETT CAGEY ON REDS BUYER; Club's joint owner won't be drawn on moves towards possible sale.

Byline: by TONY BARRETT Liverpool Writer

GEORGE GILLETT has refused to deny hiring a leading American bank to find a buyer for Liverpool.

In an interviewwith Canadian radio station Fan 590, Gillett was pressed on a number issues, including the ownership of the club, his relationship with co-owner Tom Hicks and the recent postponement of work on the planned new stadium on Stanley Park.

In response to questioning about speculation that Merrill Lynch have been hired to search for potential buyers, Gillett responded: "We would not have any comment on that.

"There is too much speculation already," and insisted that a lot of the stories in the British media are "made up".

He was more forthcoming on his relationship with Hicks which has previously been strained.

"We are working together," he said.

"Things are good.

Tom is a great guy and he is as smart as well.

"We got off on the wrong basis and we are a little embarrassed by that."

Gillett was not prepared to put forward his own thoughts on why he and Hicks remain so unpopular with the Liverpool fans, preferring to allow "the club to do the talking".

"I think you would have to ask the fans," he said. "I think there are some things that have happened that upset them.

"But I think they're at a point where they are allowing the boys to demonstrate their skill and allowing Rafa - one of the great coaches in the history of the sport - to do his thing sowe justwant to leave it that way.

"We will continue to operate behind the scenes and we will let the club do the talking."

Hicks and Gillett recently announced that plans to build a newstadiumhad been put on hold because of the credit crunch, but insists preparatory work is ongoing and claimed the level of debt taken on by Premier League clubs, including Liverpool, has not got out of hand.

"Have you seen what's going on in the real world?" he asked.

"We put it (the stadium) off on a temporary basis but we have continued to invest substantial money every month in engineering, planning, architecture, all the various measures that you go through.

"So there is a substantial effort still going on. But the current situation in the financial world has delayed the start of it for an intermediate period.

"Based on what I'm seeing over there, the Premiership is in good financial shape.

"The example I would use is if a person lives in a house that's got a mortgage on it. I don't think that's bad.

"The mortgage has to be relative to a person's income, how the mortgage is set up and what terms."

CAPTION(S):

NO COMMENT: George Gillett wouldn't be drawn on move to find buyer