CARRAGHER

LONDON (AP):

LIVERPOOL STALWART Jamie Carragher has denounced the club's "ruthless" owners over broken promises and profiteering in the most scathing verdict on Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr from within Anfield.

In his autobiography to be published today, Carragher does express sympathy with the Americans in saying manager Rafa Benitez publicly undermined them over transfers, but gives a largely critical assessment of a year of turmoil.

Takeover

The 30-year-old defender hesitantly embraced the Americans when their March 2007 takeover came with a pledge to invest in the team and replace the crumbling Anfield stadium without burdening the Reds with debt.

But Carragher said he was quickly riled by the owners apparently reneging on that pledge, becoming further disgruntled over infighting that triggered "the demise of those values which come under the definition 'The Liverpool Way'."

"For richer or poorer, we had sold Liverpool to two ruthless businessmen who saw us as a moneymaking opportunity," Carragher writes in 'Carra: My Autobiography', published by Bantam Press. "They didn't buy Liverpool as an act of charity; they weren't intent on throwing away all the millions they'd earned over 50 years ... They wanted to buy us because the planned stadium offered a chance to generate tons of cash and increase the value of the club."

Carragher, who made his Liverpool debut in 1997, said the owners' worst mistake was claiming no debt would be put on the club's balance sheet when in fact the loans used to buy the five-time European champion created annual interest payments of about £30 million (US$55 million).

"Breaking this vow set the first alarm bells ringing, the embarrassing continual changing of the stadium plans was irritating too," he wrote.

Millions written off

Millions of pounds were written off when existing plans to replace the 115-year-old Anfield were ditched after the buyout so architects from Hicks' native Texas could design a more spectacular stadium in the adjacent Stanley Park.

The subsequent global economic turmoil forced the new vision to be scaled down and the club announced last month that the 73,000-seat stadium, which Liverpool hopes will open in 2011, will be delayed "in the short term".