£2m bill is yet another slap in the face for Liverpool fans

Football FanCast columnist Rob Facey wonders if Liverpool's owners have any idea how destructive their behaviour is as the club try to prepare for next season.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett have further enraged Liverpool fans after it emerged today that they have claimed almost £2m in expenses from the cash-strapped Anfield kitty.

Cash-strapped, I hasten to add, because of their financial plans, because of their blinkered approach to borrowing and investing and because of their unwillingness to compromise on stadium plans which has now tied up millions and millions of pounds.

When the interest alone on the loans stand at nearly £37m a year then it is hard to predict a bright future for the club.

What this means for the team, of course, is that players in demand, such as Xabi Alonso, will surely have to be sold. It would be more detrimental if he stayed despite the fact that he is integral to the club's success.

While it is moronic to simply say "they should leave", fans will be furious at the latest blunder by the American duo who have hardly endeared themselves to the Anfield faithful since their arrival.

James McKenna, spokesman for the Spirit of Shankly fans' group, told The Guardian: "Hicks and Gillett were the multimillionaires who promised not to do a Glazer and that work would start on the new stadium within 60 days.

"Yet now we find, as fans, not only are we paying for their takeover, but we are also paying for their costs of having done it, and, for coming over to visit the football club.

"They were supposed to bring investment to take the club forward, but it turns out we're even paying their travel costs."

The message to fans of other clubs remains be careful what you wish for. The message to Liverpool fans, however, is more complex.

Investment was needed when they took over the club if the Reds were to stand any realistic chance of competing with United and Chelsea.

However, nobody would have suggested that the investment should come at the expense of club values, which they have done, and Rafa Benitez and his players, not to mention the fans, are the ones that will lose out.