Discussions will continue between Tom Hicks and Dubai International Capital (DIC) over the coming weeks, despite the Liverpool co-chairman’s vehement insistence last night that he is not about to sell his stake in the club. The Arab investment group is expected to become a co-owner of the Merseyside club next month by purchasing the 50 per cent stake held by George Gillett Jr in the first phase of a takeover process that will test the strength of Hicks’s latest denials.

The Times reported yesterday that, although Hicks intends to retain some of his shares and influence at the club for the immediate future, he and Gillett, his co-owner, are willing to grant DIC permission to examine Liverpool’s accounts with a view to launching a takeover bid next month. Hicks denied those reports yesterday, claiming that they had been “planted . . . by parties with their own self-interested agenda” and that he is “personally, professionally and financially committed to the club and its supporters”, but numerous sources insist that his partnership with Gillett is finished and that DIC will start the first phase of its takeover within weeks.

Hicks’s latest statement did not deny that discussions are taking place. DIC’s interest never went away after it was gazumped by Hicks and Gillett a little more than 12 months ago and, although DIC turned down the Americans’ invitation to buy a 15 per cent stake in the club after a meeting in October, discussions have taken place behind the scenes since the start of this year, particularly since January 25, when Hicks announced a £350 million refinancing deal that brought them stability in the immediate future but left their regime looking all but unsustainable in the longer term.

Gillett, who was the catalyst behind the initial takeover, with Hicks arriving on the scene late in the process, conceded some time ago that the joint partnership was not working. Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team, has subsequently “all but disappeared”, according to sources, declining to put his name to Hicks’s frequent statements and making clear to DIC his willingness to sell his 50 per cent stake.

His son, Foster, who was initially dispatched to Merseyside as a “link man” between the owners and Rafael Benítez, the manager, has spent the past month in Montreal, apparently with no plans to return to Britain.

Hicks, who was originally seen as the silent partner, has proved to be anything but. Even if he and Benítez have tried to build bridges since their infamous falling-out in November — when Hicks declared that it was “time for Rafa to quit talking and concentrate on coaching the players we have” — the Texan has made himself deeply unpopular at Anfield.

Tom Hicks Jr, his son, has at least shown willing to ingratiate himself with the locals, but his attempts to do so backfired on Saturday, when he was confronted by supporters in a pub near Anfield after the 3-2 victory over Middlesbrough.

While Gillett is expected to sell up within weeks, Hicks is determined to retain the majority of his stake for the immediate future, but DIC is looking for guarantees that he will sell out completely at a later date. Hicks spoke to DIC officials on a trip to Dubai last week and talked to their financial advisers on Thursday and Friday. The two parties remain some way apart on various issues, not least on Hicks’s wish to be seen as the senior partner in any coalition, but a variety of sources — by no means all of them with self-interested agendas — indicate that the Anfield investment saga is about to enter a new chapter.