The more paranoid elements among Liverpool’s support used to say that you always knew when they had a big match coming up because there would be controversial stories about the club on the back pages of every newspaper. These days you know when they have a big match coming up because their American owners will pour fuel on the fire that has been raging in the Anfield boardroom all season - not that those flames have usually needed fanning.

Liverpool supporters have grown accustomed to - although far from impervious to – the untimely outbursts of Tom Hicks, but yesterday came a more unexpected outburst from George Gillett Jr, his fellow co-owner. Gillett has barely uttered a word about the club since August, but that changed yesterday as he broke his silence to declare that death threats have forced him to drop his plan to sell out to Hicks over fears for his family’s safety.

After the collapse of their relationship as co-owners, Gillett had planned to sell most of his 50 per cent stake to Dubai International Capital (DIC) but leaving enough to Hicks to give him a controlling interest, despite blaming him for making that arrangement “unworkable”. But after discovering the depth of the anti-Hicks feeling on Merseyside, Gillett is expected to sell his entire stake to DIC, the Arab investment group that hopes to assume overall control at Anfield within months.

The antipathy between Hicks and Gillett, who bought the club as a joint venture only 14 months ago, has been well documented, but Gillett’s decision to go public on the matter has shocked officials at Anfield, including Rafael BenÍtez, the manager, who admitted to being “surprised” at the comments. With Liverpool taking on Everton in an eagerly awaited Merseyside derby tomorrow and Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final, first leg on Wednesday, Gillett’s timing could have been better, even if the comments are likely to be welcomed by sections of the club’s support, such is the animosity towards Hicks.

In his first serious discussion on Liverpool since August, Gillett told a Canadian radio station, Fan 590: “The thing that angers them [the supporters] the most is the prospect that I might sell even one share of stock to my partner. They don’t want him to have controlling interest of this club. They want don’t him to have any ownership of the club, based on what they’re saying and sending to me.

“It has been a difficult time because we have received calls in the middle of the night . . . death threats. And it’s interesting that the calls aren’t against us as much as they’re against us selling to our partner [Hicks], so we’re rethinking that. Frankly, I don’t think it’s fair for me to put my family in that kind of danger and, instead of thinking about selling, I don’t know, maybe we will think about buying.” Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey franchise, is in no position to buy out Hicks, but it is feasible that he could become a minority investor if and when DIC buys Liverpool. Hicks thought that he had blocked its bid this month when he vetoed Gillett’s attempt to sell 49 per cent of the club to DIC, but now there is a growing inevitability about a takeover, particularly with Gillett indicating that his partner had tried and failed to find the funds to buy him out.

“We gave our partner a long period of time to try to make the arrangements to buy us out,” Gillett said. “We didn’t put pressure on him. And ultimately he didn’t get to the finish line.

In the meantime because of things he said, the fans’ reaction has been so negative towards him and towards us if we sold to him, that has now become an untenable alternative to us.”

Instead, Gillett seems certain to sell to DIC, which, he feels, would be a far more suitable owner than Hicks. “Lord knows they have the money, especially with oil prices going up by the day,” he said. “They certainly have the history and they are fans. I think they would have been very responsible owners. The fans and the great fabled history of this club deserves better – and we are going to do whatever we can to prove that in whatever role we play.”

The majority of Liverpool’s supporters believe that the best thing that Gillett can do is sell up and facilitate DIC’s buyout of Hicks’s stake, but for 90 minutes at Anfield tomorrow such concerns will give way to parochial passions as Steven Gerrard and his teammates look to establish a five-point lead over Everton and move closer to guaranteeing Champions League football next season. Three days later they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their Champions League tie, a match that Gillett plans to attend.

As for Hicks, his spokesman declined to comment last night on Gillett’s interview, saying that the Texan “would prefer to allow the team to get on with the important games over the next few weeks”. With more must-win games coming up, though, a riposte from Hicks is unlikely to be too far away.

What was said . . .

On his relationship with Hicks
It has been [unworkable] for some time. When your public persona is more important than the facts, it makes it difficult to have a rational relationship.

On the hostility of fans
The thing that angers them most is the prospect that I might sell even one share of stock to my partner. They don’t want him to have controlling interest of this club. They don’t want him to have any ownership of the club.

On Hicks’s bid to buy him out
We gave [him] a long period of time to try to make the arrangements to buy us out. We didn’t put pressure on him. And ultimately he didn’t get to the finish line. In the meantime, because of things that he said, the fans’ reaction has been so negative . . . that [selling to him] has become an untenable alternative to us.

On Dubai International Capital
They have the money. They certainly have the history and they are fans of the club. I think they would have been very responsible owners and I guess he [Hicks] not making that possible – or making it difficult – didn’t endear people to the fans.