Tom Hicks has rejected calls for him to sell Liverpool swiftly and at a reasonable price. The Texan said that it could be up to 18 months before a sale is complete and reiterated that he values the club at up to £800 million.

In a letter to The Times published yesterday, David Moores, the former club chairman, told of his regret at selling Liverpool to Hicks and George Gillett Jr, his co-owner, in February 2007. Moores urged the American pair to “stand aside with dignity”.

Hicks said that he was “disappointed” by Moores’s comments and mounted a robust defence of his record as co-owner, claiming that Liverpool are “much better off than three years ago” and that transfer spending will have almost doubled during his tenure at Anfield by the time the summer is over.

The message regarding his planned exit strategy, though, remained mixed. Talking on Sky Sports News, Hicks said that he hopes a sale will be complete by the end of the calendar year. However, he told the Dallas Morning News that it could take up to 18 months before a deal is sealed.

Pepe Reina, the Liverpool goalkeeper, has expressed concern that the longer the ownership situation goes unresolved, the worse it would be for the team. Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage last December and have failed to qualify for next season’s competition after finishing seventh in the Barclays Premier League.

“As long as we build a competitive squad, we do not need to fear anyone,” Reina said. “But it’s looking like this will not happen yet and we have to be ready for being less optimistic than we have been in the last few years and maybe setting different targets.”

Hicks, though, remains adamant that a “substantial” transfer budget will be made available this summer and claimed that his biggest concern is finding a new owner who “will be the right steward for Liverpool Football Club” and will be able to finance the building of a new stadium.

“I’m disappointed [with Moores] because I think we’ve done everything we can to improve the club in so many ways from the way it had been run before,” the Texan said. “We have a great management team led by Christian Purslow [the managing director], the commercial director Ian Ayre has done a great job and we have a strong finance director in Philip Nash.

“We’ve grown our sponsorships from £40 million annually under the last years of Moores’s ownership and this year we’ll be doing close to £100 million. These are resources for the club to use, to support the wage bill and to be competitive.

“Since Moores’s ownership in the last three years, with what we will spend this summer we will have more than doubled both the gross and net transfer spending on players.

“We’ve tried to make Liverpool as professional a club as possible. The new stadium is fully designed now and the global financing markets are back, so with the change of ownership coming we will be able to have a new stadium built and we have a great board.

“We will sell the club. We are not going to sell it to the wrong group and we’re not going to sell it for the wrong price. We are going to take our time, do it in a very thoughtful way and try to find the right steward to own Liverpool FC. We’re hoping to sell before the end of the calendar year and we don’t anticipate it will be done before the beginning of next season.

“I have said £600-£800 million is not an unrealistic value range, but the market is the market and we’ll see. We are more concerned about finding the right owner, someone who can make the investment, get the stadium built and help Liverpool be the best possible football club in the world.”

The uncertainty that continues to surround Liverpool will not have been eased by Fernando Torres’s refusal to commit himself to the club.

A member of the agency that represents the Spain forward said this week that he expected Torres still to be at Anfield next season.

The player remained coy when questioned about his future, though, insisting that he was not aware of the comments made by his representative, that his focus for the time being is solely on the World Cup and that he “will see what happens” after the tournament.