Ayre upbeat about 'new era' at Anfield

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre believes losses like the £20m reported by the club in their latest set of accounts can now confidently be consigned to a different era.

The figures for the year ending July 2010 are the final vestige of the financially restricted reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The club was bought by Fenway Sports Group three months later and in one fell swoop the burden was immediately lifted as around £200m of acquisition debt was paid off.

"I definitely see it as a new era. I think we started it four or five months ago," Ayre said. "They [the figures] don't paint a picture of today."