Steve Morgan is once again emerging as a major player in the club's financial future as Liverpool struggle to find the £180million it will cost to start work on the new stadium.

The Club is being asked by local councillors and officials who hold the purse strings to £20million of European and government grants, to prove they have the cash by the end of the week.

Whether they can do that depends on the outcome of more informal talks between Morgan - the club's third largest shareholder - and the board.

But sources close to Morgan insist that the building tycoon, who has moved back to the area from Jersey and now lives in a purpose-built mansion in Cheshire, has not made as yet his fifth bid to buy his way onto the board.