Purslow, a Liverpool season-ticket holder whose family hail from Wirral, is to assume overall management of the club until a replacement is installed for Rick Parry, the long-serving chief executive who leaves Anfield next week, and will then continue as a board director. In the absence of a chief executive it will be Purslow's job to assist the manager, Rafael Benítez, on transfer business this summer, with another priority to renegotiate the £350m loan by 24 July.
Liverpool's new managing director has already established a healthy working relationship with senior RBS officials through his background in private equity. The 45-year-old co-founded the private equity firm MidOcean Partners where he remains an executive board member, and his move to Anfield is believed to have been well received by the RBS. Purslow is also a fluent Spanish speaker, with a modern languages degree from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also chairman of the youth section of Corinthian Casuals, his local team in the West Surrey Youth League.
"Christian has been a great supporter of the club for many years and he's already built up good relationships at Anfield," said Hicks. "His strategic and commercial acumen will be a real asset and we're delighted that he has made a long term commitment to the club."
The RBS are seeking an increase in personal guarantees from Hicks and Gillett as a condition of their next refinancing deal. Gillett's ability to meet those demands improved dramatically on Sunday when it was confirmed he had reached agreement to sell his 80% stake in the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey franchise back to the Molson brewing family for an estimated £333m.