Parry on Liverpool's move

Last updated : 05 December 2002 By Gary Purvis

"What we don't want to do - and what we won't ever do - is lose the focus that the team comes first," said Parry on the club's Official Site. "We always want to ensure the revenue is available for the manager to strengthen his squad."

"That is one reason why we haven't pressed ahead with our original plan for a 70,000 stadium. We don't want to have a huge financial millstone hanging around our necks.

"Our view is that this stadium is right for our needs. There is still a lot of work to do though and a number of obstacles to overcome yet. It will take time but I hope all of the fans are excited by what they can see."

"Now that we have settled on this as our preferred option we have to take the plans into the local community. This is a very important part of the process.

Parry confirmed that there will be no name change when Liverpool move to the new stadium.

"We have worked closely with the local residents so far and that will continue. The stadium will still be called Anfield."

"It would be very difficult to increase the size of the current stadium to what we want.

"We are very short on space and the implications of re-building the Main Stand would be considerable.

"Of course we would cope and we would get through it, as we did when we re-built the Kop, but we would be looking at three years of disruption as the building work was carried out.

"Rebuilding the Main Stand would be a much bigger job than rebuilding the Kop because of all the facilities and the dressing rooms within the Main Stand. We would have to considerably reduce the capacity within the stadium for a long period of time."

"Also, when we were building the new Kop we weren't playing European football and there weren't as many midweek games as there are today.

"It was a case back then of the builders doing the work during the week and then handing the stadium back to us for weekend games. That just wouldn't be possible today and the logistics of redeveloping Anfield are just massive."