Liverpool ‘exchange contracts’ as they close in on exciting link-up with LaLiga club

Liverpool welcomed Elche owner Christian Bragarnik to Kirkby last week to discuss a potential, exciting link-up between the two clubs.

The Reds’ owners have big plans for the future. They acquired the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL ice hockey team at the end of November. And Fenway Sports Group, who saw a £2.3bn rise in the value of their empire in 2022, are expected to continue their growth.

The US company tried to by Brazilian outfit Cruzeiro in November, but failed.

FSG now have the Reds, the Penguins, the Boston Red Sox baseball team and the RFK Racing NASCAR team as their sporting assets. But  FSG and Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has hinted more is to come as they look to harness their partnership with LeBron James.

Speaking to Forbes’ earlier this year, Werner said: “(Owning an NBA team) is certainly something that we would look at. We don’t have a secret piece of paper that says ‘let’s go acquire an NBA team’.

“LeBron James has made no secret that at some point he would like to be involved in ownership. And he is a wonderful partner, so we’ll see how that goes.”

But in the meantime Reds officials have been out to south east Spain to visit 14th-placed LaLiga club Elche. According to Onda Cero, couple of weeks ago a delegation from Anfield travelled to Alicante to “see, first-hand, the facilities, the work and the business project”.

And last week Bragarnik was invited to Liverpool to do similar at the Premier League club.

AS say the Argentine “took advantage” of a break in the fixture list to visit Anfield. And he also took in the clash between Arsenal and Manchester United at The Emirates.

But his main focus was to work with Liverpool to talk about “different formulas” for a collaboration between the two clubs.

The idea