LIVERPOOL FC co-owner Tom Hicks last night admitted he could not put a date on when the club’s new stadium would be ready – but insisted: “We’re going to build that sucker”.

The Texan blamed the closure of the world’s money markets for the delay on the long-awaited new Anfield, which is viewed as vital if the club is to compete with its Premier League rivals.

Hicks said: “I’ve been involved in credit markets for 30-odd years. Right now they’re closed, but they’ll open again and we’ll get the money for the stadium,” His admission came the day after manager Rafael Benitez signed a new five-year contract that will keep him at Anfield until 2014.

But last night fan groups hit out at “more broken promises” from Hicks and co-owner George Gillett, and said they were “naive” to think Benitez’s new deal would win over supporters.

Last August, the club said the new 60,000-seat stadium on Stanley Park would be ready for the 2012/13 season – a year delay on previously given dates.

When Hicks and George Gillett bought the club two years ago, they promised to have a spade in the ground within 60 days.

But LFC and the city council are yet to even sign an agreed 999-year lease on Stanley Park.

Council leader Warren Bradley has previously warned the club to “sort itself out” or face losing the right to build on the park.

Yesterday, Hicks said: “It’s important for the fans to know we are working on it every week, we are continuing to progress, and it is not being moth-balled. It’s going to happen. We’re going to build that sucker.

“We’re continuing to move forward with our architects and engineers.

“In some ways we’re fortunate, because when we were designing the stadium, the UK was having cost inflation due to the Olympics but the price of concrete, steel and labour have come down.

“The stadium hard costs are 20-25% down, that’s good. I’m reluctant to put a date on it. I can’t predict the credit markets.”