MARTIN BROUGHTON is hopeful Liverpool will be sold by the end of August.

Sat alongside new manager Roy Hodgson yesterday, the independent chairman admitted that no bids have been received since the club was put up for sale in May but he expects the first serious offers to be forthcoming within weeks.

“There have not been any offers at this stage,” said the British Airways chairman, who was brought in by the club’s owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to oversee the sale.

“There haven’t been any offers to turn down and I wouldn’t have expected there to have been at this stage.”

There has been increased speculation in recent weeks about possible interest from the Middle East.

Broughton failed to give any clues about possible buyers but claimed the sale process was running in accordance to his initial plans.

“There are a number of interested parties but there’s no specific deadline on it,” he said.

“We are looking to the middle of July-ish for the first round of bids but that’s not a final stage, that’s a first entry through.

“We’re hopeful – and I wouldn’t put it any stronger than that – that a deal can be done by the end of the transfer season.

“That was always from the outset a hope rather than necessarily an expectation, because these things can take time.

“We are on course, pretty well, with where we would have expected to be.”

Broughton also confirmed that Hicks and Gillett can not veto any sale and that the club does not need to sell players to pay down its debt.