David Hanniganon George N Gillett, one of the two American tycoons bidding to buy Liverpool

In September, 2005 Glenn Wildenmann, a Montreal Canadiens fan, took his two daughters to watch his beloved ice hockey team in a pre-season training session. A photographer from the local paper took their picture and Wildenmann remarked to the journalist that this was now the only time a father of four could possibly afford to take his kids to see the side.

The following day the club's owner, George N Gillett jr, read the piece and phoned Wildenmann to invite him and the children to watch a National Hockey League game in the owner's private box once the season began.

As Liverpool fans ponder his bid for their club ahead of today's Merseyside derby, If Gillett's six years as owner of the Canadiens are anything to go by, they may be in for interesting times. After initial misgivings by Montrealers about an American purchasing Canada's oldest, most successful and revered club - their jersey is known as La Sainte-Flanelle, the Holy Sweater - Gillett has proved to be a hands-on owner of "Les Habitants" in the best way.

Even though he lives a couple of thousand miles away in Denver, he often travels on the team bus to games, has been known to phone fans back to answer their complaints and has thanked supporters personally at away matches for going the extra mile.

"There was concern around the city over having an owner not from Canada buying the team," said Matthew Macaskill, a contributor to Habsworld, a Canadiens online fanzine.

"However, he quickly proved he was dedicated and expressed his willingness to do what he could to help the team reach the next level, partly in the form of more money to go after more expensive free agents.

"Since the NHL has installed a new format which involves a salary cap, Mr Gillett is limited in his ability to help out economically. The cap hasn't completely limited him, though, as the club has the funds to spend up to the maximum amount thanks to him while other teams in the league have to work with a lower budget."

Given that any purchase of Liverpool would involve significant borrowing, the worrisome aspect for the Anfield faithful is that Gillett has a history of overreaching himself.

After an ill-fated $325m investment in a Florida television station, a transaction so unwise it was held up by the highly influential American investor Warren Buffet as an example of what he called "debt mania", Gillett Holdings Inc defaulted on $983m of junk bonds in 1991.

A year later he filed for personal bankruptcy, with assets of $18.4m dwarfed by liabilities of $66.2m. As part of that settlement he paid off one creditor by giving him his antique car collection, worth an estimated $5m, and had to buy his clothes back from the trustee.

"My mistake," said Gillett in 1999, "was borrowing a tremendous amount of money that I could not pay back."

His fall from grace had been as spectacular as his rise. The son of a surgeon in Racine, Wisconsin, he was warned at age 18 he would have to fend for himself - his father would be leaving his money to his daughters. Out of college, he started selling paper for Crown-Zellerbach before moving into marketing and consulting.

At the age of 28 he owned a minority stake in the Miami Dolphins but left after a year to buy the Harlem Globetrotters. To revive that waning franchise he had the ingenious idea of getting Hanna-Barbera to produce an eponymous cartoon series, which in the early 1970s helped acquaint a new generation with the antics of the basketball team.

From there, Gillett moved into the meatpacking, media and ski-resort industries. At every stop he's been praised more for his brilliant marketing (children's tickets to Canadiens games are an NHL-low C$10) than his canny management skills.

In a typically American fable, the father of four boys returned from insolvency bigger and better than ever.

Although there is no mention of football in his past, this self-styled sports fanatic has - apart from his stints with the Dolphins and the Globetrotters - owned greyhound tracks in Arizona, taken CART motor racing to Denver and been voted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard hall of fame in acknowledgment of his role in bringing skiing's premier events to the state.

Having failed several times to purchase NBA and NHL teams, he was finally allowed pay $183m for Montreal in 2001 after no Canadian buyer could be found.

"The key element that ties it together is the businesses I've been in for the most part have been absolutely wonderful and enjoyable," Gillett once said of his career. "We were able to put smiles on people's faces."

Liverpool fans will take note.

Guardian Service