The Arab invasion of the Barclays Premier League seems certain to continue, with Liverpool's American owners weakening in their resistance to selling the club to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai. Tom Hicks vetoed an attempted sale by George Gillett Jr, his co-chairman at Anfield, this year, but the American tycoons are expected to return to the negotiating table as an unforgiving financial climate takes a toll on their ambitions for the club.

Hicks maintains that he will not sell Liverpool, but the Texan is known to be troubled by the financial storm that has engulfed him and Gillett in the past 12 months. Last week, they blamed the credit crunch for the postponement of building work on a proposed 60,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park and, with the Premier League stakes raised further by the Abu Dhabi royal family's imminent takeover at Manchester City, Hicks and Gillett are close to conceding that they do not have the resources to fulfil the ambitions they had when they bought Liverpool in February 2007.

There remains a £400 million-plus offer on the table from Sheikh Mohammed, who is leading the bid that was being driven by Dubai International Capital, the private-equity investment arm of the Dubai Government, when Hicks blocked Gillett's attempted sale this year. Hicks is known to be more open to selling Liverpool, but the two sides remain some way apart in their valuation of the club.

Hicks and Gillett are aware that the £350 million refinancing deal they secured through the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia a little more than seven months ago is up for renewal on January 25 next year and that the banks are not certain to grant them the option of a six-month extension. They must decide by January whether to try to prop up their regime for a further six months, or to sell.

Now there are TWO ways to feed your fantasy

We have built on last year's success of PlayTheGame by offering fantasy football managers double the fun this coming season

City land Robinho in £34.2m deal

Football embrace a new superpower as Manchester City's new Arab owners flexed muscle with a record offer for Brazilian

• Move over Roman Abramovich: royalty enters equation at Manchester City

• Manchester City become world's richest club with new owners

Club-by-club guide to every transfer

Every cough and splutter of the summer's frenzied transfer activity in our guide to the ins and outs of transfer window

• Window watch: Roman Pavlyuchenko, Louis Saha, Joe Ledley, Stephen Hunt

• Deadline-day deals

Multimedia

• Podcast: deadline day drama

• Facts and stats on the spending spree

• City Fanzone: Sheikh your money

Related Links

• Gillett and DIC in high-stakes poker

• DIC confident as Gillett gets ready to sell

Multimedia

• Liverpool Fanzone: my cold feet over DIC deal

The takeover of City could have a knock-on effect, with Liverpool facing greater competition to qualify for next season's Champions League. The club have annual interest payments of £30 million, which last season's revenue of about £20 million from European competition went a long way towards clearing.

Increased competition from an opponents with seemingly unlimited financial resources is likely to heighten the anxiety of Liverpool's owners, who kept a tight hold of the purse strings this summer in the belief that Rafael Benítez's squad was good enough to compete for the Premier League title and at very least to secure the top-four finish that would lead to next season's Champions League. Liverpool's net spend this summer was approximately £18 million, but Benítez remains aggrieved that the board vetoed an £18 million deal to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa.