Elon Musk buying Liverpool would be like seeing your dream home bulldozed – he is everything this city cannot stand and even if he made every ticket free I would never sit on the Kop again, writes DOMINIC KING

No. Not in a million years. Not even if he put 100,000 seats in Anfield and promised free tickets forever more. January is usually a time when a name linked with a club sparks excitement but there was none of that on Merseyside when the spectre of Elon Musk emerged.

There had been mirth in the city last weekend when phones started pinging with WhatsApp messages showing the front page of the Weekend Sport — a publication best known for its pictures and taking a sideways look at things — with a headline pronouncing: ‘Elon Musk set to buy LFC.’

It felt a bit early for April Fool’s Day but, lo and behold, Musk’s father, Errol, went on Times Radio on Tuesday afternoon to set out his son’s wish. This wasn’t a tall tale, it seemed, but a genuine declaration that the world’s richest man wants to acquire a new plaything.

‘His grandmother was born in Liverpool,’ Errol revealed. ‘And we have relatives in Liverpool, and we were fortunate to know quite a lot of The Beatles because they grew up with some of my family. He’s expressed his desire but that doesn’t mean he’s buying it.’

Thank God. Liverpool, it should be noted, reacted with incredulity when they were contacted about the comments. Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have no intention of selling and there is more chance of the Liver Birds taking flight from their perch overlooking the Pier Head than Musk getting the keys to Anfield.

Still, some wondered on the social media platform that he bought (and has subsequently destroyed) whether Musk, with his piles and piles of cash, being at the helm of Liverpool might be a good thing.

Liverpool owners FSG thankfully have no interest in selling the club to the billionaire (Owner John W Henry, left, and chairman Tom Werner pictured)

I would never sit on The Kop again if Musk showed up at Liverpool, even if tickets were free

Contract stand-offs can easily get resolved when you have billions in the bank. Modern football is now viewed through a prism, by a certain generation of fans, that success equates to your spending power or whether you can ‘win the transfer window’. The appetite of some to see deals done is voracious.

One account put it to a vote. Astonishingly, just shy of 40 per cent of those who replied to @AnfieldEdition would be in favour of a man being in control of Liverpool who seems intent on causing more social chaos than Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.

Not that he would be bothered in the slightest but this observer would never sit on the Kop again if Musk showed up at Liverpool. His approach to life, his views and his behaviour don’t chime with how the people of this city act.

Put it another way, Tom Hicks and George Gillett — the owners who took Liverpool to the brink of administration in October 2010 — would be more appealing than Musk, who would take a steamroller to tradition and find a way of monetising it.

‘I don’t like bullies and I don’t like hypocrites — and he (Musk) embodies both those things,’ John Amaechi, the pioneering British basketball player, observed on a podcast with American sportswriter Dan Le Batard last month.

‘He’s a grifter. I don’t like people who on one hand talk about themselves as being self-made but then, on the other hand, never make anything.

‘He’s a cuckoo. I keep saying this as it’s important that we recognise what he is. He implants himself in another person’s organisation. He then finds a way to make himself the owner of that. He then finds a way for him to be known as the founder.

‘He’s not the founder of Tesla. He simply had a legal agreement with the two gentlemen who founded Tesla (Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning) that he’d be able to call himself the founder.

FSG have their critics amid contract stalemates with stars like Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk

But Musk’s views and his behaviour don’t chime with how the people of Merseyside act

George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who nearly took Liverpool into administration, would be more appealing than Musk

Musk taking over Liverpool is like asking whether you’d like to see your dream home bulldozed

‘He doesn’t do anything unless he knows he’s going to get something back for it. He is a capricious, cruel, deviant man. He wants without need and is insatiable. He’ll never have enough.’

Beautifully put. Yet there is an element of Liverpool’s fanbase who believe FSG will never be able to give Liverpool enough, that they are parsimonious and a barrier to progress. Such feelings have been intensified during the unresolved talks with Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk.

But Musk instead of them? It is like asking whether you’d like to see the dream home you built be bulldozed or blown up. No. Let this be one of those January stories where the link disappears as quickly as it emerged.