I hope you don’t mind @cynicaloldgit but with your recent post, you raised a subject that I think is pertinent.
So to what extent will we as fans allow (potentially) our ownership to become increasingly morally questionable / flat out bankrupt? Let’s hypothesize here, City, Chelsea and Newcastle enter a footballing arms’ race purely for the glory and adulation. FSG refuse to get involved and the fans turn on them. (not me I stress, I remember THAT day) So if we were bought by different owners, how would you all feel if we became a trophy piece for mega money made from obvious humanitarian violations? Other member of the Saudi royal family? DIC as it was? A Russian with as many deaths in his closet as rubels in his bank account?
For me, I’ll take brilliant management and creativity for the time being under FSG but if the goal posts get moved so far that we’re hoping to finish 5th at best, you have to ask a simple question. What price allegiance and fan-ship? I don’t think I could or would ever stop being a Liverpool fan. Maybe it’s easier that others have gone into this territory before. Somehow that makes it easier. If we were being bought today by somebody with unlimited finance, I understand some being worried, saddened, disgusted but would anybody be not just the least bit excited?
I would rather we had “clean” owners (yes, I know nobody gets rich enough to own a football club by being an angel) and finished mid-table than get bought out by human rights abusers and win everything.
Then again, I support the club and I appreciate that many (dare I add “modern”) fans are only interested in short-term success.
Honestly…I’d be a little bit heartbroken had they bought us.
I may be hopelessly naive, but there is something about Liverpool that just feels special. We were giants back when anyone could become a giant, spent decades in the wilderness, and then reclaimed our status via graft and nous.
Winning just coz we’re the richest would not feel the same.
Maybe it would be time to count our blessings, experiences, and excitement to date and call an end to supporting LFC… For at the end of the day, would it be LFC at all except in name only.
Visited Glenbuck a couple of years ago to see where it all began for Shankly… Same can be said for LFC, it only all began when he arrived at Anfield to build the bastion it has become…
Alas, all good things must come to an end… Until FSG landed and gave us a reprieve, we were almost at the end of our journey of success and winning regularly. Whether the last ten years turn out to be nothing but a brief reprieve within the overall landscape history, still remains to be seen.
Yep, if LFC is sold on to owners unsuitable to my own personal principles… I would walk away, and remain thankful for the journey to date on behalf of my dad, myself and my sons…
At the moment we are as good as any of these rich clubs, mainly down to Klopp and Edwards but with Edwards leaving and Klopp in a couple of years will we be able to still compete, totally agree with @SBYM post above about being disappointed if they bought us and what Gerrard said about winning title playing if he joined the chavs years ago.
After last season and becoming disillusioned during Covid, I can easily picture me walking away from the club under the right circumstances.
Frankly it’s not possible to exist in this world now without anything you enjoy having some kind of link to a horrific crime - so there’s always something to be called a hypocrite for when you draw a line in the sand - but if anything as overt as being owned de facto by the Saudi Arabian government was to happen I wouldn’t have to think for two seconds about leaving my fandom behind.
Fact of the matter is a Premier League Club these days can only be afforded by the mega rich.
Nobody gets that sort of money in a clean way. FSG and the Glazers and that type of purchaser from 10-15 years ago could no longer afford to buy one of the behemoths.
If / when FSG or the Glazers sell the only entity likely to be able to afford us will be a state funded set up i reckon.
Klopp was the best thing FSG did. I 100% believe that our success is down to him and his team alone.
It will be interesting though to see how long it takes Newcastle to break the top 4 and then start winning the league. The amount of money they’ll be able to Chuck at it now - it will happen, but will likely take 2-3 years to get into top 4.
Chelsea, City and Now Newcastle can pretty much outspend everybody. United can spend so it probably leaves us trailing behind in a financial aspect. Let’s hope we can keep over performing because if Newcastle do a City…. And they are very capable, that’s them and City more or less guaranteed top 4. So only 2 places left. Chelsea seem to have got their shit together after a blip with Frank so who knows.
Let’s enjoy this time we have now, things might not be so rosey in 3-5 years time because fact of the matter is FSG are slowly becoming smaller fish in a gradually increasing pond.
I wouldn’t continue to follow football if we’d been bought by Saudi Arabia. My limit is I can’t enjoy a game of football if I know there are people literally being murdered by our owners.
Regarding competitiveness, I have to believe that money isn’t the be all and end all, otherwise there is no point to any of this. Liverpool have done a brilliant job of showing that there is a different way - you can look to create success by sporting excellence.
Football does have to have a serious think about it’s future. It’s not good enough to just allow sovereign wealth funds to distort the game. It’s not just that it gets harder and harder for clubs to compete fairly, it’s also that this kind of situation is inevitably going to drive up the bar for transfers and salaries, and that will lead to clubs over-extending themselves and getting into difficulty. The governing bodies have got to act to protect the sport, and if they don’t I can see the traditional big clubs saying ‘Fuck this. Let’s do the ESL properly this time and ride out the protests’.
FSG may well have seen this coming… You don’t need to outbid other clubs for a special player if you have already put the pieces in place to create your own - hence the move from Melwood to Kirkby.
After an initial inception period of 5-10yrs, LFC should be producing our own talent at hopefully one or more a year
What was it Jurgen said 12months back… “A full team of graduates, now that would be something”
