I don’t have any issue with criticism of the owners, I just would just prefer it if people were consistent and took all context into account.
So the current mess is apparently all FSGs fault for refusing to stump up the cash for a midfielder. John Henry won’t open his wallet and has Jurgen over a barrel, forcing him to work on a shoe string budget.
And yet, they were willing to buy Tchouameni until he decided to move to Madrid. We then dropped £64m on Nunez and a further £37m on Gakpo.
Now by all means you can question the logic behind those signings, but I can’t believe John Henry is telling Klopp he isn’t allowed to buy a midfielder, but here’s £100m for some new forwards even though you recently bought Diaz and Jota for £77m and we managed to give Salah a payrise on top of that.
If FSG are running a famous sell to buy model, why didn’t they cash in on their prize asset at the height of his value?
A lot of things don’t seem to make a lot of sense at the moment, but I think it’a definitely worth waiting to see what happens with the sale and midfield signings in the summer instead of:
I’m waiting until end of summer to see what FSG do to address the midfield when we lose 3 midfielders at the minimum. Come 1st Sep and we haven’t signed adequate midfield replacements then FSG have to go…for me this season is a write off, we have to forget about it now and move on quickly from it. Hopefully lessons can be learned.
But 100% Klopp’s call to bring in the forwards we signed…and lets be honest it was just as much needed, we’d lost Mane Div and Taki in 1 window…leaving us with Diaz Jota Salah (+Bobby) as our only forward options so I completely understand the reasoning behind that.
If and when it gets decided upon to upgrade a living room at home… once the decision is made you immediately know the items required to furnish it… wallpaper, paint colour, new TV, bookcase, wood flooring, rugs, couch, chairs, soft furnishings, coffee-table etc etc…
It doesn’t or shouldn’t really matter what order you buy or take delivery of these items… you instinctively know the living room will be out of commission while the transition takes place… So what if the couch is propped in the hallway for a month or two because it needed buying quickly before it was snaffled by someone else… So what if you had to lay the wooden flooring before painting the ceiling because the electrician was messing about with the wiring… In the overall scheme of things, as long as the agreed completion date, and agreed budget is met… who can even remember the tortuous or inconvenient journey that transpired to get there at the precise moment when for the first time you swing your legs up onto your new couch, armed with a box of Jaffa cakes, a tube of wine gums, a can of Guinness, propping the cushion (or two), exactly into position behind your head - rewinding the boys in action with a new remote and widescreen state of the art TV each time a goal is scored… Who cares what it took to get there when the boys are over running the opposition for the full 90mins…
Who cares if they can’t remember the inconvenience and extra efforts it took in the previous 6months of toil to end up with visualisation transforming into realisation… I suppose the demands on Jurgen to create a winning team is akin to getting possession of the parts ready for full assembly eh… who cares what order they arrive as long some sort of status-quo is maintained.
Who cares if we are playing crap at the moment… it is the downside of almost achieving the impossible last season… it is what it is and no supporter is in a position to change that… we can catch our breath though and prepare for what lays ahead of us…
As long as the new owners are not some scum of the earth type of humanity… That living-room will still become my undisturbed man-cave every time the boys are shown on TV :0)
COYR
I wouldn’t expect much societal change, certainly not in a short time frame, but I would hope for it.
As a benchmark, since homosexuality has been cited above as an example of Qatar being out of step, we should be aware that in an enlightened western democracy like the UK, we were criminalizing homosexuality, and arresting and chemically castrating heroes like Alan Turing within living memory. He was a mathematical genius who saved many lives in WWII and also invented an early form of the computer. In the 1950s the British Government did their worst to him.
So yes, change can happen.
But I’m not naive. If we are sold to Qatar it is not for the reason of trying to foster societal change in Qatar. It is for the money. Because FSG see this as an opportune time to get out.
On a related note, I agree that we have competed in the past under FSG, and we have spent a tidy sum here and there, and we have boxed clever, especially with analytics and so on, to make the most of our budget. We have had a good run, and were it not for artificially inflated Man City, we would have even more big trophies to show for it.
The naivety I see is that some appear to think we can expect to have the same results using the same methods moving forwards. I don’t think we can.
I interpret FSGs desire to sell as an admission that their model will not work moving forwards. I would not want any other owner if we had a rules based order. FSG are as clever as they come. And if they are bowing out, it tells me that they know it is not a fair fight and financial governance has failed.
So at that point there is a stark choice, and that’s what we are trying out in the way we are talking now.
If we do get an owner that we don’t approve of, the choice is to continue to support the team, as always, while not liking the owner. OR to bin it off altogether, and/or support grass roots football or something like that. I suppose a third choice is more passive… not like it one bit, and have the passion fade over time. That has been happening for a lot of reds since Sky days.
There is another thought that pops into mind… The owners are not getting any younger
Maybe certain decisions of getting their own house in order and not leave it to others is also a priority to them
That’s a good point too. There comes a time when you might want to retire and enjoy your money a bit more, rather than have it locked up in whatever assets you have accumulated in your working life.
Most of them are primarily very wealthy investors so are unlikely to need to free up a significant proportion of their resources to enjoy themselves and locking up money in assets is what they enjoy doing. The real question is whether the asset is one they wish to hold - are the returns sufficient to the risk/ hassle of owning it , does it still fit their business model etc…
An interesting case would occur if fsg remained as majority shareholders, with a Qatari business group taking up a minority stake. While I’ll definitely quit following my beloved LFC if it becomes a Qatari plaything, I’d be more hesitant in that case… what do people here think about that variant?
The Qataris are no mugs. They know when they are about to get fleeced.
Assuming FSG values this club at 3.5B pounds, taking 10% of it will cost them 350 million. 350 million that may not result in any significant on field improvements for the club as FSG calls the shot on how the club is ran and how the money is routed.
The terms under which the investment is made will set out how and what the funding is used for. They won’t get fleeced unless they allow themselves to.
I apologies for my inexperience at investing in companies directly. I thought that buying a part of LFC will mean just buying the shares from FSG and handing the money to them. I am unaware that the buyer can set the terms of investment to the seller.
