I think that our level of success during Klopp’s tenure was unsustainable due to the law of diminishing returns. At some point, the squad was going to age and suffer a general performance hit - without quality player reinforcements. These have not arrived and LFC finds itself at a crossroads.
Hats off to FSG for putting us in an extremely viable financial condition, compared to what went before. but unless they are prepared to evolve beyond their own sports franchise model, and everyone knows what that is, we have hit a wall as far as on-field aspirations are concerned.
I get the desire to stick with FSG, rather than having dodgy owners. And I agree that FSG have been very good owners for us.
However, it is FSG themselves that have indicated they wish to sell, in whole or part. Even if fans were united in wanting them to stay as owners, that probably wouldn’t factor highly in their decision to sell.
I see John Henry, cap in hand apologizing to fans after the aborted Super League, and essentially saying it will have ramifications. And here we are. (I’m not saying the Super League was a joined up plan as it was poor, though probably leaked early in order to defeat it). That, along with the lack of financial governance, appeared to put the nail in the coffin.
We had a convergence of interests during their tenure. They ran us well, in all the ways described and more, and it will turn their £300M into £3-4Billion.
Like I always emphasized, I will never believe John Henry got to billionaire status being squeaky clean but he and FSG are probably as good a owner we will ever get in this world corrupted by billionaire bastards.
I was here for that. FSG just happened to be the lucky businessmen to get a steal of a deal on a lengendary club, with a massive built in fan base. If they wouldn’t have gotten the deal over the line another group of businessmen would have. FSG should certainly get a nod of respect for straightening out the finances after the purchase, but they are not the second coming. They saw a great investment that they could turn for a profit.
Some of you people are like mothers who after the child improve the math test from 40 marks to 85 marks, instead of acknowledging the effort to improve choose to lament why not 100 marks. I don’t think many believe they are here for charity. Yes of course they are businessman, they saw an opportunity to buy low, sell high, an asset that is undervalued because of negligent ownership. Alot can see that, but FSG has executed that vision as well as we thought a good owner should. And it’s frustrating that the only crime they are being executed on is just because we are not spending money, or enough of it on players. It’s as if their improvement on other aspects of the club, the surrounding Liverpool areas, the social aspects, the stadium, the youth facilities etc, all these are fake.
some of the hysterical crap to counter the hysterical crap about FSG.
theyve done good to very good.
unfortunately, very good PROBABLY wont win us the premier league again anytime soon and would probably require one of those rare seasons where 2 -3 of the top spenders miss a beat (can happen, doesnt normally), i get that, i understand peoples thoughts when they want to have an owner a bit more adventurous.
Klopp is the classic debating point for this;
should they be lauded and respected for giving Klopp the job, or should they be questioned for not backing him to the ‘next level’ once his project was flowering.
if at the end of Klopps reign we still just have the 1 League and 1 CL trophy out of the big ones, it will be a very interesting debate to be honest.
as for me, im probably in the Sweeting camp, we sell to Qatar and im out, mentally at least, even if i will keep watching.
I think they have been good owners. In a rules based order, with proper financial governance, I wouldn’t want another owner.
In the world we have now, I still think we could continue to be successful under FSG, but they would need to invest more in the team, and take us closer to the limit of FFP. We seem to be well within that at the moment, but they don’t look to have the appetite for it.
Revenues are great, and it is tempting to say it is sustainable for the foreseeable future at the very highest level, but FSG themselves want to sell up, in whole or part.
I think it is at least an admission on their part that they don’t think top level football is a proper sporting, or indeed business, prospect any longer. Or if it is, it needs deeper pockets than they have, more propensity to take bigger risks, and the rewards will not be as great as what they have already seen. They will have made more than 10x if and when they move on, so they have probably calculated that it is time.
This was the question I asked earlier and no one wanted to answer. Would Klopp signed an extension if he really felt unsupported by the owners? And the owners principles are not new, so if Klopp had wanted assurance of a change in principle, the contract extension would be the best time to leverage. It’s obvious the owners principle continued to be the same so obviously Klopp is by and large agreeable to it so it’s strange that people still like to speculate and pit the Klopp vs Owners theory. Are the principles stubborn and might prevent us from winning more? Sure! There are direct reasons why Man Cheaty are winning the league alot, and spending on players play a good part of it. But I am very happy with the clubs principles on how they view recruitment and players and to me, if Klopp was never on board with these principles, we would have not even win what we have won, instead of fans who are so eager to place them in opposing camps, I see them in harmony. There are tensions as always in any group setting but they are in harmony with how the club should be run. You will not find a fan who will say no, I don’t want to win more but you might find plenty who will say we want to win right, and not at all costs and be a respected club.
I, too, was thinking that I’d be “out”, if FSG were to sell to Qatar or any other “country” that doesn’t respect civil rights, diversity and inclusion…
But the more I think about it, I’d likely “pretend” to be “out” while secretly fighting with the rest of the resistance fighters. Either way, I’ll see you here.
If a club gets sold to dubious new owners, I don’t expect them to up sticks and end their support. Ultimately it is the supporters that are the club. However, I would also like to think that they wouldn’t go wandering around with tea towels on their heads boasting how they are going to “behead” their rivals.
Well, no, because there wasnt anyone else expressing an interest in the club other than a few chancers with no money. Thats why FSG appear to have gotten the club so ‘cheaply’.
The question demands that maybe FSG should have backed Klopp, already presuming that FSG does not despite Klopp demanding it. Or else are we expecting FSG to go to Klopp and say hey please spend some money so that we are seen as backing you. I agree that of course ownerships and managerial reign should and must be evaluated for its merits but not in the 2 parameters you put down. To me, Klopp and FSG are one in harmony and the only question that should be right fully asked when Klopp leaves is while such principles are great, how do execution be improved so that we gain more on field success and not again presuming there is a FSG not backing Klopp situation.
I still don’t get some of the questioning and abuse of FSG’s spending or supposed lack of it,in a world where FFP should be managed in the right and proper way,they are spending whats needed and doing the right thing.
In reality where the likes of PSG and Man City (and probably soon to be Newcastle) are cheating to massively inflate sponsorship fee’s,to spend more money to increase transfer fee’s to kill off the competition,plus the likes of United,Madrid,Barca and the other top 5 Prem teams going massively into debt to compete.
I can’t see how thats a fault of FSG,they are spending what the club can spend,anyone who wants more spending to compete with the rest is asking for us to pile huge debt on the club or become a play thing for an oil rich state,its either or,you can’t have it both ways.
The thing I’m most proud of FSG is the fact that they didn’t become a sugar-daddy. They helped and let us stand on our own feet and there’s no greater pride and joy beyond that.
We, supporters, have dreams of our own and we ourselves too are bound by our limitations. We work hard, sometimes even pushing ourselves to the limits, to make our dreams come true. We don’t look for handouts. We are proud of ourselves and we are content with what we have achieved.
So why, Liverpool, the club that epitomizes our very spirit would be any different? Why would we look for handouts for Liverpool when we don’t do that for ourselves?
To me it’s not wrong to question, but the right kind of question. Questioning why FSG is not spending more money as if that is all that matters to win titles, is shallow. But results are results. What we should be questioning is its great to have principles and I glad we have them but the club needs to find a way to execute and transform those principles into improvements of on and off field results.
The transfer fees aren’t even the main problem as many players will have release clauses, e.g. Haaland. There is no question that we could have stumped up his transfer fee if he had wanted to join but he is being paid a reported £865,000 per week. That would have blown our wage structure and effectively bankrupted the club.
Ultimately, the complete failure of FFP is the problem and the failure of FFP is the failure of the FA and UEFA. The Superleague plans were fundamentally wrong-headed but the problem that they were trying to address wasn’t. If the governing bodies don’t do their jobs properly the game will either die on its arse or the clubs will find a structure that does work.
Exactly,there’s nothing wrong in that,it’s what we’ve been doing for the past 5-6 years,finding a way to punch above our weight and compete for everything on offer and win it.
What i can’t stand is people slaughtering FSG and saying they are being tight with cash or they are taking loads of money out of the club,which is why we aren’t spending more,when the real issue isn’t FSG it’s the clubs around us or in Europe and FFP.
