The Owners - FSG

We will lose about £40mil they reckon, not including anything to do with the kit (we get £4mil for winning the CL for example).

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We don’t overspend on wages. 58% of turnover. The average figure for the PL is 61%.

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Haven’t we got the second or third highest in the league?

Also is your figure basic salary, or does it include bonuses?

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The 2018/19 figures show that our total wage bill was £309.9 million or 58.14% of turnover. This was the third highest wage bill in the league. The figure includes NICs, bonuses etc.

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I have to confess that I am a little confused how the third highest wage bill in the league can also be slightly below average.

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As a percentage of turnover its below the PL average. The wage bill is big but affordable in the context of the overall finances of the club.

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The 2020/21 breakdown is that the finalists of the CL get €15m each with the winner getting an additional €4m on top. So €19m for winning the final.

Making the final provides a theoretical total return of €76m.

As a comparison, winning the Europa league comes with a max return of €25m. Quite a drop off.

But I don’t think not making the CL is a total disaster none the less. Just a mega headache that will have an impact.

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It’s due to the bonus structure we have for wages. Missing the CL reduces the wage Bill.

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Clearly our finances are not going to be normal this year, but that doesn’t mean the owners don’t have options in how they react this summer.

They can choose to just make us live within our reduced means, even to the point of selling players to cover shortfalls, but that might limit us to a modest bounce back, or cause stagnation or a downward spiral.

They could also find a way to fund what’s needed in the transfer market, using the group’s strength, to ensure we bounce back. If they wouldn’t do that then what’s the point in being owned by such people anyway?

When looking at the club’s financials, one has to consider the part Fenway Sports Marketing play. If a cut of commercial deals is going to FSM as a way of FSG taking cash from the business, then this might be ok in normal times, but surely it has to be reconsidered when a financial position based on reduced commercial revenues is used to justify a lack of transfer activity in times like this?

Regarding the new investment into FSG, personally I would find it unpalatable if FSG use it to buy distressed assets in other sports, whilst leaving LFC’s squad underinvested when it needs a refresh.

Now some on here will come back with the Klopp doesn’t want to spend argument. I don’t buy that, I don’t think he would want to keep players who rarely play because they aren’t good enough or are injury prone. I’m not saying he wants City type spending, but I believe he’d acquire what’s needed for a reasonable spend if given the chance.

If we’re looking to compete to the maximum levels possible with the current squad as a basis to develop from, we’d be upgrading Bobby to a 4th quality forward, whilst keeping Jota, Mane and Salah. We also move on injury prone players in midfield and defence and bring in reliable ones.

Now, different people on here have different expectations of the club and owners.

My expectations are based partly in wanting a successful LFC in order to stick two fingers up at the rest of English football, a football nation that wanted to believe the worst of our support over Hillsborough, a nation that went hysterical at the prospect of us winning the league, and a nation that comes to Anfield and sings disgraceful songs about our city. If you weren’t around at the time of Hillsborough, and if you are not from the city, you have no right to tell those of us who were/are that we shouldn’t feel strongly about it.

My expectations are also very strongly influenced because LFC plays a crucial role in the local economy in which I live.

Liverpool is a leisure and tourism economy, badly hit during this pandemic. It needs a successful LFC, every home match (including domestic cups, but particularly European ones) brings revenue into the city region and contributes to the growth of the economy, inward investment, and city profile.

That’s why it disgusts me that the football authorities and referees from other parts of England are getting away with causing damage to LFC’s season and in turn the local economy.

Again, it’s also why I think those of us who live in the area have more of a right to ask questions of the actions of the owners that those who don’t live in the area.

The rest of you care about LFC, you want the club to succeed, but you do not understand how deeply local fans feel about the way the club and its support has been treated, nor does the area you live get short changed when the club doesn’t do as well.

As I have said before, I think FSG have done a good job on the club to this point.

But part of the reason they own such a valuable asset is because the club they bought is based in a city that has such passionate support, which clearly drove the team to achievements they wouldn’t have reached without that support. If nothing else, our famous comebacks in European competitions were largely down to the crowd.

They have a duty to repay that now, in these times of need, by ensuring that when the economy is back to normal, the club is doing well enough to contribute to its recovery.

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We’ve had this discussion before but there are plenty of people not from the city who feel the palpable bias and injustice just as strongly as those who are. Me included.

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It’ll actually be a cowardly action to not back the recruitment strongly this summer.

That’s a statement that’ll draw heat before people even consider why I’m saying it no doubt.

FSG have long championed the self sustaining rhetoric. To the point we have to tighten our belts and do without some years even if we have good years before and after.

So we determine that LFC funds itself with what it makes and each year is treated stand alone.

As things stand 2019-20 was effected by Covid (not as much as some doomsday prophesies though), 2020-21 is likely to be incredibly effected (although with increases such as Nike, additional period of last seasons revenue showing up in this year and a running down of recruitment costs from past years coming off the books there’s hopefully plenty of positive factors to limit the pain). However revenues for 2021-22 look like they will at least be near precovid.

So financial year 2021-22 is forecasted to be largely back to normal minus possible losses on CL vs EL revenue. Also the two big years recruitment’s of 3 and 4 years ago will be fully cleared on the books.

The recruitment this summer falls into next year’s accounts I don’t see why there should be caution or trepidation with the vaccine roll out etc. if there is then FSG being reluctant to be exposed to costs that almost certainly won’t happen matters more to them than both the possibility of them increasing value in their asset and our chances of sporting success.

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So do I and I’m not even from the same country let alone Liverpool. :grinning: Don’t know if I ever told you but I did hear the thieving/bin dippers/on the dole comments here in my local in The Hague a lot over the years.

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Absolutely, but you’re not one who shouts down those of us who feel as we do, or calls us xenophobes for having a big problem with English football over the issues I mentioned.

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Let’s be clear here, I didn’t call you a xenophobe for your stance on an “english” attitude towards Liverpool, I called you it because you said the city of Manchester despises the city of Liverpool. It doesn’t.

You make a lot of good points actually, but they become lost when you start to warp facts and make statements which are untrue.

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For someone so vitriolically opposed to the City project, I do find it a bit odd that your complaint with FSG is that they don’t finance player purchases.

When Hicks and Gillette were being forced out of the club and we were all jamming the switchboards of various financial institutions, I said at the time what I wanted was not a sugar daddy. It was professional, intelligent, owners who would run the club in the right way, allow the club to spend the money it earned, and bridge the gap to the plastic clubs by being the best at transfers, training, scouting, youth development.

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I think @cynicaloldgit and @Mascot are the earliest campaigners of referees and Premier League having an agenda against Liverpool.

Also, it hurts to hear that not being from Liverpool somehow hinders our feelings for Liverpool. Yes, I know very, very, little about the city and the club, but the compassion must count for something.

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I’ve been saying it since Hillsborough. :joy:

The political bias against the city has been since the 1980s, when I likened the city to Asterix’s village holding out against the Roman (Tory) empire.

The football bias became clear pretty much as soon as Sky launched its new Premier League product. It soon became apparent that Manchester United were given preferential treatment by the officials and that Liverpool were referred much more harshly.

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Bollocks. Amongst some there’s out and out physically violent hatred.

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Do you even read? Fuck me.

Yes there are elements of horrible cunts in all walks of life, including Utd fans…

But the point was he said the entire city of Manchester despises Liverpool… it doesn’t.

Try reading for once.

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We’re not talking sugar daddies, we’re talking about investment in an asset to ensure it is in a position on the pitch to prosper off it. A bit like when governments deficit spend to support economies during recessions, to ensure the recession isn’t worse and all confidence lost.

I’m saying that having achieved what we have with the 13th highest spend in normal times, we might need to spend more in more difficult times.

Not a billions pounds my friend, just maybe £100m net (for the sake of argument) in one summer to address a few issues.

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