I am one of those who usually tries not to be kneejerk. I reserve my inclinations either way and by God, if the last ownership of our club was something to go by, I am well served being that way. This is not to say that I am skeptical, but I am generally reserved in appreciating anyone’s participation in matters of our club. Although, this is not a fool-proof way of not getting hurt (e.g. what Torres did in January, inspite of his WC picture with our scarf, his interview that he is at the best club, his reassurances 7 days before putting in the request), but it does minimize the chances of getting hurt.
On those lines, while I was happy with how Gillet and Hicks were booted out of the club, I was reserving my decision on how our new owners would treat us. I am happy to admit that there has been absolutely nothing that FSG has done that would make me doubt their dedication. I am not trying to be judgmental, just a little reserved.
NESV/FSG have done most things right ever since they came on. I’ve watched most of the interviews of Misters Henry & Werner and they’ve always sounded poised, reserved, and in control. They’ve come across as people who care about the fans and have interacted with most fan-groups. The formation of the Supporters’ Committee is one such step that directs the fan opinion into things more and more constructive.
It would have been disrespectful to fire Hodgson within a few weeks of their takeover. So they just about gave him ample time to him (maybe a game or two more than they should have) and finally decided to let him go. They seemed to understand their principles correctly – that the fan is always topmost.
Having said that, they don’t really take decisions based on twitter noise. While Kenny’s appointment would have been suggested by twitter, the transformation definitely means that this was a decision borne not just out of fan-pressure but acute understanding of the game by people involved. Mr Henry or Mr Werner might or might not have the absolute understanding that might be required but then they have and trust people like Ayre and Comolli to do that. That’s what the owners should do. Have the right men in the right place. Be it Kenny or Ayre or Comolli.
Handling the Torres situation was one such factor. Honestly, in my experience, the fans take to one or two players when the team on a whole is not playing well. Compare today with say Dec’10. We have more heroes in the team. Dirk, Lucas, Raul, Maxi, all feature in the personal favorites’ lists. In December it was only Torres, Pepe and Gerrard. The internet was outraged in January when some reporters tweeted that Torres requested LFC to consider the Chelsea bid. When you look at it, we didn’t do too much business in January. We sold two frontmen and bought two. I’d say Suarez, at that point in time, could have been considered slightly lesser to Torres and Carroll, well, was just an unproven commodity. But the manner in which the business was conducted, made us all feel good. The money was immediately reinvested. There was a belief in the fans and the club. While we all knew but dreaded admitting it since July last year, Torres was confirmed as El Sulk. His exit, which was unfathomable a few months ago, was welcomed by fans. Overall, the spending was £1.8m in January but we the fans felt as if we’ve spent about £50m in 2 days. Liverpool has been reborn and they are going to be ruthless on the field and off it too!
This summer’s window gives you four positives from what has transpired till date:
1. The business will always be conducted behind doors – the Liverpool Way
2. Liverpool FC are going to be aggressive enough in the market and pay top dollar for top talent.
3. People who do not wish to play for Liverpool aren’t going to be requested or cajoled!
4. We’re no longer going to worry about which top player would be sold or would want to leave
Of course there have been some embarrassing moments. The ticket system (although I don’t know much about it) is supposedly not the best. The third kit is, well, not well received although people are warming up to it, or rather, cooling down with their protests. There has been an occasional embarrassment caused by sponsors like Standard Chartered too but I’m sure the owners have always had the best of intentions. It would be patronizing to use excuses like ‘they’re new’ or ‘let them settle in’ (could apply to Venky’s) because I think they are too good and proud to seek those excuses. As far as I am concerned, having established that they mean the best for our club, I am now going to let them establish that they don’t being a trigger-happy critic.
I am glad that Gillet and Hicks are no longer our owners. I’m happy that people like Ashley, Glazers or Venky’s don’t own this club. I’m just as glad that our ownership is not with oligarchs or monarchs either!
For most those who read this, I would request you to spread the positivity since that ultimately helps the entire Liverpool community- fans, players, manager, owners, sponsors.
YNWA!
@kaushal__
Hate to be the one to say this cause it makes me feel dirty, but you can’t really hold the Glazers as some sort of beacon of badness, the summer Man U bought Hargreaves etc the Glazers spent around £100m, this summer already they have bought Young and Jones with De Gea looking likely. Therefore they have backed their manager in the transfer market better than our owners have this summer so far. Man U might be in debt, but it’s not the level ours was, by that i mean not that they owe less, but their debt is managable, more than that if you consider their spending since they took over. So far FSG have spent £16m on Jordan Henderson and we seem to be chasing only English players, not saying theres anything wrong with that, but there are better quality players available on the continent, eg we could have bought Martinez for a fraction of Hendersons price, but twice the player…
As a club we have spent, over the last decade, on average, about £20m a summer, net, this summer we’ve spent £16m and you’re going on like FSG are the second coming of christ! Get a little perspective, i’d happily settle for a challenge for the top 4 this season as our squad has fallen way below top 4 standard, hell we don’t even have as good a squad as Spurs! (but seeing as comolli is responsible for nearly every good player spurs have i can see how we MAY have a bright future)
All i’m saying really is that you HAVE knee jerked, FSG have spent just £16m since they arrived, Carroll and Suarez were bought with the Torres money (which the last 2 yanks would have packeted) so they’ve proved nothing but they hold onto a failing manager for too long.
So you think I shouldn’t have written this blog until FSG spent what- £100m in a window? That’s the parameter to judge ownership?
We’re only being linked with English players because first of all the international transfer window doesn’t open until July 1st, second I think we are trying to be a little bit subtle about who we are going after, I am pretty confident that we will be signing plenty of continental talent this summer, so calm down until the window actually opens José!
Jose u are an idiot…
I agree too, they have so far shown themselves to be respectful, honorable and considerate, no arguing with that. Anyone who thinks they may not be in the future is an idiot for thinking they can predict the future and I pity them if life has left them with such a negative outlook. Quite sad really. With regard to Liverpool, SO FAR SO GOOD.
anyone heard the meireles rumours if their true we will have no depth in the attacking mid if gerrard gets injured who will play that position spearing no henderson is too inconnsistent in my opinion the way we treat pacheco is unreal and he will probably be exiled to the championship next season so no depth in attacking mid
Lets face Facts, This is just an opinion of a Devoted Fan. I think we should wait until July 1st, and see where our OWNERS put there money ( Behind Closed Doors ). :)
PEACE !!
Y.N.W.A
yur right lets just hope they dont buy more carrols
What wrong with Carroll, mate?
Greetings from NY!
I am a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan and a recent convert to a huge LFC supporter. You have a great club with a excellent, admirable history!!! I’m proud to be a supporter of LFC.
To be honest, I undervalued the role of ownership throughout my sports fan career until Henry & Werner took over the Sox franchise. What a difference!! They made a huge change to the franchise in terms of player development, building a great squad, and putting a winning face on a team that was mostly known for 2nd place. The last 7-8 years are arguably the most successful stretch in franchise history. They may not win it every year, but they are always a team to beat.
They, in my opinion are terrific owners and care deeply about their club(s) and their fan base(s).
Even though I’m very excited for LFC’s chances in the 2011/12 season, it may take a few years for their vision to be put in place. I believe that vision is to build a long-term winning franchise – a “bastion of invincibility”, if you will!!
The right managers, evaluators of talent, and players are being put into place now. This will surely yield some very sweet fruit over the next few years.
Thanks Tom P for sharing that with us, it really quite assuring and good ot hear.
I personally Have liked everything they have done so far
how can u like everything they have done 35m for carrol 19m for henderson carrol doesnt even suit our game the team plays long balls when he plays if we had suarez and honda up front and stopped paying over the odds for english players then we might seriously challenge for the top 4
So, LFC last position on six-th is Just Carroll’s fault? Oh dear… YNWA-anyway.
im saying that why buy carrol for 35m when you can buy aguero for 40m or gomez for 35m their both miles better than him
Would you mind expanding on the Boston red sox and the difference Henry and co. have made there Tom?
Here’s a few of the changes that Henry & Co made since taking over ownership in 2002:
1) Fenway Park was a historic, yet crumbling, stadium. Despite the historical significance, the old Fenway had uncomfortable seats, tons of seats with obstructed views, lousy facilities, and crappy food. Henry totally refurbished the park – removed the annoyances – and also expanded the seating by about 5,000 seats. They also created the “monster seats” – a few rows of seats at the top of the 30 ft left field wall – which are considered to be the coolest seats in the sport.
A few hours before the game, the streets around Fenway are closed off to general traffic and, in essence, become part of the park. This leads to a very fun fan-friendly festival-type atmosphere around the park – great innovative idea!
2) The Red Sox franchise let its talent scouting and player development (the “farm” system) atrophy. That all changed with Henry. The Scouting and Farm systems were totally revamped – and a few years later – bore fruit. We have about 6-7 all-star level players that were scouted and developed by the organization.
3) Perfomance & Pay models – Even though the Sox have a huge player payroll, they tend to be smart with their money. Quite simply, they don’t go for large contracts for overpaid, under-performing older players. Also, they are not generally prone to swap their prized prospects for an over-the-hill established player. I realize the PL system is different here with the transfer fees, but I suspect they will use the same concept. I expect to see a nice mix of established stars and great younger players (think Man U here) – and a annual rotation of older players out, younger players in.
4) Performance & Pay Model Part II – In the 80’s & 90’s, a statistician named Bill James came up with a very intriguing set of statistics (called sabermetrics) to better evaluate a players true value (and compare that to what the player is paid). This was the basis of the “Moneyball” system that several successful baseball have teams incorporated. The Sox use this system and also have Bill James on staff. I understand that Commoli has adopted the same concepts to European football. It’s the way that a club that wishes a long-term successful run does its business
5) National Image – Henry took the Sox from a team with a loyal (but regional) fan base to a team with a national fan base. They carefully cultivated an image of tough, scrappy, colorful players (as a counterpoint to the squeaky-clean NY Yankees). We don’t have the excellent repertoire of songs the English clubs do, but we do have a house band (an Irish Punk band – the “Dropkick Murphys”) that plays in the park before critical games.
Henry & Co have dramatically increased the profile of the club on a national basis. You see Sox caps (almost as much as Yankee caps) all over the country. (Note: Caps are to baseball as scarves are to football).
6) Being Smart in general – this is a small item, but hugely important as it underscores the general sharpness of the organization. All baseball teams employ scouts to spy on other teams for upcoming matches. The scouts will brief the manager on who’s hot who
s not / player tendencies etc on the future opposing teams. The Sox go one step further – they employ scouts to spy on the Red Sox as to advise the manager as to what the opposing teams’ scouts are telling their teams about the tendencies of the Sox. Really clever stuff!
I wouldnt even pay attention to the muppets slating carroll or his price…For starters when he got a tiny bit fit he showed us what hes all about against Man city 2 terrific goals and defenders 100% hate playing against him. He ruffles to many feathers…..As for people not trusting NESV go back and do a bit of research on them and their history because i have and these guys are absolute born winners
Oh – by the way: I’m sure the LFC supporters will chuckle at this:
Tom Hicks was also the FORMER owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He was widely regarded as the most inept owner in Major League Baseball……poor trades, would sell all his prospects, never developed any pitching talent (which is the key to success in the sport), incompetent “friends” in key organizational positions. If your club needed to unload overpriced players, Texas always came up as a willing partner. Rangers always had huge offense, no defense (think Blackpool as a parallel here).
Anyways, after control of the club shifted, the Rangers all of a sudden became successful. Won the “American League” championship last year (but lost to SF in the “world series” for the ultimate championship).