http://3down3up.com/issue/september-2011/article/liverpool1
By Paul Gorst.
Twelve months ago, Liverpool FC was in turmoil. Roy Hodgson’s appointment as their new manager was greeted with widespread disapproval, speculation was rife over the future of their crown-jewel Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. Mascherano, one of their few remaining world class talents had refused to play against Manchester City as he tried to engineer a move to Barcelona.
The club was still owned by the despised pair of George Gillett and Tom Hicks, and debts reached levels spiralling well beyond the £300m mark. The club were still paying between £20- £30 million a year in interest payments, and there was little money available to improve on a squad that had laboured to a 7th place Premier League finish the season before.
Administration was a very real possibility. As the Reds trudged off the field after being soundly beaten 3-0 at Eastlands, it was clear there were huge problems. Twelve months on, and the real-life nightmare scenario that was the long-suffering LFC fan’s day to day footballing existence is little more than an unpleasant footnote in the club’s illustrious 119-year history.
The last manager to win the League title with the Reds, Kenny Dalglish is back in the dug-out and there is an unbridled wave of optimism washing over every fan of LFC. Owners FSG (Fenway Sports Group) have long since driven the Hicks and Gillett side-show out of town and handed over more than £100m in just two transfer windows.
Liverpool received £50m for the sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea in January and under the previous regime, it is inconceivable to think that the majority of the fee would not have been used to make interest payments and service a crippling debt. Under FSG and the club’s Prinicipal Owner John Henry, the money pocketed from the Torres deal, as well as Ryan Babel’s £6m departure to Hoffenheim went straight back into squad development, as Dalglish brought in strikers Luis Suarez from Ajax and Andy Carroll from Newcastle for £22m and £35m respectively.
In the summer window, Liverpool have not had to sell before they can buy. The arrivals of Jordan Henderson (£16m), Charlie Adam (£6m), Jose Enrique (£6m), Stewart Downing (£20m) and Sebastian Coates (£7m) have all been conducted without the desperate ‘sell-before-we-can-buy’ reality that has plagued the club’s transfer dealings for the last three years. Players that have been allowed to leave are doing so because they are surplus to requirements at Anfield.
There is no dissension amongst the Kop, something which has not been seen or heard of in years. Even in the most glorious moment in the club’s past 25 years, the 2005 Champions League win in Istanbul, niggling gripes still persisted about the way the club was run off the pitch, and whether or not the success of Istanbul would be fully capitalised on. Fingers were pointed squarely at former Chief Executive Rick Parry and to a lesser extent the-then owner David Moores. Hindsight is a great tool, and to use it, we can safely say Liverpool did not do enough after the triumph to grow as a global brand, or more importantly, as a football club.
Liverpool Football Club in 2011, is a wholly different proposition. Transfer targets are identified and purchased with the minimum of fuss and the media is only alerted when the transfer is complete. This has been a key feature of Dalglish’s second stint in charge as manager, and it is a technique favourable with many fans, if not quite so with the journalists. The off-field accounts are blossoming. The club is now virtually debt free and are expanding their ‘brand’ with the excellent work of Managing Director Ian Ayre.
There is also the small matter of the current crop of youth team players coming through the ranks at Anfield. Already, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson have made their first-team debuts. Robinson became the club’s youngest ever player when he debuted at Hull City aged just 16 years and 250 days in May 2010, and Flanagan was handed his first start against Manchester City in April at the tender age of 18.
The LFC Academy also has high hopes for the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jesus ‘Suso’ Fernandez and Connor Coady, a combative midfielder who captained the under-18’s to a runners-up finish last season. All three have been given squad numbers for the current season. It is the combination Suso and Sterling though that is potentially the most mouth watering. A pair of flying wingers, with pace, trickery and an eye for pass, they are seen by some as the long term occupants of the left and right wings at Anfield.
LFC staff also have high hopes for strikers Adam Morgan and Michael Ngoo, defender Stephen Sama add the fact that Fabio Capello was recently scouting the merits of academy graduate Martin Kelly and it is clear Liverpool are beginning to see the green shoots of recovery after a barren decade without an exceptional talent breaking into their first team.
The future is looking very bright for Liverpool Football Club. Something that would not have been predicted from any corner 12-months ago.
By Paul Gorst.
Twelve months ago, Liverpool FC was in turmoil. Roy Hodgson’s appointment as their new manager was greeted with widespread disapproval, speculation was rife over the future of their crown-jewel Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. Mascherano, one of their few remaining world class talents had refused to play against Manchester City as he tried to engineer a move to Barcelona.
The club was still owned by the despised pair of George Gillett and Tom Hicks, and debts reached levels spiralling well beyond the £300m mark. The club were still paying between £20- £30 million a year in interest payments, and there was little money available to improve on a squad that had laboured to a 7th place Premier League finish the season before.
Administration was a very real possibility. As the Reds trudged off the field after being soundly beaten 3-0 at Eastlands, it was clear there were huge problems. Twelve months on, and the real-life nightmare scenario that was the long-suffering LFC fan’s day to day footballing existence is little more than an unpleasant footnote in the club’s illustrious 119-year history.
The last manager to win the League title with the Reds, Kenny Dalglish is back in the dug-out and there is an unbridled wave of optimism washing over every fan of LFC. Owners FSG (Fenway Sports Group) have long since driven the Hicks and Gillett side-show out of town and handed over more than £100m in just two transfer windows.
Liverpool received £50m for the sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea in January and under the previous regime, it is inconceivable to think that the majority of the fee would not have been used to make interest payments and service a crippling debt. Under FSG and the club’s Prinicipal Owner John Henry, the money pocketed from the Torres deal, as well as Ryan Babel’s £6m departure to Hoffenheim went straight back into squad development, as Dalglish brought in strikers Luis Suarez from Ajax and Andy Carroll from Newcastle for £22m and £35m respectively.
In the summer window, Liverpool have not had to sell before they can buy. The arrivals of Jordan Henderson (£16m), Charlie Adam (£6m), Jose Enrique (£6m), Stewart Downing (£20m) and Sebastian Coates (£7m) have all been conducted without the desperate ‘sell-before-we-can-buy’ reality that has plagued the club’s transfer dealings for the last three years. Players that have been allowed to leave are doing so because they are surplus to requirements at Anfield.
There is no dissension amongst the Kop, something which has not been seen or heard of in years. Even in the most glorious moment in the club’s past 25 years, the 2005 Champions League win in Istanbul, niggling gripes still persisted about the way the club was run off the pitch, and whether or not the success of Istanbul would be fully capitalised on. Fingers were pointed squarely at former Chief Executive Rick Parry and to a lesser extent the-then owner David Moores. Hindsight is a great tool, and to use it, we can safely say Liverpool did not do enough after the triumph to grow as a global brand, or more importantly, as a football club.
Liverpool Football Club in 2011, is a wholly different proposition. Transfer targets are identified and purchased with the minimum of fuss and the media is only alerted when the transfer is complete. This has been a key feature of Dalglish’s second stint in charge as manager, and it is a technique favourable with many fans, if not quite so with the journalists. The off-field accounts are blossoming. The club is now virtually debt free and are expanding their ‘brand’ with the excellent work of Managing Director Ian Ayre.
There is also the small matter of the current crop of youth team players coming through the ranks at Anfield. Already, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson have made their first-team debuts. Robinson became the club’s youngest ever player when he debuted at Hull City aged just 16 years and 250 days in May 2010, and Flanagan was handed his first start against Manchester City in April at the tender age of 18.
The LFC Academy also has high hopes for the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jesus ‘Suso’ Fernandez and Connor Coady, a combative midfielder who captained the under-18’s to a runners-up finish last season. All three have been given squad numbers for the current season. It is the combination Suso and Sterling though that is potentially the most mouth watering. A pair of flying wingers, with pace, trickery and an eye for pass, they are seen by some as the long term occupants of the left and right wings at Anfield.
LFC staff also have high hopes for strikers Adam Morgan and Michael Ngoo, defender Stephen Sama add the fact that Fabio Capello was recently scouting the merits of academy graduate Martin Kelly and it is clear Liverpool are beginning to see the green shoots of recovery after a barren decade without an exceptional talent breaking into their first team.
The future is looking very bright for Liverpool Football Club. Something that would not have been predicted from any corner 12-months ago.
