Carl Crawford has made a career out of terrorizing opposing baseball teams with a lethal bat and scorching speed. But nobody ever expected him to cause so much angst in a gray, industrial city in northwest England.
This week in Liverpool, the home of one of England's most beloved—but lately most woebegone—professional soccer teams, Mr. Crawford's just-announced $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox has been a source of disgruntlement among soccer fans from Twitter to the pubs along Mathew Street.
The problem: the Liverpool team's new owner, the Fenway Sports Group, is the same entity that owns the Red Sox. And with the January transfer period when soccer clubs buy and sell players fast approaching, Liverpudlians are worried that the bank vault has been swept out in the name of baseball.
"I wouldn't know Carl Crawford from Cindy Crawford so it doesn't mean anything to me," said Luke Smith, a 28-year-old graphic designer and member of a Liverpool fan group, "but I'd be happy if they gave [Liverpool manager Roy] Hodgson $42 million to spend, never mind $142 million."
Chris Whelan, a 49-year-old Liverpool fan from Chester, said: "It's all very well spending all that money on a shortstop or whatever, but we haven't had a decent left-back for 12 years."
As sports teams go, Liverpool FC and the Red Sox have a great deal in common. Both are storied franchises in cold northern cities with large Irish enclaves. The fans of both teams are obsessive, rabidly loyal and fatalistic. Both play in celebrated but revenue-limited stadiums that are more than 90 years old.
In recent years, however, their fortunes have diverged. The Red Sox, who hadn't won a World Series in 86 years, finally won two of them—in 2004 and 2007—after new ownership took over the team in 2002. Liverpool, which had been the most successful soccer team in England in the 20th century, had the opposite fate. The team hasn't won the Premier League title since 1990. And since U.S. investors Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought the team in 2007 and drove up its debt (becoming pariahs in the process), the team has seen rivals Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal sign more top talent and vault past them in the standings. At the moment, Liverpool stands in a disappointing eighth place in the Premier League table.
For the record, it was Red Sox fans who were the first to howl. In October, when principal owner John Henry and Fenway Sports, formerly New England Sports Ventures, appeared seemingly out of nowhere to plunk down $477 million for Liverpool, the Sox had just finished one of their most disappointing seasons since Mr. Henry acquired the team in 2002. Even with a payroll of $160 million—the second-highest in baseball—the Red Sox won just 89 games, finished in third place in the American League East and missed the playoffs for just the second time in the last eight years.
Worse, the Red Sox had done little at the trade deadline and had seemed apathetic about re-signing star catcher Victor Martinez and third baseman Adrian Beltre, who'd posted a .321 batting average with 28 home runs.
"If they had $477 million just laying around, burning a hole in their pocket, surely they could use that to resign Beltre, [David] Ortiz and maybe some actual arms for the bullpen?" lamented the fanblog tedsarmy.com. "When you drop half a billion dollars on a soccer team, don't tell me you didn't have the budget for Beltre."
This week, however, it was Liverpool's turn to grouse. Thursday's contract with Mr. Crawford capped a four-day, $300 million spending spree by the Red Sox that included a commitment of $160 million to slugging first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Comments on Twitter Thursday called the signing "bad" for Liverpool and predicted the team would likely be "sellers at the tranfer window."
In an email Thursday, Mr. Henry tried to put a damper on the sibling rivalry. "People don't have a clear understanding of Fenway Sports Group. So it's understandable that they may believe that buying Liverpool Football Club deprives the Boston Red Sox of capital," he wrote. "But it just doesn't work that way." Mr. Henry explained that spending decisions on each team's player payroll wouldn't be made subjectively but would be based on that team's individual revenue. (According to Deloitte's Football Money League, Liverpool was fourth in revenue in the Premier League in 2008-09, with nearly $287 million, some $160 million behind rival Manchester United.)
Rob Tilliss, founder of Inner Circle Sports, who advised Mr. Henry on the Liverpool acquisition, said the new ownership "is as committed to beating the Yankees as they are to beating Manchester United."
By any standard, Liverpool has holes to fill. Jamie Carragher, the team's veteran defender, underwent shoulder surgery last month, and captain Steven Gerrard has been hobbled by a hamstring injury. Big-name summer recruits Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen have struggled to make an impression.
Rogan Taylor, the author of a 2008 plan to raise cash for a fan-led buyout of the team, said it might be too early to panic. "But if the spending restrictions remain in place in the summer, then people will start to look at what's happening in Boston and ask questions," he said.
