FSG- Managing decline or managing expectations at Liverpool
FSG- Managing decline or managing expectations at Liverpool
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81 was a funny old year for Liverpool.While the streets of Toxteth were burning and Alan Kennedy was securing Liverpools third European Cup in Paris against Real Madrid a meeting was taking place in 10 Downing Street.It was a meeting of the Cabinet, and the then Chancellor,Geoffrey Howe, was recommending to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the managed decline of the city of Liverpool.We know this because Cabinet papers were recently released under the 30 year disclosure rule; aquaint system whereby bad news can be buried until all the protagonists are off the scene.In Liverpool, at the time, we all knew what Government was up to. We just couldnt prove it.The only surprise,thirty years on is that a Cabinet member could actually and actively articulate such a strategy for a major British city.On release of the papers Geoffrey Howe denied it of course, in a sheepish sort of way ;.. Taken out of context etc etc.He would say that wouldnt he?So whats all this got to do with Liverpool Football Club in 2013?Well, at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, if you swap the Chancellor (the guy who looks after the money) and the city of Liverpool for Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool FC you at least have some kind of parallel.So ,am I suggesting that Fenway Sports Group are presiding over a managed decline of LFC ?Well,not exactly, but the vacuum of communications coming out of Boston doesnt help matters.What is the FSG strategy for LFC ? Whats the big picture?When Brendan Rodgers (or Saint Brendan the Navigator as I prefer to call him) was appointed he was quoted as saying that his remit was to be competitive. A strange thing to say.What does that mean ? To be in the top four? To challenge for the top four? To challenge for trophies?It can only refer to the Champions League and Premiership,of course because,amazingly Tom Werner has publicly rubbished the minor trophies. It says a lot for the faithful that they still turn up in their droves for competions that are discredited,but then FSGs ticket pricing policy for these games is one of the few shrewd moves made behind the scenes. We still have our agenda,Tom has his.The UEFA Cup is only marginally ahead of them in the pecking order as it gives sponsors some kind of exposure to hang their hats Dillon Radunz Jersey on.So,back to the strategy;the big idea. What is it ?Is it the cult of youth ? Replace a 63 year old icon with a promising 39 year old. The jurys still out on that one.Replace a fairly anonymous 50-something Communications manager with a 23 year old American ? Well that one ended in farce in a Manchester restaurant. The plot sounded like something even Willy Ru sell and Alan Bleasdale would have rejected over a pint as being too fanciful to be plausible.Appoint a young talent spotter to oversee transfer policy maybe? That one ended in tears.As it turned out he wasnt so much directing transfer policy as signing the cheques when Kenny called. It takes an awful lot of money ball to get added value out of 35m . Very quickly stories began to leak out that credit for his previous conquests were not as clear cut as Me srs Henry and Werner were led to believe.So, now we are about to embark on one of the strangest transfer sagas of any club in recent Rashaan Evans Jersey years the purchase of Tom Ince.This is a lad who we sold not much more than a year ago for 250,000. We, allegedly, are prepared to buy him back at ,reportedly, 6m .OK, even allowing for the 35% sell-on clause we inserted in the original sale, thats about 3.75m we are paying to send him to Blackpool for a year. Thats the equivalent of paying him 70,000 a week to play for someone else ! At this point dont forget its not a world-beater were talking about. Its a 20 year-old lad with promise. We have a few of those at Melwood . Is there another club out there that would pay us 70,000 a week to take one of their best prospects off their hands?Now,that may not be much in JoeColeWorld but in the real world its the economics of madne s.Is there more to this than meets the eye ?Is there internal point-scoring going on between administrations ?Kenny was reluctant to give the young lads their head despite giving Raheem Sterling his debut, because he was under pre sure to produce results. Therein lies the rub. You cant have it both ways. Development or trophies? Which is it to be?The Jordan Henderson saga was another very strange one. The captain of England under 21s the very kind of pedigree we would target at the moment offered as a 4m makeweight in a deal to sign a 29 year-old American.This is where the cult of youth theory comes under some stre s. A player we paid 16m for offered as a 4m makeweight . To add insult to injury the signing of Clint Dempsey was heralded on the FSG website before his club was even consulted , leading to a humiliating and undignified apology ! All proof that FSG are learning on the job.Somewhere in all this sanity broke out. Maybe one of the countrys best young midfield prospects put his foot down and refused to budge ? Lets hope so.The bigger picture,though, is that there appeared for a while to be an obse sion for cleansing the club of the previous administration in order to score political points, not to strengthen the club.Tom Ince aside, those days appear to be over.Incidentally,the Ince transfer raises interesting book-keeping questions.Is the 6m fee discounted to 4m ?Or, more correctly,do LFC pay Blackpool 6m and receive 2m commi sion from Blackpool which,incidentally, will Breon Borders Jersey be subject to tax like any other income? Im glad Im not sorting that one out.Back to the strategy.We can all understand the stadium decision even if there does appear to be a certain amount of post-justification about it. Playing the heritage card was always going to be an easy sell for John Henry, even though theres hardly a brick or piece of concrete left at Anfield from when I first went, let alone 1892. The stadium doesnt reside in the bricks and mortar. It resides in the fans. And they arent going away.So, we have a refurbishment/extension/upgrade/whatever at Anfield.The logic used by Ian Ayre for not building new is that we are only getting 15,000 additional seats(increasing from 45,000 to 60,000). This,he argues,will not support the cost of a new stadium. Theres some merit in that although hes being a little disingenuous as hes pricing those seats (for the post-justification) as normal seats (at say 50) as opposed to corporate seats at ,say, 150.That extra 100 per seat is equal to 1.5m, or over a 20 match home season 30m extra revenue.When this debate started in the late 90s construction costs equated to c1,000 per extra seat. Now its between 5,000 10,000 per seat.An extended Anfield to 60,000 would cost between 75m-150m. The figures stack up even allowing for some lo s of revenue in a phased construction.But where is the news on the stadium ?Planning Permi sion is the bogey man that the club is hiding behind. Yes,it does take time,but where theres a will theres a way. Some Liverpool fans are beginning to wonder whether theres a will for even an extended Anfield.Do FSG have a 80-20 rule ?If you can get 80% of what youre after with 20% of the resources is it worth risking breaking the bank for the extra 80% to achieve the extra 20% ?Or is being competitive enough?2012 will go down in history as one of the greatest years in Liverpools history.Not for anything that happened on the field, but for the dignity,honesty and transparency of 96 families in their pursuit of justice.FSG could learn a thing or two from them.Start by letting the fans know what the plan is.
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