DO you know what you will be doing in 15 months’ time? Ian Ayre does. Or more accurately, he knows what he won’t be doing. Which is being the Chief Executive Officer of Liverpool Football Club.
And to think they said Steven Gerrard’s departure was a long goodbye. Liverpool Football Club now seem determined to create a new Raymond Chandler novel every time anyone leaves. The higher the position in the company, the longer the goodbye. It’s a wonder they didn’t make Brendan Rodgers work until Christmas carrying Jürgen Klopp’s coat.
Ian Ayre is officially stepping down. He says it’s someone else’s go. Making the job sound like a podium in Garlands (the Liverpool nightclub, incidentally, where Ian Ayre took Brendan Rodgers on his appointment. But more on that sort of thing later).
But do we believe him — or the club — on this? The timing seems suspect, so soon after a ticket furore that wasn’t all of his making but one he certainly managed to make worse.
Does it seem strange that he would tell his employers so soon before the end of a contract he planned on leaving? Isn’t it more likely that the club have indicated they want a new direction and this is a nicer, not to mention cheaper, story all round?
It seems suspect to me. Surely an announcement in the summer makes more sense and it would still give the club plenty of time to appoint a successor. It suggests to me that this is more club-led than the sugar-coated PR statements suggest. At the very least, is it the old football classic “mutual agreement”?
But I guess it doesn’t matter now, the point is he is leaving.
Ian Ayre in the #LFC boardroom… pic.twitter.com/OF4jQUvNuH
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) March 14, 2016
So what of Ian Ayre’s legacy? The club is right to point out that “under his leadership, we have seen Liverpool transform from a club that was on the brink of bankruptcy, to one which today enjoys strong financial and operational health”.
But how much of this is down to Ian himself? It is undoubtably the case that revenue increased when he was Commercial Director of Liverpool. But it is a bit like praising the first man allowed to sell ice creams on Blackpool beach for business acumen. The club had performed so poorly before he came that anyone could have improved it. And how difficult a sell is Liverpool Football Club around the world anyway?
Under his stewardship commercial revenue has continued to rise. But, as the excellent Swiss Ramble blog pointed out this week, we still lag way behind the other biggest team in Europe in terms of what we bring in. The piece says: “Granted, the £110million shortfall against PSG (£116million vs. £226million) is largely due to the French club’s “friendly” agreement with the Qatar Tourist Authority, but there are still major gaps to the other clubs in commercial terms: Bayern Munich £95million, Manchester United £84million, Real Madrid £72million, Barcelona £69million and Manchester City £57million.”
£57m behind Manchester City? I know they have been more successful of late, but their performances in Europe have been fairly average and you can’t tell me they have more fans worldwide than us. I am certain we have more European Cups than them. I’ve just counted — it’s five more. It still feels we are massively underselling ourselves commercially around the world.
In terms of other revenue Ayre has got himself into a mess, too. In trying to increase the money flowing into club coffers he has alienated at times both our own fans and other clubs. Some going. His “be careful what you wish for” line may well end up on his gravestone. But here are some other classics from Ian.
“If you are in Kuala Lumpur, there isn’t really anyone subscribing to Astro or ESPN to watch Bolton. Is it really right that the international rights are shared equally between all 20 clubs?”
How to win friends and influence people.
That was in 2011 and international rights are still shared equally between all 20 clubs. Because Ian Ayre doesn’t think before running his mouth off that the smaller teams in the Premier League have to agree to any changes for them to be passed and the probably don’t like people implying they are shite. Incidentally, the next time we played Bolton Wanderers in the league they beat us 3-1. Which made us look even dafter.
Here he is on the idea of a 39th Premier League game: “It’s fraught with lots of issues but somehow we have a duty to fans around the world to give them access to the product.”
Actually, Ian, your duty is to the football club and not making a mockery of the main tournament it enters. Quotes like this one also make a mockery of the idea the lad from Litherland was there to bridge a gap between local fans and American owners. He never seemed too concerned about us at all.
His transfer dealings were at best patch, too. For a while it seemed any player we went in for ended up elsewhere, with the sign of Ian Ayre getting on a plane less of a comfort and more of a kiss of death. Liverpool fans grew tired of seeing deals for targets including Diego Costa, Willian and Henrikh Mkhitaryan talked up only to break down. He couldn’t even sign Clint Dempsey.
Not every deal is possible, and sometimes you just get a Ukrainian owner who won’t play ball. But our strategy and execution — from the outside looking in — seemed generally worrying. Here is Mohamed Salah’s agent after we were linked with the player for a month only for him to sign for Chelsea.
“It was a long and fair negotiation with Liverpool, but it lasted two-and-a-half months — too long. Both clubs could not agree on terms. When Chelsea contacted Basel, he was happy and took his chance.”
Quite what we wee talking about for two-and-a-half months I don’t know. But Chelsea took him and we were left short. Again.
Throughout his time at Liverpool, Ayre has seemed like a man with a difficult job. Someone trying to please people on both sides of the Atlantic who often had wildly different ideas on how a football clubs should be run. Someone who always had to take the flak for decisions that were largely out of hands.
I just wish he’d taken himself a bit more seriously throughout the whole thing. Then maybe I could have taken him more seriously.
We’ve all seen the ridiculous clobber. We’ve all heard the stories of nights out and seen the pictures.
It was just a bit embarrassing at times thinking of him as your representative around the world. Making 69 jokes. Rocking around on his rented Harley. At UEFA conferences asking Franz Beckenbauer if he can go on his shoulders.
You’d hope that someone can come in now with real gravitas in football. Someone who can push the club forward, get deals done and be a representative for fans when necessary.
But I can’t celebrate Ayre leaving and the reason is that I don’t hold much hope for his replacement because of the people doing the recruiting.
Maybe I’m being unfair, they did hire Jürgen Klopp. But we should remember that the reason Ian Ayre is CEO in the first place is because they looked around for a year, couldn’t find anyone and so promoted him from within.
Who will we end up with? Maybe Billy “I’m not spending a minute more in Liverpool than I have to” Hogan. Or some fella with a great presentation and a fantastic track record in baseball. Who knows?
Maybe this is what Ian Ayre meant when he said “be careful what you wish for”. We’ll see, Ian. See you in Heebies, lad, yeah?
I’ve worked in some pretty big corporations and if I were a betting man, I’d speculate (and it is just speculation) that he’s resigned having been used as a human shield for the ticket price fiasco by FSG. My guess is that he was hung out to dry having been promised full backing. It now suits both parties to divorce, Ayre having signed a CA. Just speculation, of course, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s how it has played out. Alternatively he might just have had enough and it might be that we should take the club’s message at face value.
We might be able to do better, but he hasn’t done a bad job, has he? The club is in a sound financial position, H&G are history and we haven’t got a Beckenbauer/Rumenigge type figure at the club. Can you imagine Stevie or Carra navigating the nuances of boardroom politics? But I haven’t been in the city, haven’t seen the photos and stuff. But I don’t care about his clobber. Bit Tory that.
Not as Tory as starting a post with “I’ve worked in some pretty big corportations”….. You don’t have to spend money to be smart. You can get a suit for £50 in Slaters. They’ll tailor it for you as well
Far less Tory. I worked in third sector organisations i.e. registered charities that had lost their moorings after being swallowed up by bigger operators with big corporate structures. Wannabe corporations, if you will. That’s why I don’t work for them anymore.
I loathe corporations and corporate behaviour, hence my suspicions about what’s happened to Ayre. The clobber argument is Tory even though I’m sure you’re not. Why? Because it’s all a bit Keeping Up Appearance isn’t it? I moved to Finland a few years ago, as my moniker suggests, very few people wear suits here. People are respected for their integrity and the quality of their work rather then their clobber.
It’s a game of opinions though, Gary.
@pauloffinland: I got what you mean, but you are referring to the wrong people with Beckenbauer and Rummenigge. Beckenbauer was never a manager in the business sense, but a sole team manager and world cup organiser, which did not include the financial part. Rummenigge is simply a prick – the one you are talking about is Uli Hoeness who is blessed to be a miser, talented footballer and someone with an ultra long-term approach.
Concerning the article, I found it quite positive doing 69 jokes – better than censoring the word “fuck” like in the USA. Shows a more relaxed attitude and this is also what Klopp needs: It is the first time in his managerial career that his boss changes and a strong relationship between him and the boardroom is as important as the relationship with supporters.
In this sense, rather 69 jokes.
Of course, Ian Ayre might have been detached regarding his relationship with football and the supporters, but finding a decent manager who is also in love with the game ain’t that easy. – I think of City having hired the Barca staff (and manager), but apart from that, idk any EPL club having management consisting of former pros or proven CL winners. With LFC, I can only really think of Carra fitting that profile.
It sounds like one of those “corporations” was Woolworths judging by your theory. Resigned? Don’t make me laugh; his contract was due to end and FSG wanted someone else, so this is the public spin. If Ayre had walked in and called the shots I beleive Henry would have removed him at the end of this season. This is just a natural end to his tenure. I beleive FSG are still looking to sell, and maybe negotiations are advanced. If a sale happened then Ayre would be removed for sure. Maybe he knows something we don’t. Well he probably knows a lot we don’t. Maybe he is going to reinvent Woolworths and become CEO; you might get your old job back. Regards M.
“Bit Tory that”? What, recognising that someone’s a bit of a bellend? (won’t they leave us anything?).
No. I’ve no problem with branding people bellends. Just couldn’t give a flying one what he wears if he’s up to the job. Same goes for if he isn’t and is indeed, a bellend.
hope TAW can interview Ian Ayre (maybe after 100 days of silence period, like BR?).
I am of the view that Ayre has done his best for the club. and it is the right time to move one for both parties.Thank you, Ian.
commercial Revenue comparison with MU, Bayern, Real and Barca are fair enough. all are above board revenue. But ManC numbers are misleading. Ethihad (sponsor of ManC) is owned by the same owner/family as the club ownership therefore the commercial revenue numbers may not reflect a transparent arms~length number.
I think you are right about City to some extent, but they do seem to have performed well commercially, even ignoring the Etihad deal.
John is really undervaluing the improvement in commercial performance over recent years. Comparison with Real, Barcelona, Bayern and Utd are interesting, but we are deluding ourselves if we think we should take them as a benchmark until we have again tasted sustained success on the pitch. They have significant advantages over us and have had more years developing their commercial partnerships.
A comparison with Arsenal and Chelsea is much more flattering to us. We outperform both commercially despite our lack of recent success on the pitch. It is match day rather than commercial revenue that puts them ahead of us financially. We have seen what happens if LFC go after that stream too aggressively, so let’s hope the good performance on the commercial side continues.
“…but they do seem to have performed well commercially, even ignoring the Etihad deal”. But all these other sponsors aren’t ignoring the Etihad deal. They see that City are a massively backed club and must be going places. It’s ALL down to the Abu Dhabi ownership. Not a fair comparison at all, with Liverpool.
Graeme and Ted, I was checking out the main sponsor list of ManCity and it is confirmed that at least 5 of the top 10 sponsors all linked (right pocket to left pocket ‘sponsorship’). That’s one of the reasons FFP guys were keeping a close watch on them. (not sure why am I spending few precious minutes on others’ biz though : -);
Anyway fairplay to the owners though — they do genuinely love football and want to see the club compete with Barca/Real, levels (and of course Liverpool : -)
In 15 months time I reckon I’ll be on the ale tbh. Not in garlands in all probability if I’m being honest.
Why the whopper is getting a season long stay of execution is anyone’s guess. Kenny Dalglish was given only slightly longer as manager in total and they didn’t lash it out there they wanted a younger manager all along. Still not happy with Ayre hiding when the Suarez/Evra shit hit the fan to let Kenny (and Comolli) take the fall. Ayre’s a arse-covering coward IMO. But he’s a red you know; he won’t do fans heads in every time he opens his mouth. Honest.
I absolutely get the point about us having been left short on a few occasions but… frankly, I’m delighted we didn’t get Salah. He’s awful. The Ukrainian lad hasn’t exactly turned out to be Messi II either. Memphis? And so on. Ayre wasn’t A1 but looking back it might just be that he wasn’t the worst either.
Do we think the CEO should be signing players up? Reading about or hearing about Ian Ayre flying off to seal a deal always seemed a bit small time to me, as though we only had one person at the club able to do deals. Ideally you’d want a couple of specialists (lawyers) and a football man doing the deal. I dunno, rambling a bit here, but we did seem overly reliant on one man, and one more suited to commercial deals than signing football players.
Well at Woolworths they probably overspent on lawyers in the end; but there really would be no point in just sending Lawyers. You need a front man to sell the club; that responsibility was Ayres in the same way it was David Deins at Arsenal, now spot the difference? One was connected in footballing terms and one was not/isn’t. Dein was a success and Ayre has been average. So in answer to your question; yes you send the CEO, other clubs do, but like with anything you need the right person to the job. Ayre isn’t that person and never was or never will be. Regards M.
It seems there is not much welcome in Liverpool for a financial executive who voted out poisonous owners and helped turned a club on its financial knees in turmoil into one standing firmly on its own two feet in only a few years. Someone who is overseeing an expansion to the stadium and has put the club in a position to hand Klopp a transfer budget that can rival almost any club in the world at the same time deserves a bit of gratitude and respect. Instead the TAW twitter account is full of petty jokes and articles full of accusations that the owners don’t want him anymore despite their own comments. This is no longer a surprise unfortunately as the tremendous good that FSG and others have done and continue to do is substantially and continually undervalued or even downright ignored.
Hi again, Stephen.
I like a lot of what I see on TAW but it’s pretty normal for senior people to have extended ‘notice periods’. I work for a large organisation who just announced their CEO will leave in mid 2017. I’m glad he’s given FSG plenty of time to appoint a successor. This will allow plenty of time to find the right person.
Watch out mate, that makes you a bit Tory in these parts! :-)
Aye you started the Tory jibes, not me! :)
Aye aye!
Pluses and minuses for Ayre overall.
In fairness we’ve been 20 years behind (a lot of ) teams commercially due to our historic success and subsequent inertia
We’re now moving at a pace that we should have been moving at years ago
Finally seem to have some realistic foundations in place – stadium , manager, commerce
Next few years are critical as we can’t regress back to any of those recent dark days and must learn from them so that are not remotely part of our agenda and / or remit for forthcoming seasons
Embracing the Klopp style. Embracing the Klopp revolution
The sneering cynicism and negativity of this article is a bit nauseating tbh. I’m no fan of Ian Ayre — there’s something about him that gives me the creeps. But he has been a supporter of Liverpool Football Club since childhood and has given almost a decade of his professional career working to bring the Club through a precarious period of difficulty and back to a relatively sound financial footing for future sustainable growth. If it’s true that he made the decision to leave in December and has agreed to stay until the end of the 2016-17 season, it’s most likely to oversee the opening and first season’s operation of the expanded stadium and everything that goes with, including a huge workforce expansion — if reports are accurate that the new Stand will mean 1,000 job openings.
It’s honorable and a sign of dedication for a man to stay on to see that through, as well as to allow the Owners a substantial opportunity to form a search committee, find and interview prospective candidates, down-select and finally make a sound decision to replace the Club’s top executive. It shows commitment to take the needed time to find the right replacement. Having worked for large corporations, this is the right and best way to approach such an executive change to ensure proper transition of responsibilities and continuity of business operations. There is considerable institutional knowledge that will need to be transferred and that takes time.
So the sneering cynicism and accusing the Owners and Club of lying publicly is perhaps a bit misplaced. It makes me question the author’s motives and mentality more then it makes me distrust the Club or FSG. To be honest.
I meant to say also that I hope FSG will use this opportunity to split the CEO responsibilities:
1. Commercial / Financial, and possibly transfer negotiations if the individual has the requisite education and experience in high-stakes negotiations, along with the needed international connections and gravitas.
2. Supporter Liaison — a strong former player, such as perhaps John Barnes, who is highly regarded, intelligent, well spoken, and could sit in the Kop alongside the faithful as comfortably as he could represent Supporters’ varied points of view in the corporate Boardroom.
We need to give him much more respect, that “69” ‘joke’ is priceless, what an absolute star. I’ve nothing against him particularly, I just think this whole debate feeds into our obsession with finances etc – By all means, bring in as much revenue as possible, I can’t feel much either way for Ayre, he just doesn’t inspire….anything really – but then, should he? Should we all be plastering our walls with pictures of accountants etc?
I’m being sarcastic. That joke is embarrassing, plus, they left it in! That whole ‘documentary’ was so puerile and cringey.
You have to weigh it up like this…..
Do the positives outweigh the negatives?
I think they do with Ian Ayre.
Yes we’ve been crap in the transfer market, he’s been crap in negotiations.
The ticket fiasco was a complete shambles…..
That’s the negatives…
All outweighed by that picture of him on Fowler’s shoulders….
I don’t care what he’s done….
I’ve laughed at that picture loads and loads and loads.
We all have.
Purely for that reason he’s been a success for me.
Still reckon he was hung out to dry over the ticketing issue. Is he FSG’s useful idiot, their lightning rod (see David Squires)? Or should he have read the signs, what with him being in the city and all. Guess we’ll never know. Thankless job for a Scouser though: you’re always going to a be a bit poacher turned gamekeeper.
“if reports are accurate that the new Stand will mean 1,000 job openings.”
Reports are almost certainly inaccurate, and they are based on an official Liverpool FC press release. It’s very likely that LFC have “double counted” the figures. LFC employ around 1,300 staff on match days currently, and an additional 1,000 would make the figure roughly 2,300. That’s more than Manchester United – in a 76,000 capacity stadium – employ. Would LFC really employ a similar number for just 54,000 spectators?
However, I’m not particularly convinced by the criticism of Billy ““I’m not spending a minute more in Liverpool than I have to” Hogan. Regardless of whether he’ll be appointed Chief Executive – and I suspect Andy Hughes is a more likely candidate if it’s to be a promotion from within LFC (rather than FSG) – Hogan’s office is in London, where he is employed to work. If the point of setting up the London office was to provide a base where more deals could be researched, set up, and concluded, all for the convenience of LFC’s commercial clients and to the benefit of the club, then it makes perfect sense that he should be spending nearly all of his time there. It does seem a little odd to criticise someone for not being in Liverpool if their work in London means a comparatively greater commercial revenue stream.
The office was set up in London because he requested it. Not the other way round. It is to make it easier for him to operate between the UK and US.
You are correct to be sceptical of the new jobs though. In the past they have included agency staff being brought in house. No bad thing but not ‘new’ jobs
The latest very thorough analysis of The Club’s financial report by the guy who writes the Swiss Ramble blog states that the Club employment is currently 636, with the rise from 567 during this reporting period largely being in the ‘administration, commercial and other’ department.
Nothing’s perfect on this planet, but I just don’t see the need to immediately assume that people connected with the Club are lying about everything and deliberately throwing one another under one bus or another. Every corporation and business changes direction and personnel from time to time. The change of a Chief Executive Officer is a big thing and must be handled carefully for business continuity.
Whether anyone accepts it or likes it or not FSG is in it for the long term. Ian Ayre served for almost a decade. They will certainly be looking for someone to replace him who will be willing to commit for at least several years. They are a conservative bunch of investors run by leadership that makes careful and considered decisions. This is obvious across all their ventures, not only their sports interests.
At some point people who aren’t bent on endlessly carrying forward past association hatreds and biases and bitterness that is not supported by the facts may come around to realise that we have a respectable and honourable ownership group that takes their stewardship role seriously. In the big picture does it really matter why Ian Ayre is leaving? If he has even a modicum of self-awareness he surely sees that trust in his decision making and his ability to strategicly plan and execute the big changes was broken by how he handled the ticket pricing scheme. At Liverpool broken trust is extremely difficult to repair. The look on his face the day of the walkout said it clearly. He knew he had to leave. What difference does it make if he made the decision in December or knew his fate was sealed that day in February? This is an opening for the Club to take a step forward by making a needed improvement in a critical position. As a supporter who is only interested in the success of my club at every level, I hope they succeed brilliantly in finding the right person to replace him.
Always struck me as the kind of arl arse who hangs around bars waiting for someone to buy him a pint.
He could of been thrown under the bus by the owners on the ticketing issue given he’s meant to be the man on the ground, the liaison between the UK and US and ultimately cost the yanks a few million quid per annum. Or he could of just had enough, but recently he does seem to resemble a bit of diss-shelved, blood shot ale can.
At that CEO level it’s more about the respect you have globally that being seen at the match with the hooters waitress you met last week.
Many firms promote from within up to those kinds of levels nothing wrong with that but it’s not absolutely necessary, I mean how many people know who Ferran Soriano is??
There’ certainly a role at the club for the likes of Barnes, Kenny, SG (maybe down the line etc) in an Ajax, Bayern style of front facing, coaching, liaison role but on the back end of negotiating transfers, commercial deals, ground development plans etc you want best in class and that’s arguably not traditional football people but people who can go into a board room and bang out a new $100M shirt deal.
It seems you msinderstood what I wrote. I said split the CEO responsibilities and bring on a former player purely for a Supporter Liaison role. The current Supporters’ Group is well meaning but doesn’t have the level of ability to truly represent supporters’ care-abouts and concerns the way someone like John Barmes could do. Obviously the commercial / financial / transfer negotiation role requires a completely different set of skills that I don’t even think could be filled by Kenny Dalglish or Robbie Fowler or Steven Gerrard. Robbie just said a couple days ago that he’s very keen to break into coaching & management when he finishes his badges.
I wasn’t referring to your comments Ellie just my thoughts on the systems at Ajax and Bayern which utilise former players in roles that can drive the club forward in their own perspective manners whether it be liaison, coaching etc.
I do certainly agree that the CEO role should be high level and not necessarily be done by someone who has any connection with the club but is actually a boss CEO
Jesus Christ that 69 joke. Should’ve been fired on the spot for that alone, never mind the fact they covered it in a fucking documentary AND published it!
Poor young fresh-faced Joe Allen having to laugh along out of embarrassment :(
EXACTLY! The sheer wit and wisdom behind that outburst – That’s our CEO that is. V.Revealing, moments like that.
Jallen knows a knobhead when he sees one
1. Ayre has contributed to the growth of the club; and at the same time, he had his perks that come with the role such as Twin Peaks moments!!!
2. FSG does not need to BS or sugar coat if they wanted to let Ayre go. FSG is a no-nonsense sports investment entity. They have fired the King when they saw it necessary, they have pulled the trigger on BR too even after allowing him to spend millions over the previous summer when BR failed to perform, and when the JK was available to take over. Therefore I do believe that FSG ‘reluctantly accepted’ Ayre’s resignation. And if FSG wanted to let Ayre go, they would not let him hang around for another 18 months at the club.
let’s show some respect to both Ayre and to FSG.