TAW Unwrapped focuses on another current issue for Liverpool, on or off the pitch. Hosted by Rob Gutmann, the panel takes a second, third and sometimes fourth look at the football club we all love.
Rob Gutmann hosts Phil Blundell, Ben Mullane and Glenn Price to tell the story of Fenway Sports Group as they approach 6 years of ownership of Liverpool Football Club to reflect on the news that Liverpool have banked more transfer receipts than any other side in Europe since they took ownership.
Is this just a by-product of a successful transfer policy? Or is a bulging receipts column at the very core of Fenway Sport Groups ethos?
Are the owners learning as they go and are they learning quick enough?
All this in a cracker of an ‘Unwrapped’.
Bit buggy still but….nice.
You really didn’t talk about FSG history of baseball ownership with respect to their ambition in footy. They bought a team in the US that last won a title in WWI and bought players and mangers that got them 3 titles in the next 12 years.
Liverpool haven’t won a title in the Premier League ever, let alone since FSG arrived so to do a gutmann and hit them with a 7/10 as if they are to blame for not getting a title is simply absurd. Transfers only work about 50% of the time no matter what team is the buyer and I think the mistake they did make was Rodgers’ ego expansion at finishing 2nd when he thought he knew what he was doing. FSG simply had no way to tell that his get English players with PL experience (the only players he knew anything about) was going to cause friction with the committee and subsequent pouting by BR with respect to using them.
Still, good interesting discussion.
I wanted to make a point but it was touched on in the summing up. That rarely stops me though.
On another day, their record could have been
2011/12, League Cup and FA Cup Winners
2013/14 Premier League Winners
2015/16 League Cup Winners, Europa Cup Winners.
I think we’d have all taken that on the day they took over.
Obviously, that’s not their record but it’s a fine line, Andy Carroll’s effort in the FA Cup goes in like I thought it had from where I was. Gerrard doesn’t slip and we don’t go behind, we don’t take a load of wank penalties or Moreno’s header is better and and we grow into the second half.
My point is we’re not out in the wilderness trophyless like Everton. Perhaps, we’re just not quite there. I think we’ve moved up a notch since the above mentioned days even if some were only a few months ago.
Regarding FSG, mistakes have been made but they’ve also been corrected in a lot of the areas. For example, anyone today mentioning moneyball as our strategy is off their head. It may form a part of it but that just makes sense. Put it all on a graph and apart from the 14/15 season the curve is upwards. I think that’s all anyone can ask. Stagnation is a dreadful thing for a fan. As of today in late September 2016 there isn’t a fan who would say we’re not on the up again.
I used the term parallel universe recently and then realised I’m not actually sure of it’s precise meaning but imagine one where FSG run Liverpool but then at the same time some Arabs or Chinese buy us in 2010 and have loads of cash. Imagine how fascinating it would be to compare results today. I’m not convinced we’d be as streets ahead as people think. Either way, I think Klopp is showing that with the playing fields levelled a bit more maybe we’re entering a period where the correlation between spending and winning is becoming less definite. Utd and City have both spent around £400m in the last 3 years. Their honours are better than ours but not great but then they had a better starting point to us 3 years ago.
Overall, FSG have good the club in good shape. Maybe it’s time to move on now in which case we’d look at their tenure of one of stability with a spring board to go forward to where we want to be. But then, do we want a change at this time. I don’t think I do. As I’ve said, are rich owners the absolute solution? There’s a few about already and someone is gonna miss out when the music stops regardless because 4 doesn’t go into 1 (I’m terrible at maths so that might be wrong). If we become clearly stagnated then I definitely would want a change. Now’s not that time though. Done well, could have done better, been naive it times, currently very exciting times for Liverpool. Great show, good subject and guests but as you said, this isn’t the end of the story.
Good writing mate. Spot on about what our trophy haul could have been but for …