KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum The John W Henry Interview (6/2/11)

For those that haven't yet read/seen it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video/?vid=fd1240b3-4646-4676-ac8a-4e299e1dce9e

Keep up the good work Mr Henry. Your making the taking the right steps so far

Fantastic interview I think...Very well spoken and knows how to do business IMO.

Can't play the video, but is this the interview where, after selling Torres for 50m, he accuses Chelsea of overspending? Class.

Playing to the gallery having a go at Chelsea that ticks a lot of boxes for the naive. The key thing was that he hinting not investing in the club by tarting the present old ground up. That’s what matters it was a very concerning interview for me. We may have exchanged one owner without resources for another.

leave that conversation in the other thread please

great video, thanks acari

and great post rafarendum i agree with you.

but stanley park, after what happened with the last owners i think we have a right to be weary at least. but so far they are making the moves for this club and doing it in the right way. its a totally new beginning and we're starting fresh.

I think I'm far from naive - when last did we have owners who actually had a go at the way the owners of others clubs conduct their business? For the record all I have to go on are a few snippets from this interview (as you may have realized had you read my entire post).

Henry has always played his cards close to his chest. Maybe that says "skint" to you, but to me it says "man who is intelligent enough to think first before the media crucify him about some supposed promise". He's not promising things, and I don't know if you've had a look at the way the club is being run, but it seems to me (admittedly from very far away) that he's simply delivering instead. He's always said that he wanted the club to be self-sufficient as it is the most effective business model (which I think is something pretty much everyone agrees on), and now you're upset because he's putting his words into action? How many times have the supporters said we didn't want a sugar daddy, but that we wanted someone who would grow the club? You seem to want the sugar daddy as well, and it's like you've just woken up that's not who he is nor what he wants.

Firstly apologies Lumbar for saying naive I am sorry but it was not aimed at you it’s just my post fell directly below yours and then I had to go to work otherwise I would have corrected before now. Also I don’t have thing about Henry I think he is very shrewd (as we will find out), very competent it’s just I don’t think he has the financial resources. Yes I do want us to grow organically and I don’t want a Mansoor or Abramovich situation at Anfield. But the unpalatable fact is this club has for the last 15 / 20 years been steadlity falling behind its rivals and we don’t have the capacity to match them anymore. We therefore need a substantial injection to kick start the club and I don’t feel from the messages thus far Henry has the resources to do that. We will never catch up to our rivals from organic growth from our start position. When I saw Henry slagging Chelsea off I was dismayed firstly it’s a bit disrespectful but mainly it got me worried. A cynic would say he is ingratiating himself with the fans to build up some stock with the fans before he delivers the bad news in the summer. That’s what I meant by the general naive comment. I remember the day DIC pulled out of the deal to buy Liverpool for me we have not recovered from that event DIC would have had the resources to take the business risk with initial investments that would put us on an even footing with Utd / Arsenal who are probably our direct comparatives. That’s not a sugar daddy situation it’s a straight commercial deal based on a business big enough to make the eventual return which I think LFC is. But it needs resources and commercial risk taking commitment and I fear Henry has neither of these. I hope I am proved wrong but I have a very bad feeling about this.

This arguement could happen at most other premier league clubs. None of them trust really their owners. Liverpool is not unique in this. There is obviously a big step from being a family club albeit a successful one to one that has been taken over by professionals. I daresay chelsea fans are worried about what abramovich is doing and how long he keeps the club and what will happen if he sells the club. Need to take a look at it objectively i think