KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum John Henry and NESV

Gary Neville. Phil Neville. Michael Owen.

ARRGH! its worse than i first thought

one thing is certain is NESV will want a return on there investments , they are not oil rich russians or arabs who just want to bankroll clubs for ever , so they have gave everything to dalglish to do the right thing lets see if it happens.

Rafa Henry is not some philanthropist putting his money into LFC because he likes he club. He is out to make a profit which is fine and let’s hope the more the better because the club will be successful. The reason I mention the ground because it’s the number one issue for LFC. The club hs been going backwards off the field for more than 30 years. If you follow the club you must know that. I am not being negative just pointing out that (on what really matters) Henry has not come up with the goods yet. He may well do so and if so then my respect will come out in bucket loads. Until then I reserve judgement.

In the grand scheme of things it is not small change at all. It is ludicrous and you couldn't even begin to hope to justify that statement. They have spent lots. Further, you can't remotely argue he needs to see Liverpool back in the champions league to get back to his asset's start point as at the time of purchase, champs league money would not have been anywhere near the financial forecasts etc of the year ahead or the following one.
Money into transfer fees isn't the only thing that costs football clubs money, and fans buying tickets isn't the only way they recoup some of that money. They have spent a lot of money. Almost matching the top top clubs in the world. We aren't spending crazy malaga psg kinda money but I'm glad for that. They are setting up a workable business model that isn't gonna leave us stuffed. The naming rights issue is the thing holding us back on the stadium front, because redeveloping anfield is no, it always has been, and man city have just turned the cost of naming rights on its head.
You are well within your rights to be suspicious as we have been done over by previous owners, once bitten twice shy and all that. Even more importantly I am 100% behind you on the importance of the new stadium issue as we are years behind other top clubs because of it. But your way off with some of your points. The man Henry has spent, and he has spent big.

We need to get the club to the heights it was at before, before we can even start to think about a new stadium. Profits from shirt sales, LFC merchandise and so on provide a much bigger chunk of our income than some might suspect. Getting LFC to become a truly global brand is of great importance, and the move with us going to Asia was key to that part. I believe the owners have conducted themselves with dignity and have shown respect towards the club, manager and fans. For that, they deserve our respect. A new stadium will come, or perhaps a redeveloped Anfield, either way, They are here to make a profit and will definately try to secure maximum gate sales and attendance income. I am not worried by that at the moment. Once we get ourselves back where we should be and have a better rating, profits will increase a so too will spending. YNWA

I think Henry needs a bit of time in regards to the new/renovated stadium. I think they are trying to do whats best for the future of the club and their investment so they are investigating all options in relation to whether it's better to build a new stadium or increase the capacity of Anfield. I honestly believe that they would prefer to renovate Anfield into a 65K seat stadium and are trying to find the best way of doing without interfering too much so whilst they are upgrading it the capacity isn't reduced too much. They are taking their time with it to ensure they make the best possible decision for themselves, the club and the fans.
So far they have done a fantastic job with backing the manager with funds to begin rebuilding the squad and they should be commended for that because on the field things are looking up. Success is built from the top and filters down through to the management, players, staff and fans and I believe they are doing an excellent job to this stage.
Build it and they will come! Believe it will eventually happen for LFC off the field too.

I'm not in the slightest bit concerned that John Henry is the next coming of Hicks and Gillett. You know why? Because he's open about what his plans are, and he does what he says he will. There may be a degree of lip service in there, but football is a lie.

Kenny's net spend is not particularly high. About 40m in total, with a significant portion of that regained via a huge reduction in the wage bill. So, no, John Henry is not putting in huge amounts of his personal cash. But you know, he never said he would. He said that the club would pay its own way, including as regards the stadium issue. So the fact that he has not only allowed Kenny to do as he pleases with the money gained from player sales, he HAS invested something out of his own pocket. He also has an actual vision of where he would like the club to be, producing guidelines of what kind of players and their ages we would concentrate on, and he seems determined to build towards winning the title.

It's a pretty stupid thing to point out he's interested in a return on his investment. That's obvious, and it's true of everyone who is not an oil baron. But the fact that he hasn't asset-stripped ANY of his company's investments, and has instead guided them to glory, suggests that he understands that the return on his investment stems entirely on its success. Perhaps some people haven't been paying attention to what's been going on off the pitch since FSG arrived. New shirt sponsorship well in excess of what we have with Adidas, for one. Lebron James showing off LFC gear in front of NBA cameras.

The stadium issue is awkward, not because he doesn't want to spend money, but because there are a lot of obstacles to expanding Anfield, and a significant cost to building a new stadium in Stanley Park without investment from 3rd parties via things like naming rights. Anyone thinking that can be resolved in ten minutes is wrong, and anyone thinking that Liverpool FC will not pay the lion's share of the bill is just as wrong. How do I know this? Because John Henry said it himself, and thus far he's been a man of his word.

He hasn't promised things he couldn't deliver - he's simply gone about his business, made sure everyone is on the same page, and frankly he's been really successful with LFC since the day he walked in. The difference between where we were 12 months ago and now is as chalk is to cheese. I expect the stadium issue to drag out because it's much more complicated that sticking a spade in the ground, but I also expect the correct decision to be made when the time comes.

There are several issues which we need to put in place before attempting to build a stadium. Firstly to make sure we fill the stadium we need a decent team. Nearly all teams who have built a new stadium have ended up being relegated or in finacial trouble, simply because they diverted funds from the team to the stadium. Leicester, Southampton, Derby, Boro, Sunderland, Stoke being prime examples(Arsenal cannot compete financially at present due to the non sale of the Highbury flats).
Also a succesful team attracts the best investors, UTD got 10mil a year for training kit sponsorsip. more than most clubs kit sponsor.
Further to this we needed to cut our cloth accordingly, expensive players on big contracts adding little or no value to the club. we have moved 15 on since January replacing with 7 by enlarge cheaper but hungrier players. This must be contributing 10+mil a year, get in the champs league and there is another 20+mil a year. All in all potentially a better team, more attractive to sponsors and 30+mil better off.
This puts our % wages to turnover right down, the benefit being? well if you go for a loan to build the stadium then you want as low an interest rate as possible, with improved revenue(kit sponsor + above) and profitability then the chances of securing a low rate loan are significantly increased.

Finally i will give Greece as an example - their debt to GDP is the same as the UK yet they are effectively bankrupt. The difference being the interest payments we pay are <3% and Greece exceeds 12%. The same mess that Hicks/Gillete got themselves into.

I would not want to go near any loans once again. That interest is what brought us on the brink of administration in the first place, we do not want to repeat the same mistake again.

Henry is a great man, he has achieved success with other sport clubs and the fans have nothing but praise and positive remarks about him from the red sox and other institutions. I am thankful that he saved us from the previous owners, saved us getting into administration which would have been en embarrassment for such a great club like Liverpool. He has supplied Kenny with the money he needed to strengthen the team. If he builds a new stadium, he would have basically done everything for this club. Very happy with him at the helm, long may it continue.