KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Is Rodgers in control?

The main issue I have with FSG is that they are not investing their own money in the club but are trying to turn it around like a business which would pay dividends (like United) in the future. An average of 25m net spend yearly is generated from the club itself. LFC can be a profitable enterprise (may be not in the long term) without winning the EPL and CL and this is what the plan might be.

But the difference with Utd was that the Glazers didn't buy the club with money. They over-loaded the club with their own debt, being serviced internally. Whereas FSG have bought the club and therefore have not been servicing the sale loan with the clubs finances.

I think you're disrespecting FSG by suggesting that they'd be stupid enough to try and make money for themselves in football. It is common knowledge that rich men that want to get richer won't invest in football. It makes little to no sense. And they have given the club funds when the club needed to cover some of the stadium fees.

I don't think they've been great 100% of the time. I think the club made an awful lot of mistakes in those first 2 years. Ultimately, I think they've realised that we need to be spending £30-40m a year to get the club back to where we need to be, and I'm afraid that means moving on under-performing long-term contracted high salary players, and bringing in ones of equal/better immediate quality, with potential to improve, on lower deals.

If everyone for one second, just got rid of sentimentality for every one of our players. Imagine you were being objective as possible, and analysing them as you would products in your home against products in the shop, you'd realise just how useful the changes being made might prove.

You can suggest that they want to make money off the club, but they certainly wouldn't have bought Carroll when they did, or buy Mignolet, or buy Alberto to sell Shelvey. They're all transfers that cost the club more money now, so to me, the argument has little to no basis in truth.

they haven't spent very much at all , and they serviced some of the debt. pretty sure with debt of their own.

I don't agree that "Americans" are just in it for money. FSG are a group of sports investors and enthusiasts wanting to be part of a global brand that runs sports ventures sustainably. They do make money, but this year, is the first time in 11, that FSG have actually paid dividends to their shareholders/investors. So tell me how 1 in 11 years backs up your argument that they're only in it to make money?! What they're looking to do, is continue to invest in successful sports teams through the success of their existing. While we're not being a success, they're working on making that possible. But its true. This is the first and only year FSG have taken dividends. Look it up. I do look up these things, because if my opinion isn't reasoned, its a weak argument.

John Henry is definitely passionate about the game now. They always look for interesting sports ventures and when we became available, they instinctively moved in and have been trying to fast-track their knowledge of the sport. I'm not saying he was a fan 3 years ago. What I am saying is that, from Ayre, himself, Werner etc, they have all noted on how much time he has spend watching, learning, asking questions. He could have come in and said "this works for baseball so the same must work for football" but he didn't. He has, despite haters on here, tried to communicate with Gill and Gazidis on how to run clubs effectively, and this last year has been the first big-year of turning the club around, having invested so much under Dalglish with little reward in terms of getting back into the Champions League.

We don't agree if you're disputing FSGs history as a business (previously NESV) or if you dispute what they have done in previous sports ventures that 1) are still running, 2) still part of the corporation and 3) still proving successful. They have put money into the club to cover some expenses, and at the moment, we are the only club draining their cashflow resources. If the club isn't running sustainably, it'll run itself into the ground. A football club is a business. So long as it can fund success, and work well, efficiently and effectively, then FSG won't be happy until the club is challenging again.