On Maxi, Summer Signings, and FSG's Business Model

Well, while waiting on pins and needles in the hopes that Liverpool have signed Fabio Borini (look, there's a picture of him in training gear!), we get news that Maxi Rodriguez's inevitable exit has finally come to pass.

Which Liverpool did an excellent job of promoting, as has become par for the course. While everyone's waiting for Borini news, Liverpool's Head of Content tweets this:

Transfer news at 6pm on lfc.tv

— Paul Rogers (@PaulRogersLFC) July 13, 2012

Everyone clicks, everyone goes to the website, everyone freaks out in anticipation. Nope, not Borini, not Dempsey, or not any of the other multiple names perpetually linked. Maxi's exit. At least we know where Liverpoolfc.com's priorities lie. Website hits.

It's not that Maxi – or Kuyt, as I wrote about five weeks ago, prompting many of the same squad depth fears – is irreplaceable. As many, many have already said, Maxi was criminally underused, with Liverpool's joint-best shot conversation rate and best league goals-per-minute rate last season. But both he and Kuyt are over thirty, had increasingly smaller roles last season, and were on comparably high wages considering each's relative value. This always seemed likely, as much as Maxi will be missed both on and off the field.

It's not even that Liverpool haven't signed anyone yet, despite the squad leaving for its US tour next week, despite the Europa League qualifiers beginning in just under three weeks, despite Liverpool having signed at least one player by this point in every summer transfer window over the last decade. And don't even start that Aquilani and Cole are like new signings because, come on. Let's be serious here. The lack of incoming players are obviously a concern, but it's an explainable one: Rodgers is still getting a handle on the squad, the Euros dampened business across the market, etc. Borini almost assuredly will be announced soon [Update (2:30pm): That didn't take long.], if not later today. And others will follow.

Still, as @AvoidingTheDrop cleverly quipped:

Number of additions made to Liverpool squad to replace three depth players: 0. Number of new social media initiatives by LFC this summer: 3.

— Avoiding the Drop (@avoidingthedrop) July 13, 2012

The perception is that LFC (read: FSG) care far more about commercial deals and the wage bill than the actual football. Granted, at this point, it's still perception, arguably reactionary perception, but the prevailing perception nonetheless. And with the season soon to start, frightfully close to becoming reality.

Of course, we were warned. A guest post from friend-of-the-blog Mike Anton said as much 21 months ago. The relevant section:

Boy, Do They Like Making Money: Their home field, Fenway Park, was first built in 1912, which they still use. It's an ugly matchbox of a stadium that people now consider "quaint" because they're too nice to use "horribly outdated." Most ownership groups who wanted to purchase the Sox in '03 were going to tear it down and build a new stadium. But not these guys! They believed that the park was the franchise, so they decided to keep the old barn because they couldn't envision a franchise without it. [Editor's Note: Please ignore the use of the word "franchise." A can of worms better left closed.]

Then they whored that thing out as hard as they possibly could.

The place only holds roughly 35,000, while most comparable stadiums fit 55,0000, so seats were placed everywhere. On top of the Green Monster, the space-saving giant wall that is meant to simulate a wall 380 feet away, there are now rows and rows of seats (at $200 a pop). There are new expensive club seats, banners and ads all over the Green Monster and anywhere else you look, corporate sponsorships all over the place. After games, on their own TV network, the Red Sox cut their post game show in half so they could sell "exclusive" naming rights to two different companies, one to their "Red Sox Post Game" show, and one to their "Post Post Game" show. They have a fan club named Red Sox Nation that costs about $20 a year, and a couple years ago they had a novelty "name the President of Red Sox Nation" vote....that cost 99 cents per vote.

That last paragraph sounds vaguely familiar. Especially given FSG's announced preference for renovating Anfield.

Just look at the stories on Liverpoolfc.com at the moment. Sure, there are articles on Maxi's departure and routine fluff about or from Henderson, Flanagan, and Enrique. But there are also links to the US Tour and Auto-Ticket Scheme – give us your money! – an announcement about Garuda Indonesia as the new official airline partner, a promotion for the new monthly magazine, a promotion for the television channel, and slide-show of kids in the new Warrior kits. A slideshow. Of little kids. In the new kit. I utterly despair. The football-to-business ratio is almost exactly split right down the middle.

Let's make no mistake about it. FSG are running a business here. But whether they're running a football club remains to be seen.

Dalglish Out!

I honestly don't know this club anymore. I'd better get used to that fact.

Look, we're all aware this season's results were horrendous. The denizens of the Andromeda Galaxy are aware of that. The fact remains it was one season, the season after Hicks and Gillett nearly destroyed the club and Hodgson helped dig the hole deeper.

Liverpool is not – well, was not – a club that changes managers by the minute. Especially not when the manager is the best player in club history and the last manager to deliver the league title. Hodgson was and remains a special case, for the dire football, brainless remarks, and complete lack of understanding of the club. Dalglish committed none of those sins. But this is increasingly a results-oriented business, with emphasis on the word business. Welcome to 21st-century sport.

Right now, I don't really care about how much Dalglish got to spend, whether gross or net. I don't care who was a Comolli signing and who was a Dalglish signing. FSG gave the club's greatest servant one year to rebuild from ground zero and then sacked him when the team failed to achieve the desired results immediately. I truly despair for the future.

This renders my mostly-written season review moot, but I guess I'll touch upon some of the "highlights" here. For all the bad we saw – and there was an incredible amount of bad – there were positives and are excuses. A trophy, any trophy. The emergence of a top shelf first-choice back four. Much better football, if not results, than we've seen for the majority of the previous two seasons. Liverpool's failure to win close games mostly thanks to an incredulous inability to score goals, finding it easier to hit the woodwork. Liverpool's most important player tearing his ACL in November, Liverpool's best player suspended for nine matches during the heart of the season, Liverpool's aging talisman struggling with injuries for the duration of the campaign.

Admittedly, by the end of the season, I was eminently frustrated by many things about the team and manager, most notably a lack of a cohesive tactical or transfer strategy to go along with questionable personnel decisions throughout the campaign. There were some positive signs and good matches, but Liverpool rarely looked like they knew what they were doing on and off the pitch. That is a very bad thing. I'm still not sure if it's a sackable offense given the above excuses, what (little) Liverpool had accomplished in the two previous seasons, and who said manager is was.

Now, a new manager will start all over, wanting to spend a similar amount to that spent last summer to forge "his team." Liverpool will again (still) need to settle on a preferred plan, preferred formation, and preferred tactics – things which eluded the side for nearly an entire season. There is currently no Director of Football, no Head of Communications, no new stadium, and now, no manager.

Despite the horrific results, there was a foundation in place and good football played on occasion. Now, Liverpool are back to ground zero. And that ground zero is further and further behind the league's front-runners. City will be undoubtedly bolstered by their title victory; the first is always the hardest, and it's always easier to attract players to a winning project, especially with gobs of money. Manchester United is still Manchester United. Odds are that Chelsea again fails to secure Roman's much-desired Champions League (please!), which will give them further impetus to throw unlimited rubles at rebuilding an aging squad. Arsenal and probably Tottenham will have Champions League football and Champions League money to entice players.

This was always the danger of appointing Dalglish. He was not FSG's first choice, and only Hodgson's complete inability to do anything right forced their hand. It was always going to be harder to sack Dalglish if something went wrong, and yes, things went wrong. Still, most managers deserve better, deserve more time, and this man deserves much, much better.

I thought he merited another season if not for the few positives signs than because of who he is and what he's done for the club over the last four decades.

It goes without saying that FSG had better have a plan. And that plan had better work, and soon. This sets a very unwanted precedent. If Dalglish is sacked after one bad season, the next man will get even less time and far less patience.

Close a window, open a door

Once again, the deadline headline is Liverpool's hands forced by Chelsea's last-minute pillaging. Unable to get Modric or Moutinho, Chelsea settled for yet another Liverpool player who scored the most-recent winner against them. With less than half an hour left in the window, Meireles' transfer request was made public and a £12m deal announced. Takes some of the shine off the most successful transfer window in recent history.

Meireles was going to be a squad player this season. A versatile, useful squad player, but a squad player nonetheless. Gerrard, Suarez, and Henderson are preferred behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1. Gerrard, Lucas, Adam, and Henderson are preferred in central midfield. Kuyt, Henderson and Downing are preferred on the right, and Downing, Maxi, and now Bellamy are preferred on the left. Liverpool have depth to cover all the positions Meireles could cover, but more cover is usually more better, especially with Meireles' clear talents. He linked (and seemed to get along) brilliantly with Suarez, Maxi, and Lucas and was one of last season's few revelations until Dalglish took the reins. But he understandably wanted a raise, FSG understandably didn't want to give him one (or one as large as he wanted), and Liverpool made a small bit of money on a 28-year-old back-up after one good year. C'est la guerre. Shelvey will get his minutes. My lone concern is how it affects squad harmony, but Dalglish doesn't seem to have a problem dealing with that.

As to Liverpool's other business of the day, I'm pleased to see Bellamy's return. Yes, he's 32. Yes, you can probably hear his knees creak from three rooms away. But he's still got bags of pace when fit, can lead the line or play on either wing (he's far better on the left), and is a tricky, creative game winner. I still have no clue why City were so eager to get rid after Bellamy was their player of the season in 2009-10 (hint: Mancini). And the dark side is strong in this one – just like Suarez – which I'm always in favor of. The fear is Bellamy's competitiveness will upset the ship if he's not consistently in the side, but one would assume he's had the future spelled out for him clearly. Plus, defending a front-line of Suarez, Kuyt, and Bellamy will be like trying to herd a swarm of bees. I cannot wait to see it.

Overall, the summer's business in total, according to LFC History:

The above chart only includes those who played for the first team, if only sparingly, so fees for Ince and Mavinga aren't included. Rory Smith, of the Telegraph, writes that Liverpool recouped something around £25m from sales this summer. More important were the savings to the wage bill – around £30m over the lives of those players' contracts. By my quick back of the envelope math, using extremely rough estimates, those 13 who actually played for the first team would probably have cost Liverpool around £12m in wages this season. That's a fair bit extra into the transfer kitty.

Liverpool paid out £54m in fees for seven players, but the two over 30 – Doni and Bellamy – were free transfers, fitting into FSG's frequently-misunderstood Moneyball philosophy. Adam, Coates, Downing, Enrique, and Henderson all have their best days ahead of them, and four of the five have already impressed in Liverpool's first matches.

Which takes FSG's total spending to around £113m while recouping about £75m. Just under £40m to turn Torres, Babel, Konchesky, Ayala, El Zhar, Aquilani, Kyrgiakos, Insua, Jovanovic, Poulsen, Cole, Ngog, Degen, Pacheco, and Meireles into Suarez, Carroll, Henderson, Adam, Downing, Doni, Enrique, Coates, and Bellamy. That'll do, pig.

Yes, the club had to resort to loans and free transfers to get rid of the majority of useless players, but shifting the likes of Cole, Jovanovic, Poulsen, Degen, et al – those who added absolutely nothing to the squad – will save Liverpool a lot in unnecessary wages and headaches. Comolli earned his salary finding those suckers born every minute, and for once, thanks to the new owners, Liverpool were able to focus on quality instead of quantity.

A lot of clubs would have been forced to sell before buying, reducing overhead and overall numbers before bringing players in, but FSG opened the checkbook immediately. Getting Adam, Downing, and Henderson signed early allowed those players time to bed into the squad during preseason, and also meant that Liverpool weren't feverishly trawling for last-minute fallback options (cough Arsenal cough). And then Comolli went to work shifting dead weight. Success on all front. That rarely happens.

Aside from overwrought debates as to the necessity of Aquilani and Meireles, Liverpool fans haven't had to worry which player will turn into this window's Judas. We haven't spent the summer in fear of Reina's exit, for example, like with Mascherano the year before and Alonso the year before that. With Hicks and Gillett long gone, the days where Liverpool were "a selling club" are long gone as well. It was odd, but more than welcome, having such a stress-free summer.

As with the tactics, manager, and atmosphere, Liverpool's squad is now light years different than it was a year ago. Light years better.

That's why it was most successful transfer window in recent history.

I Still Hate Transfer Windows

Only at Liverpool could a day where a fee for Luis Suarez is agreed first be dominated by news of Fernando Torres' possible exit. The last remnant of the Hicks and Gillett era is the perpetual expectation that only bad things are going to happen. It's going to take more than a few months where we've seen the return of the King and slightly improved results to wash away the preeminent feeling of paranoia.

Overnight news that Chelsea bid somewhere between £35-60m for Fernando Torres raised alarms, but was quickly refuted by the club and generally assumed to be a desperation throw of the dice. However, reports this morning that Torres wanted Liverpool to negotiate sent the Internet into an absolute frenzy. Thankfully, that's hit the back burner in the last hour. As the highly-respected Roy Hodgson said a few months back, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I doubt this story's dead by any means, but January should be a non-starter because of the club's situation. As with Charlie Adam and Blackpool, there's no fee that'd replace the player's value at the moment. My sneaking suspicion is to get ready for another summer filled with rumor and innuendo much like the last.

Some have cheekily suggested that the rumors from Torres' camp were delivered to push FSG into making today's signing, after transfer talk had ebbed and flowed for more than a week. If that's the case, it's a frightening sign of player power. I'm not so convinced the two are linked, but still love a good conspiracy now and then.

Whether the fee for Suarez is €25m – as reported by De Telegraaf – or Suarez and Liverpool reach the incentives to push it up to €26.5m, it's still the club's record signing. It's not the €30m that Ajax initially wanted, but a substantial sum nonetheless. It's also a statement of intent from the new owners: they haven't given up on this season and will open the purse-strings when needed. Suarez certainly isn't Carlton Cole or Charles N'Zogbia. That FSG took their sweet time over firing Hodgson and completing this deal demonstrates the group's deliberation. Deliberation isn't what the fans want and can backfire, but it's often a smart way to do business.

A 24-year-old support striker with 110 goals in 154 appearances at Ajax (49 goals in all competitions last season), Suarez will probably play alongside Torres, replacing Maxi or Kuyt, in Liverpool's current 4-3-3 variant. Of course, that a goal-scoring record in the Eredivisie doesn't always translate to the Premier League (yes, I'm aware Kuyt scored 83 in 122 games for Feyenoord) will be incessantly mentioned.

Forlan rightfully took the plaudits for Uruguay's World Cup performance, but Suarez's contribution can't be understated, and not just for his genius handball. Uruguay's formation varied, but it was most often a 4-3-1-2 with Suarez and Cavani up front and Forlan in the hole. Liverpool Offside have the required YouTube clips; he's good with the ball at his feet and is quick – two attributes currently lacking in the squad – but his versatility is the attribute I'm most excited about. Unfortunately, I wrote similar about Ryan Babel. As with all signings, they must be given time to settle – the failure to do so with Aquilani is a very recent warning.

Despite having last rites performed thanks to Hicks and Gillett, despite a season-long struggle that's seen Liverpool's recent rise to seventh cause for celebration, this deal is a sign that Liverpool can still attract big-name players. Suarez has the potential to improve Liverpool immensely. And hopefully, it'll help convince current players that Liverpool will be back where they belong sooner rather than later.

On Damien Comolli

Former Spurs Director of Football Damien Comolli has been hired as Liverpool's new "Director of Football Strategy." A slightly-fancier title which should be an approximation of his old role at Tottenham, and should pave the way for former chief scout Eduardo Macia's exit. Comolli's 38 years old; NESV now has their Theo Epstein, I guess.

I'm conflicted on a few counts. First and foremost, I don't trust Hodgson with any amount of money – and we can blame Poulsen and Konchesky for that (I'm still not convinced Meireles wasn't a Macia signing). Which makes this news warmly welcomed, especially the if the manager's somehow still around come January. But at the same time, I've never been a fan of the Director of Football continental set-up. Maybe I'm used to the manager being a sometimes-benign dictator, but if he's the one who has to write the team-sheet, shouldn't he be the one picking the transfer targets. And to invoke the oft-cited cliché when the British media discusses this set-up: can you imagine the likes of Ferguson or Wenger operating with under similar constraints?

Granted, the method's worked for the likes of Juventus, Bayern, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and a host of other big European clubs, but it's been exceptionally hit-and-miss, at best, in the Premiership. It's succeeded at West Brom so far, but that's one of the few, if only, current examples.

This piece, by Football Fancast has a mostly-thorough list of players signed by Spurs during Comolli's tenure. It also excoriates the man for Tottenham's "mish-mash" of players, and rightfully argues that Redknapp's been far better from them than the previous set-up. But as Wenger, who hired Comolli as a scout, noted, "anything can work as long as people, when they sign their contracts, know clearly what is their responsibilities." That arguably wasn't the case at Tottenham.

There are definitely some highlights – Bale, Modric, and Berbatov, among others – but other than the languid Bulgarian, Spurs paid in full for them. And there are the inevitable lows, where ~£15m for Bentley flashes in neon lights. Scrolling through that list, I'm surprised to see the cost of Bent, Kaboul, Hutton, Gomes, etc. – all higher than I would have guessed (except in the case of Bent, which I remember simply because it absolutely stunned me at the time). Comolli will work under a much tighter budget at Anfield, even if NESV loosens the purse-strings far more than the previous owners.

Given the new owners' resumé, references to Moneyball have become unavoidable. And Comolli's often mentioned in articles about Beane's 'love affair with soccer' – as recently as last week and as far back as 2007. Hiring a Director of Football, especially one with Comolli's history, is certainly a step in that direction.

That Hodgson was only recently talking about identifying transfer targets leads me to believe (hope?) that this was somewhat out of the blue for him. But that could well be my bias creeping in. He's quoted on the official site saying, "I am looking forward to working with Damien whom I have known for many years. We are engaged in an exciting project here and he will bring a lot to the table," but we've seen similar spin before. And on face value, Comolli and Hodgson represent diametric opposites.

More important were John Henry's quotes.

"Today's announcement is just the first step in creating a leadership group and structure designed to develop, enhance and implement our long-term philosophy of scouting, recruitment, player development and all of the other aspects necessary to build and sustain a club able to consistently compete at the highest level in European football.

"We intend to be bold and innovative. We will not rest until we have restored Liverpool Football Club to the greatness Liverpool fans expect."

"Bold and innovative" aren't words I'd associate with the managerial regime so far. Time will tell where this heads, but it seems a promising development.

So, it's been an uneventful international break...

Update (11:25am ET Friday):



Deal was finally confirmed around 11am ET, but I had to wait for the official Liverpool FC statement. It's the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen in my life. As was watching Broughton and Henry make a statement on BBC News.

Finally. There will be time to hold the new owners feet to the fire, to make sure nothing like these past two years happen again. Hicks and Gillett initially made the right noises as well. But NESV has a far better resumé. And today is cause for celebration.

Preview for the Merseyside Derby up later this afternoon, after soaking in this wonderful, wonderful news.

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Update (4:30pm ET Thursday): Don't feel like starting a new post, but do feel as if I should keep this somewhat current. This'll be an exceptionally short round-up of today's shenanigans.

After appearances in court on both sides of the ocean, we're in a holding pattern for one more day. The day began back in the UK High Court, where the "home team" were again victorious, winning an anti-suit injunction. We then traveled to Texas, where the District Court Judge basically gave Hicks until 7am tomorrow (Dallas time) to pull £300m or so from his cavernous ass. I'm struggling for other reasons why the judge recused today's hearing at 2:30pm (again, Dallas time) if not to give Hicks one more night to wreak nonsense. Maybe because he's never had to read two UK High Court rulings before.

As in the previous updates, the Guardian live blog and the Dallas Observer paint as full as a picture as we're going to get until tomorrow morning. I don't see how Hicks could miraculously find funding overnight, nor do I see the Texas judge ignoring two High Court rulings from the country where the club's located, but who knows what could happen after what we've seen over the last 48 hours.

Being a Liverpool fan is never boring. Unless we're watching this season's team play, that is.
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Update (6:30pm ET): It ain't over until they're tarred, feathered, tied to a donkey, and ridden out of town.

Hicks has gotten a temporary restraining order preventing the sale to NESV in Dallas District Court.

• Here's the LFC.tv statement
• Here's the Dallas Observer story, with the full text of the TRO
• Here's another link to the Guardian's live blog, as in the earlier part of this post.
• And here's a link to my real-time Twitter comments over the past two hours, because I don't have the stomach to summarize them.

Long story short, Hicks was granted jurisdiction because RBS and NESV do business in Texas, as does Broughton in his capacity as British Airways chairman. Hicks may reside in Dallas, but the various Kop Holdings are incorporated in Delaware and the Cayman Islands.

It's not going away yet – as if it's be as easy as a single High Court case (silly us) – but I'm not giving up hope that we'll get resolution before this Texas hearing on October 25th – which is a cheeky delaying tactic – or that LFC can avoid administration to end this sad, sorry saga.

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I'm hesitant to post anything until tonight's board meeting, which will take place at 8pm UK time, but it feels wrong to let today's historic – and I don't use that word lightly – events go unmentioned for even a short while.

It actually appears Liverpool's long off-field nightmare is drawing to a close.

Not only did the UK High Court rule in favor of RBS/Broughton, Purslow and Ayre, but Justice Floyd imposed injunctions reconstituting the board and allowing the sale, refused to grant an appeal in his court, and ruled that Hicks and Gillett are liable for court costs. Here's the Guardian's live blog of today's proceedings. Here's Broughton's most-recent tight-lipped interview. All in all, both read as a complete and total win.

New owners aren't confirmed; the board has to reconvene to discuss proposals, which will most likely include Peter Lim, who publicly (and somewhat distastefully) upped his bid during the hearing yesterday, but John W Henry tweeted a celebratory message congratulating Broughton, Purslow, Ayre, RBS, and the fans soon after the verdict. While Hicks and Gillett can't appeal to the High Court, they still have the right to take a case to the Court of Appeal, but that restarts a whole new process, and while I'm clearly no legal expert, it appears that they'd only be able to claim compensatory damages, not prevent the imminent sale of the club because of the aforementioned injunctions (although a couple of lawyers quoted in the Guardian's live blog think it could lead to further delays). There's no explaining Tweedledee and Tweedledum's thought processes, but after today's firm smackdown, including somewhere between a quarter of a million and half a million pounds in court costs according to the Guardian, it'd make little sense. But much of the havoc they've wreaked makes little sense, and they stand to lose a hell of a lot more than £500,000 if the sale goes through as previously announced.

Today's events truly are cause for celebration. As many have delightfully pointed out on Twitter, it's especially karmic that Scousers and miners (well done, Chile) are celebrating on Maggie Thatcher's 85th birthday. But it's obviously not the end of the hard work that so many, such as Spirit of Shankly and Save Liverpool FC (among countless others), have put in. I'd still encourage people to join SoS; just because the tumors seem to be excised doesn't mean that the new owners/board/etc won't need to be held accountable. And, truth be told, they've haven't fully been excised yet, no matter how heartening today's affairs have been.

But it's nice, and somewhat unfamiliar, to have good news for a change. I'll echo John Henry in saying 'well done Broughton, Purslow, and Ayre,' and I'm even tempted to not include a sarcastic 'for once' or 'about time' (no such luck). Broughton especially appears to deserve a lot of credit for his maneuverings, and RBS played a blinder by appointing him. If this is seen to fruition, he'll go down in club history. Seriously. And deservedly.

Let's hope the good news keeps coming, and let's hope it starts translating to good news on the pitch. There is the small matter of the Merseyside Derby this Sunday.

On New England Sports Ventures

Even though it's bumping this morning's post off the top, as promised, a good friend of the blog, Mike Anton, chimes in with his thoughts on the Red Sox ownership group. There are a lot of well-placed baseball fans giving their opinions on Henry et al today (see LFCNY and the Liverpool Echo for two), but I thought Mike was a good source for a few reasons. One, I trust his opinion. Two, the masochist that he is, he actually enjoys baseball. And three, most importantly, I expected him to be somewhat blunt, as a Yankees fan who lived in Boston during their two World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. Which had to have been fun for him. Always trust a Yankees fan to say as many bad things about Boston as possible. But being a Liverpool fan, I also expect him to be as rational as a Yankees fan who lived in Boston can be.

Without further ado...

Well, lucky Liverpudlians, that terrible turn with American owners seems to be solved with...more Americans!! Thankfully, New England Sports Ventures have a much better track record than our departing duo ever had, collectively or individually.  

There are quite a few parallels between the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC, so we can hopefully extrapolate what happened in Boston to what will probably occur with our Reds.

Pros:

They're winners: The Red Sox were lovable losers, always finding a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, especially against their main rivals, The Yankees, who dominated the sport over various decades. They had an 86-year World Championship drought (makes the wait for the League look a bit easier...or more foreboding...) and this ownership group was one of the main reasons why it stopped at 86 years. Just to be braggarts, they also won the World Series in 2007, making it two titles in five years.

They Spend Money Wisely: John Henry, the man at the head of the ownership group, made his money as a commodities trader, first in the 70s with soy beans, and then later with full-blown futures funds. He created a prediction formula on his own (well, with a couple history books and a calculator, too) and made millions because he knew how to manage his money.  

The same goes for the Red Sox. In 2004, they had the perfect mix of young, cheap talent, the right specialty players (a fast player who was a steals specialist, someone who could hit left-handers off the bench, etc.) a few big name (and big-ticket) stars, and a number of character guys who just wanted to work hard and win at all costs.  

They Understand The Fans: Red Sox fans are a fairly masochistic bunch. Their constituency, roughly five states in the US, are utter lunatics. They live and die with every regular season game. They know every player on the roster both at the main club and in their farm team (read:  reserve system). They see the rest of the league and know exactly what it is they do or do not need and are fairly "woe is me" about the whole situation, all the while having the strangest optimism every April that "this is the year" they're going to win. Sound familiar?

These same fans also treat the ownership group like heroes. The new group came in after a few decades of worthless spending, doling out big money on players that didn't amount to anything and refused to build up their young talent. NESV demanded the team be treated like a world-class winning organization, and soon they became that very thing.

But it's not all sunshine and lollipops....

They Don't ALWAYS Spend So Wisely: A couple years ago, there was a Japanese pitcher named "Daisuke Matsuzaka." He was in his mid-20s and dominated Japanese baseball like no other pitcher. A bidding war struck up between a few teams, but whenever it's Red Sox against Yankees, dollar signs go through the roof. The way the bid worked was much like football: you paid a transfer fee to the club, then had 72 hours to negotiate a deal. The Sox paid $51,111,111.11 to the club for the right to give him a six-year, $52 million dollar contract. He currently sucks ass.

And They Don't Always Spend Enough: The American baseball free agent market is the closest we have in sport to the capitalistic-as-all-get-out football market. You can pay any player anything your heart desires, so long as you'll be able to afford the contract. On a few occasions, however, the Red Sox were steadfast in not going the extra mile to sign players. One of the heroes from the 2004 team, center fielder Johnny Damon, was allowed to walk to the hated Yankees because the Sox refused to give him a four-year deal. Clearly, sentimentality comes second to business. Furthermore, they let a franchise free agent in Mark Texiera sign with the Yankees because they couldn't cough up another $3 or so million dollars.

The Sox believe in playing baseball on a budget, even if they are one of the top three in revenue year in and year out. This past season, they decided to sell the team on "defense!" and "pitching!" when in reality they decided to spend on one big free agent pitcher (and overpaid for his services) while plugging in cheap, decent players, hoping that the overall talent could make the team a winner. They missed the playoffs this season.  When they spend and spend well, they win. When they don't, they're still a good, solid team, just... underwhelming.

Boy, Do They Like Making Money: Their home field, Fenway Park, was first built in 1912, which they still use. It's an ugly matchbox of a stadium that people now consider "quaint" because they're too nice to use "horribly outdated." Most ownership groups who wanted to purchase the Sox in '03 were going to tear it down and build a new stadium. But not these guys! They believed that the park was the franchise, so they decided to keep the old barn because they couldn't envision a franchise without it. (Editor's Note: Please ignore the use of the word "franchise." A can of worms better left closed.)

Then they whored that thing out as hard as they possibly could.

The place only holds roughly 35,000, while most comparable stadiums fit 55,0000, so seats were placed everywhere. On top of the Green Monster, the space-saving giant wall that is meant to simulate a wall 380 feet away, there are now rows and rows of seats (at $200 a pop). There are new expensive club seats, banners and ads all over the Green Monster and anywhere else you look, corporate sponsorships all over the place. After games, on their own TV network, the Red Sox cut their post game show in half so they could sell "exclusive" naming rights to two different companies, one to their "Red Sox Post Game" show, and one to their "Post Post Game" show. They have a fan club named Red Sox Nation that costs about $20 a year, and a couple years ago they had a novelty "name the President of Red Sox Nation" vote....that cost 99 cents per vote.

In closing... It seems like a really good fit. There are some very clear similarities between both clubs, as noted, and the people themselves are fairly similar. The Boston area has a good number of Liverpool supporters (headed by www.lfcboston.com) already, so they'll put the heat on the Yanks if they screw up like Hicks/Gillett did. There are some concerns, but their management style is very similar to that of Rafa: spend well, hopefully spend wisely, but sometimes it doesn't work out the way everyone hoped. Sure, they aren't Saudi sugar-daddies, but it seems to be a phenomenal match with Liverpool FC... even if they are the owners of my most hated rivals (think of Bitters buying out your second-favorite sports team – this is my nightmare). So over in the states, I'll be moping about, but all of you closer to Anfield should rest easy. Your nightmare is nearly completed.

Xenophobia... think less but see it grow

So, it's been an eventful 24 hours. For those living in a cave, a quick summary.

• The junta of Broughton, Purslow, and Ayre seized control of the website yesterday, putting out a hilarious statement after Hicks and Gillett attempted to sack Purslow and Ayre. Unsurprisingly, the offers that the three wanted to accept weren't big enough for George and Tommy. Maybe Broughton and Purslow weren't as evil as we thought, at least when it comes to off-the-pitch matters.
• Those three outvoted Hicks and Gillett, accepting the takeover proposal from New England Sports Ventures.
• There will be a legal challenge, but given the terms of Hicks and Gillett's most recent refinance, the UK board members are apparently on solid ground, and Broughton's already giving self-satisfied interviews. (LFC.tv Q&A, BBC News video)

Two American owners ran the club into the ground, and now we're getting an American consortium instead. Some understandably see it as out of the frying pan and into the fire, while others are simply happy that the long nightmare seems to be coming to a close. And as an American, it puts me in a strange place. It's not often I feel the need to (or want to, for that matter) defend my countrymen.

Surprisingly, Broughton summed it up well in his Sky Sports interview.

"First of all, there’s nothing wrong with being American. Ask Sunderland, Ellis Short is a great owner there. There’s nothing wrong with being American. Leverage is a problem in a football club."

Spirit of Shankly thankfully said similar:

"The identity and nationality of any owners of Liverpool Football Club is irrelevant. How they act as custodians is the most important thing and we have seen previously that initial announcements and promises made by new owners and the checks and due diligence made by those entrusted with that role on our behalf have all been left wanting."

'Once bitten, twice shy' is a good maxim. NESV will be held to their statements, and the fans are far more clued up than they were three years ago. But holding the prospective new owners' accountable cannot descend into out-and-out anti-Americanism, as is already happening in various corners of the internet. Thankfully, it's been a minority so far.

Didn't we blame xenophobia for some of Rafa's treatment by the British press? How is this different? Why is nationality important? In this case, past does not necessarily equal precedent, and Americans aren't all alike. Again, thankfully.

Deep-pocketed "philanthropists" weren't lining up to put in offers, whether from China, Hong Kong, or the Middle East. A similar situation to what Manchester City fell into was never on the cards or it would have manifested by now. And because of UEFA's impending financial fair play regulations, the days of free spending City and Chelsea are soon coming to a close.

Any new owners need to clear the debt and either build a new stadium or renovate Anfield. Broughton's already claiming that's been agreed. Because of commercial revenue, if the club's put on a solid financial footing, it can be run in the vein of Arsenal: making a small profit while reinvesting in the team as need be. That's the goal. Not being beholden to a Sheikh Mansour or Abramovich.

As I wrote in the comments yesterday, I'm not familiar with the intricacies of the Red Sox. Baseball is fucking boring. I've read opinions from a fair few Boston LFC fans that Henry/NESV are excellent owners (keeping an eye on LFC Boston's twitter account may not be a bad idea), and for balance, later today I hope to have a summary of Henry's tenure from a friend who's a Yankees fan that lived in Boston during the Red Sox's World Series seasons. But what I do know is that the ownership group provided a platform to "reverse the curse" (God, I hate that phrase) and walked a tightrope in renovating Fenway Park (a new stadium was even less feasible than on Merseyside because of sentimental attachments to that ballpark's history) while maximizing revenue.

No owner's coming in as a charity case. They will expect to make money off of Liverpool. That's football these days; sport is business. If the on-field product is good, something's done about the stadium, and Liverpool's debt is manageable, they'll make their profit and the club will be sustainable into the future. Whether that will actually be the case still remains to be seen.

By all means, be skeptical. But judge any new owners on their business plan, not their nationality. Anything else is irrational, reactionary, unfair, and unhelpful.