The Mailbox comes at the World Cup from both sides: we didn’t choose Qatar, but we can’t pretend it’s all fine. Also: Liverpool for sale, are they? Really?
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For sale, you say?
It remains to be seen whether bombshell news of FSG’s sale of Liverpool football club is indeed a full sale and exit of ownership, or more a dilution of ownership to inject capital and liquidity. Either way the message is the same: cash is needed. It’s vast understatement to say that rules of engagement in premier league club ownership has changed so much the past decade. F365 mailbox has had several writers chime in w some very good insights over the past few weeks; one writer foresaw wks ago Fsg was monetizing assets to shape the club for sale, another writer noted just how serious the pandemic was on the club’s finances and how situationally it perhaps affected Lfc more than any other top club in Europe at the time.
Well the pandemic really was the first of the dominoes in my opinion… from a position of great strength, no, perhaps even an apex position (at the time leading the premiership table by a canter, holders of the European cup, aura of peak invincibility painstakingly built blade by blade upon the pitch) the Covid outbreak forced our hand in what otherwise, I believe, would have been substantial strengthening of the squad and more proactive evolution of the first team. The way the club are/were run with Michael edwards then at the helm of the transfer dealings, one has to believe it academic Lfc would have stayed ahead of the curve, all spreadsheets and data gurus and their whirring laptops planning for several transfer windows ahead and continuing to get most of the business spot on. And yrs ago observations were already being made that a tipping point would arrive; key portions of the first team (incl one of the best front threes in the world) were on contracts with parallel timelines, concurrently aging into their 30s together to face inevitable dropoffs. Ditto the midfield, and throw in some of the backline too. We tried to be creative with kit sponsorship and instead of taking the big cash up front made some kind of royalty play on percentage shirt sales per. If one is lucky enough to win the lottery on a scratcher ticket you always take the lump sum no? Basic. And to this eye at least, Nike’s shirt designs (and quality) year on year have been a far cry from the beauties New Balance consistently put…
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