When it comes to any major statement regarding FSC's plans for Liverpool, it is always John Henry that takes the lead. Yet Tom Werner is officially the Chairman of the club. So in reality Liverpool is John Henry's 'baby'. As with all babies they have to be cared for and nurtured. It's a hands-on process that demands time and attention. Now, sometimes the 'parent' is not always able to undertake that role personally - as is the case with John Henry. Therefore, rather than wasting time looking for and listening to football's equivalents of Dr Spock, Henry would be better advised searching out a Mary Poppins who can nurture the club in the same way that Henry would want to (I'm talking here of values and strategies). None of this decries the skills and abilities of the managers presently in place at the club. Despite the recent criticism I have no reason to believe that Ian Ayre is not a good CEO. However, there is a difference between operational management and an executive role. The latter is there to ensure that the operational managers are best able to fulfil their function and to keep the organisation operating within the aims and strategies of the enterprise. It is, in effect a full time role and not one that Henry or Werner can undertake on a part-time basis and even less so from a distance. So John, step up to the plate, find your Mary Poppins either from within your FSC executives or from outside and get them established in Anfield as soon as possible.
This is one of the things that i struggle to get my head around. Why do the Americans, at which ever club they are at, seem to think the plans, ideas, structures that they have in place in their 'franchises' back in the US seem to work over here...? - Although the ones at Soldtrafford seem to be doing well enough just taking their cut and leaving Taggart to do his thing... Maybe we are right, maybe the yanks have it right but the differences in how our club, sport is run is very different to how the yanks run their 'franchise' sports over there... I think your right Dave, the sooner that Henry gets a 'Mary Poppins' as you say, into our club the better... We seem a bit rudderless at the moment...
Peter Pan might be better than Mary P as he'd fit with the (eternal) youth policy Seriously though I am amazed that this isn't already in place. It brings into question at least the competence of our owners (at worst their willingness to engage). Hopefully they will start to get things right from here on in with regards to the operational aspects of the club, the communication within the organisation and helping the manager to improve things on the pitch Yet again I guess we have no choice but to wait and see.
We wait and hope that they eventually get it right, there is not enough communication the fans just wonder what will happen next.
Thanks for all your comments. One of the biggest problems is one of culture between the UK and the USA. Having been party to trans-Atlantic acquisitions, in both directions, the differences in both management style, structures, etc appear to be exacerbated by the supposed common language. The other big problem will always be distance and accessibility - hence my call for an on-site executive. We know that David Dein was acting as a consultant for FSG,at least up to a couple of months ago, and would make an ideal candidate for the role.
Good posts Dave. Do you think keeping with the parent analogy; it's insecurity that doesn't allow them to let go? Because they are fully aware they have limited knowledge in the field and have arguably been burnt at various levels when they thought they found their experts that they are reluctant to have "that guy" the one that actually speaks for them over here? Up to know they could plead ignorance, go quiet during the disaster & make a point of removing the person in pseudo control. They are frightened to actually have someone that "speaks as them rather than for them" who then proceeds to screw it up!" Not trying to be a FSG fanboy or criticise them randomly. I agree they need to do it, for their benefit as much as ours. But I can see while they didn't have the system in place (arguably still don't completely) they were afraid to pass the reins so to speak. They've had 2+ years. Needs to happen within this year. Along with any other administrative change it has to happen in "this" year zero or I personally will start to doubt they have a coherent plan.
This is pure speculation but I think that it's taken this long for them to get over the shock of having bought Liverpool. It's not only their first venture into a sport that they didn't really know, it's also their first venture into the UK. I believe that, because the language is similar that their ways of operating in the US would work over here. If you remember the first Japanese forays into manufacturing in the UK. They believed that their cultural systems could be replicated over here and that evrybody would understand what they were trying to do. It was a fiasco! It was not until Sony developed their "Think globally - Act Locally" philosophy that they found that they could adapt their best systems to fit. Whilst FSC knew that they did not have an intimate knowledge of football, I believe that they thought that their US control mechanisms would work. Additionally, I believe that they have found the club to be in a worse state than they thought. The end of the H&G ownership left us not just with financial problems but an almost complete lack of management expertise both on and pff the pitch. Hodgson was supposed to be a safe pair of hands who could keep us ticking over whilst they concentrated upon building our commercial base - we know how that turned out. Kenny turned the playing side around but it all fell apart after the Suarez fiasco. I think they now know that the cannot continue in the way that they have and that their aims will only be met if they take a more pro-active approach to the management control. just my thoughts however.
Haha! I thought they may have changed name again or something, like the whole NESV vs FSG thing in the beginning.
Good bit of insight Dave. I have to say, limited tho my knowledge of FSG and baseball is, I wonder if they are trying to apply their baseball strategy to football. IIRC, when they arrived at the Red Sox they fired the coach, appointed a new one, fired him at the end of the first year, appointed a new one and then won the World Series straight away. I wonder if they think football will work the same way - keep hiring and firing until you find the right person and success will follow straight away. I may be wrong, but I'd have thought you'd need more time to build in football, as it's more of a team game whereas baseball is more individual (the batting part at least!)
I think they knew that they didn't know enough at the start and were not surprised to find that the learning curve was painful and costly. From their appointments, my reading is that both Hodgson and Kenny were holding procedures. The press might make much of how much Kenny spent but the real net total is considerably less. They have continued to cut the wage bill and settled upon a manager with a value and development focus. That is all to the good in the longer term. However, whilst the commercial growth is good (+40%), we still have the dinosaur of the stadium hanging over our heads. LFC already out-perform Ajax (the only non-CL club in the top 10) but fall behind Arsenal and Chelsea in terms of match day revenues. Henry is right when he says that its pointless building more seats that don't produce profit! I suppose, for me, it's a nurture issue and I can't see that happening on a long distance basis. It's never been the same for United as the Glazers never wanted hands-on control unlike John Henry.
Commercial growth 40% Its more like 300% in the past 12 months. We've seen a number of new partners been introduced. I don't think Manchester United fans have realised that, that their new kit maker also sponsors Liverpool. Chevrolet is Liverpools new automotive partner.
