Maybe so (the bit in bold) but it I highly doubt it was 3 or 4 more years prior when they were designing & submitting the plans for the Anny Rd.
The previous work on the stadium was pointless, as it was all about the new HKS stadium on Stanley Park. There was little to no work on expanding Anfield that was at all relevant by the time FSG came in.
Most would have been pointless and or out of date but there would have been feasibility studies done re an Anfield expansion and a lot of that info would have been transferable. They weren't starting from scratch and it still took 4 years to reach a decision. I'm sure, internally, the club would have been discussing the training ground long before 2016.
edit: Quotes from Ayre in July 2013 confirming the club were carrying out a feasibily study regarding the training ground. So that would have been right in the middle of the exact same studies the club were doing re Anfield
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-looking-bringing-first-5116930You've just posted a quote from the date the new Main opened and that confirms what they said 2 years earlier than no Anny Rd decision would be made until the Main was done and open and could be assessed. I even just said that.
The training ground was then made the priority and they said they didn't want to commit to 2 further (£50m+) infrastructure projects at the same time.
I'm not sure why that isn't enough and you want to make an additional argument that they did plan to do them side by side but held off for other financial reasons.
Craig my initial point, which you seemed to dispute, was that the delays around the Annie Rd were linked to it's financial viability and more specifically linked to ticket prices and or demand for hospitality packages. It was even myself that brought up the training ground as an aggrivating factor in the decision the club have taken. You then responded with a sweeping statement that it's the £50m investment in the training ground that's delayed the Annie Rd. The point of the Henry quote is to prove that at the time the club were actively pressing ahead with the training ground move, that the Annie Rd expansion (in Henry's eyes at least) still wasn't financially viable. The Annie Rd expansion would not have happened regardless of the training ground - Henry's quotes make that clear.
As I said, the training ground would have been a factor but not the deciding factor. I have no doubt that if the numbers made sense then the club would have had no issues carrying out both projects side by side. It wouldn't be ideal but money talks and if the Annie Rd was going to lead to significant returns then it would make absolute sense to do it as soon as humanly possible.