Yes, they have done a lot right, or better said, have often enough learned from their mistakes and corrected course. But sometimes, life actually presents you with singular, unique moments. There will be no room for course correction later, no second attempt to make things right. You either do the right thing and use this moment, or you don't and it is gone. Forever. It takes wisdom to identify these moments and courage to make the right choice when they come. And here, more than anywhere else, in these pivotal moments have FSG failed miserably.
First example for me is their failure to maximise the time we have with Klopp. If we are to analyse their behaviour, they simply do not understand just how unique Klopp, and his bond to the club, actually is. There is no Klopp tree to go and pick another one from, but he is in fact treated like just another employee, seemingly replaceable, and they refuse to tweak and alter their charted course and methods in order to avoid what we are doing this season - wasting the precious time. They have their schedules, projections, goals and expectations - and they play the spreadsheet game. Reality though has a nasty way of taking your carefully curated data and making you look stupid. And boy do FSG sometimes manage to make themselves, and us, look stupid while attempting to be the most clever operators around.
Second example, and it's one I'll never forgive them for as long as they are around, is the way they missed the train when we were riding high - specifically the summer after becoming Champions. There are no words for just how fucked up that was. You have a literal football fairytale unfolding. Pure fucking magic. End of the decades long wait, amazing team praised by everyone across the globe. You could have your pick of players, stars and prospects alike, who would find it incredibly hard to resist this gravitational pull of what felt like destiny enveloping our club. And what do you do? You twiddle your fucking thumbs and carry on with your spreadsheet masterplan. I'll never get over that one, never. In hindsight we were all too drunk on joy to care and the world was complicated and insane - but alarms should have been screaming.
I don't know how to interpret any of this. We are a stable club, enjoying more success than we have in a long time. On the other hand, I feel we are banging against the ceiling of what we can do with these owners. It's not only imposed by funds - it is also imposed by their inability to understand moments like those, to be more flexible and less risk-averse when genuine opportunity presents itself. This won't go away I'm afraid. That is how they operate. Problem for us is - we aren't competing in arena where all follow the same ground rules. And Klopp or no Klopp, good intentions or not - we could be left behind once again, bemoaning what could have been and still hoping the spreadsheet will deliver again. When in fact it never did. It was always the organic, weird, unpredictable moments we managed to turn in our favour that made us win - yet we fail to accept them as important in how the club operates.
Superb post.
We need to remember that they bought LFC for c£300m.
It's now got a theoretical value of c£4bn
That's an immense profit to have made on their asset in 12 years. Was helped by getting the club for an undervalued price (thanks in large part to the fans' campaign).
But the asset value is based on us continuing to be challenging for the top honours - and the internatioanl media attention that this brings (which builds the commercial income).
Fast forward 2/3 years with little investment in the squad, and it's not inconceivable that - worst case scenario - we're in mid-table purgatory with other clubs having invested in playing squads more and Klopp having left.
What would the asset value be then? Take off £1bn? £1.5bn? £2bn?
Look at the situation like a big mansion house. Looks mint, with strong structure and well-maintained. Worth a fortune. It's really desirable and people want to see it, be involved with it. Yet do only minimal work to maintain it, spending very little, and you'll see the cracks appear, the structure deteriorate; it'll soon look a mess. A few years down the line and people don't want to see it, don't want to be associated with it. The value drops. Spending a fair amount to keep up the maintenance and keep it being desirable, and you'll be more than repaid in the asset's value growing. But neglect it, spend little on keeping it pristine, and you lose more.
That's where FSG are. To continue the analogy, they have been lucky in getting a great caretaker and maintenance team that has worked miracles on the meagre budget they've been given, and the guys behind the scenes have pulled off some great business in selling and buying to fund new things at great prices. But that caretaker won't be around forever and there's less overpriced heirlooms left to sell to fund the maintenance and improvements. The owners now face the choice to keep their money in their pockets and let the asset begin to deteriorate - along with it's value. Or spend a bit to fully renovate the parts that need replacing to keep the asset in gret condition and keep its value.
The optimist in me thinks that, whilst we've been competitive and winning with this squad, they've only released enough money to keep it ticking over. But they've always been aware that, sometime down the line, they're going to have to make a substantial investment in the playing squad if they're to keep us competitive (and keep the asset value high). We've reached that time now, so that the next 2/3 transfer windows are when we need to make that big investment in the playing squad.
I think, at this stage, we probably need £200-£250m. Two very high quality midfielders coming into their prime. A back-up right-back at the level of Tsimikas. That immediately improves the first XI and overall squad depth. As well, it would be useful to get a very promising, young, fast right-sided attacker that could pick up some games from Salah. And then, depending on how the club view van den Berg (and perhaps Koumetio), a young, promising CB.