The major difference is that currently, we have a manager who has the final say on recruitment and the ownership group only has one club. The objective is to make LFC as good as possible.
We are in the process of changing the structure and have appointed Edwards to oversee the model. Edwards is the Football CEO and Hughes will be LFC's Sporting Director with Ward almost certainly being in charge of the next club we buy.
Edwards job is to make the multi-club model work as well as possible. That means inevitably decisions will be made that aren't 100% for the benefit of LFC. The best comparison for me would be Salzburg and Leipzig. The objective isn't to make decisions that benefit either club 100%. The objective is what is best for the group.
Edwards job will be to increase the value of the portfolio of clubs. When you look at Liverpool we are at the stage in which there isn't that much headroom for increasing the value of the club. The Stadium is pretty much maxed out. TV rights are beginning to stagnate and without a sustained period of success it is difficult to see us increasing commercial revenues.
FSG bought the Red Sox maxed out the revenues and then moved on to Liverpool. Then they bought the Penguins and are looking at an NBA franchise and purchasing further soccer clubs. Unlike in Pittsburgh or Boston there isn't really an option to invest in the infrastructure around the stadiums.
There are two ways to make money at Liverpool. The high-risk option of looking to compete with the elite clubs in terms of transfers and wage bills. Or there is the other option which is to keep Liverpool semi-competitive whilst using the multi-club model to have a younger lower wage bill squad that would result in sustained profits. Revenues are likely to flat line at around £500-600m so if you can reduce the wage bill and make money from player trading then the Champions League no longer dictates whether the club makes a profit or a loss.
If you look at the Red Sox that is for me what they have decided to do. The Red Sox have gone from one of the big two of Baseball in terms of payroll to 11th. This season their payroll is just over half of what the biggest spenders are spending. The way FSG look at it is would spending another $100m in payroll generate an extra $100m in revenues.
The Salzburg and Leipzig comparison doesn’t really stand true though, does it? Leipzig aren’t a big club, they aren’t a European giant with an expectation to compete at the top, they aren’t signing large sponsorships year in, year out based on being one of the biggest clubs in the biggest league in the world, are they?
They’re also pretty transparent with their place within the European football pyramid, a bit like Brighton over here, they aren’t a destination club, they’re open with players that they give them a platform to demonstrate their best ability, will always be willing sellers if bigger clubs come calling and usually include fair release clauses to reflect that.
Edwards’ job will be to make the multi club model work, but the multi club model will only be deemed to be working if Liverpool are benefitting the most from it.
For me the multi club model will be about plugging the gap from the market where players are undervalued (u18 year olds or players from much weaker leagues) and getting them ready to play for a club like us. It’s practically impossible for us to compete and do the job of blooding youngsters. The loan system has been effective but has its limitations in its current form, I’m pretty sure it’s changing to a maximum of six players loaned out next season, isn’t it?
FSG will be aware that despite us being pretty good in the market, we’re still probably remarkably inefficient compared to a lot of clubs. We pay big fees for players we’ve been aware of for years because we’re paying for them to be ready to play at the very highest level. It makes no sense to continue to do this when you can buy another club and develop them yourself, simultaneously growing the value of your entire portfolio, benefitting your biggest asset and potentially reducing one of your biggest annual outlays.
I find it almost impossible to believe they would force an unproven starlet onto a manager and start selling proven assets at the same time. We’ve seen how we develop players, any player deemed good enough for Liverpool coming from one of the other clubs within the group will be afforded time to settle and develop as any other player would. If the player is unable to break into the first team or prove they’re good enough, we’ll do what we’ve done with other players and find them a loan/transfer.