I saw West Derby Wanderer IV’s (WDW) post defending our record under FSG on a thread on the liverpool-rumours.co.uk web site and wanted to add a couple of thoughts.
I think WDW is bang on, and I find some fans’ constant negativity around FSG and the shoe-horning in of digs against them in any transfer discussion baffling. They’ve taken Liverpool FC from a floundering mid-table side that came perilously close to administration and hadn’t won the league in 20 years to comfortably the 2nd most successful team in the country over the last decade. Crucially, this is 2nd only to a Man City team that has seemingly been extensively breaking the rules over the entirety of that time. If you change 4 results from Jurgen Klopp’s era, we go from 1 Premier League title and and 1 Champions League title to 3 of both, basically matching the team that cheated for its generational level of success.
Over recent years, we’ve still managed to win almost every possible trophy and we’ve achieved this by investing smartly within our means rather than spending for the sake of it. We have still spent big when the club felt appropriate though, as seen with Alisson, Van Dijk and Keita or more recently Nunez and Szoboszlai. People may call me an FSG apologist, but I feel like winning big trophies without generally spending as much as the other teams competing is what every club should be aiming for and should be applauded as evidence of a well-run institution rather than seen as a stick to beat the owners with?
As WDW pointed out in his post, one only needs to look at some of the clubs that have spent big to see that more money does not always mean more success – over the last 5 years Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Newcastle United and West Ham United all have a higher net spend than Liverpool FC yet have achieved less.
This doesn’t mean that there can’t be valid criticism and FSG absolutely don’t get everything right. They’ve made bad decisions with the likes of the Super League, furloughing staff during COVID and ticket hikes, but they have also u-turned on most of these when fans have protested. There have been points where a bit more investment could maybe have helped Liverpool push on to defend a league title more successfully or compete on multiple fronts until the end of a season.
But most seasons we have challenged for the most major trophies – again, I believe the Klopp ‘changing-4-games’ stat above shows how tight the margins are. There have been a couple of disappointing seasons in recent memory where we have not challenged as hoped, but the club’s solid foundations meant we can bounce back from these campaigns and challenge quickly again. Like competing for the title last season after coming 5th in 22/23 before likely winning it this season.
As fans we all want Liverpool to win every trophy every season, but this simply doesn’t happen and, more to the point, shouldn’t happen in a healthy football ecosystem. Being almost constantly challenging for trophies and genuinely competing to win the most is a success in my book.
There are legitimate concerns at the moment, namely potentially losing three of our best players for nothing at the end of the season which even as an optimist, I can’t dress up as anything but a major worry and a situation that should absolutely have been avoided. I still believe, though, that we are in a healthy position on and off the pitch even if all the big three go (which I don’t think will happen).
It’s easy to get lost in ‘catastrophising’ when discussing this and we would be worse without them all for sure, but how bad do we realistically think things would be next season if all of them don’t sign? I trust the club to replace them well enough that we can still get a Champions League place at least and then we’d be able to build from there with Arne Slot, who is looking like a masterstroke of a managerial choice. Many were expecting it to be a transitional season this year. If it ends up being one just a year later with the huge bonus of a Premiere League title this season, that’s fine by me.
Our owners are businessmen and are probably not by any means in it for the love of the game. But they have brought success on a platform built on stone rather than sand while not gambling with the future of the club by overspending. Whilst I don’t believe there is such thing as an ethical billionaire, compared to other clubs that are owned by states that are implicated in human rights abuses and have laws that go against the socialist heritage of Liverpool as a club and city, I think our owners are about as good as any.
We are about to win our 2nd Premier League title in 35 years in a way that we can savour the moment without nervously looking behind us. These should be some of the best times we’ll get as Liverpool fans. I’m not saying we can’t discuss things or criticise FSG at all, but personally I think we should still try to focus on enjoying it rather than worrying too much about the future, and to my mind making unfounded and overly negative predictions that our owners will prevent us from repeating the exact success we’re currently having in the future. Enjoying the football while winning titles is what it’s all about. So come on you ‘Red-men’, let’s bring it home!
Written by Timerpool3 April 05 2025 14:56:29
