Why Not To Lose Hope... A Lesson from Liverpool & FSG

It took the Liverpool owners years to get it right..we can get it right too.

One of the things we heard constantly during the Boehly / Clearlake takeover of Chelsea back in 2022, was how they wanted to model themselves on Liverpool under FSG. Smart, data led signings, building sustainably for the long term, with a proper structure in place.

Now we know what’s happened. We have got a structure in place, our scouting and use of data has much improved, and to be fair we’ve signed a lot of talented players.

However, there’s some things which have gone wrong. Too many cooks in the transfer kitchen, too many voices wanting “their” signing and not enough strategic team building and leadership.

Now the comparisons with modern Liverpool, especially the Liverpool of the Michael Edwards / Jurgen Klopp era, seem laughable. Some have given up on the ownership already, and you can scarcely blame them.

However, I’ve not given up on this ownership. Firstly, because I believe they do want to win, to be successful and achieve this sustainably. Second, because we’ve signed a lot of talent.

But third, because of history. Liverpool, the club we are modelling ourselves on, didn’t become this slick sporting machine it is today immediately the current owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), bought the club. It took them years to get it right.

They bought the club on October 15 2010. Roy Hodgson was Liverpool manager, they we 18th in the Premier League after 7 games played that season. Hodgson was sacked only 3 months later, with Kenny Dalglish taking over, initially as interim, then permanently.

In the four and a half seasons between the take over and summer 2015, Liverpool had 3 permanent managers. Hodgson, Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers - kind of the ‘Graham Potter’ of 2013 in that they took him from a smaller club, and was the hot young managerial property.

In the Premier League in their first four and a half seasons, they finished 6th, 8th, 7th, 2nd and 6th respectively. They played Champions League football only once, and only won one trophy, the league cup. They hired a director of football, Damian Comoli, whose time was a complete failure, and subsequent to this there was what became known to fans as “the transfer committee” making decisions on transfers. In those four years, they made signings like Christian Benteke, Mario Balotelli, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Fabio Borini, Kolo Toure, Mamadou Sakho, Iago Aspas as well as a few successes, like Daniel Sturridge, Coutinho and Jordan Henderson.

By the time Brendan Rodgers was sacked in October 2015, Liverpool were struggling again. 10th in the Premier League after 8 games. No closer to trophies. No closer to Champions League football.

Things were so bad that these quotes came out from Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher on hearing the news:

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“The owners, they’ve made a lot of decisions since they’ve come in that haven’t worked. Director of Football Comoli comes in, they appoint Kenny Dalglish, he’s gone. They’ve gone with a transfer committee, that’s not working.

At the moment the owners track record of making decisions at Liverpool Football Club isn’t good. It’s miles off. They think they’re a big club, but other big clubs aren’t scared of them.

Jamie Carragher, 4 October 2015

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These comments kinda ring true about Chelsea now in some ways. Exchange Comoli for Winstanley & Stewart, Dalglish for Potter and Lampard, and it sounds eerily familiar.

Remember this was four and half years into the FSG ownership, and they were 10th in the league and had won one trophy in that time, made a host of poor signings, and only made the Champions League once. We’re not even two years into Boehly / Clearlake ownership. There’s plenty of time to get it right and Liverpool’s path shows us how.

It’s what Liverpool did next which was key.

They made two appointments who changed the whole direction of the club and Liverpool history for good. They appointed Michael Edwards as Sporting Director, and above all, Jurgen Klopp as manager.

Those two in tandem would, over the next 3-4 years, transform Liverpool from mid table obscurity, to Champions League and then Premier League winners, the closest competitors to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. They went from a joke, to a winning machine.

Ian Graham also worked with Edwards to build one of the strongest and most effective data analysis set ups in world football. The legacy of these three at Liverpool is an elite sporting structure, a consistent track record of success, and a winning machine.

It took FSG time to get it right. They didn’t come in and immediately transform the club into what they are now, they weren’t great owners at first, not for years. It took them 5 years, a lot of bad decisions and a lot of wasted money in the market which took them a while to recover from.

All it took were two or three correct appointments, good decisions and some patience, and we’ve all seen the outcome in the last 5-6 years.

My point in this: Our owners are smart people, you don’t get where they are by being stupid. They want to win, they know winning, and at least regular Champions League Football and being regular challengers, is the best route to financial and commerical success and getting maximum return on their investment. They aren’t sentimental either. We’ve seen already how ruthless they can be with poorly performing staff, though they will give them time.

I’d actually argue we’ve made as good a start Boehly / Clearlake than Liverpool did under FSG. We’ve made some good signings: Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku, Malo Gusto, Benoit Badiashile, Djorde Petrovic, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson, Carney Chukwuemeka, as well as some good young talent in Andrey Santos, Omari Hutchinson and Kendry Paez.

They’ve given new contracts to Levi Colwill, Ben Chilwell and Reece James. They’ve also hired Joe Shields, probably one of the best scouts in the business, and significantly cut the wage bill.

Of course, they’ve made some big mistakes too, like hiring Graham Potter, and over-promoting Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart to sporting directors. The “collaborative approach” feels a lot like Liverpool’s failed transfer committee, and seems to completely ignore the wishes of the manager.

There's a lack of leadership at the club as a whole, and a lack of experience both in the squad and at the top of the club on the mens side. They’ve overpaid for players, which has led to the sale of academy talent, and signed some players we probably didn’t need to sign.

Finally of course, you can see where we are on the pitch, despite spending a lot of money. 11th, despite being in a cup final. Two successive seasons without Champions League football are beckoning and it’s going to take time to compete again.

But I feel confident if we can overhaul the structure of the club on the mens side - with an elite sporting director who has the final say on transfer decisions and squad building, possibly an elite CEO of football to oversee the whole project with BlueCo, and maybe someone like Frank Lampard in an advisory, technical role - then its entirely possibly we can get this project back on track.

Not to mention, once that structure is in place, ensure we hire a manager who is of the correct standard for Chelsea - an elite tactician and winner - but also one who is the right fit for the club and fans in terms of character and personality, and capable of staying at a club for a longer period.

Graham Potter just wasn’t a fit despite being a good coach. Mauricio Pochettino is also a good manager, but right now, on reflection, it seems he just isn’t a fit with Chelsea. Some fans will never accept him he’s not made an effort to build a relationship with them, is struggling in his relationship with those above him, and doesn’t have the tactical nous Chelsea fans prefer. I’d love to be proven wrong on this, but right now, it just doesn’t feel the right fit beyond this season.

The lesson of FSG and Liverpool, however, is that even if to start with you make a lot of bad decisions, two or three good decisions and some time can get you competing at the elite level consistently again.

There is hope. The ownership just need start getting appointments and decisions right… and soon.

The Score