In many ways, Tom Werner's Liverpool dream had already come true whatever happened at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Back in June 2020, fresh from seeing the team crowned as Premier League champions, the Reds chairman was not looking too far ahead. Instead, as the coronavirus crisis continued to grip the planet, it was merely Werner's hope to one day be back at Anfield alongside 54,000 others.
"My dream at the moment is to see Anfield filled with so many supporters and that sort is what I am thinking about today," he said to the ECHO barely 12 hours after being officially declared as a Premier League winner.
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On Sunday afternoon, as he visited Anfield for the first time since March 2020, and having endured 18 months behind closed doors, the Fenway Sports Group chief got his wish. Even if a dramatic, emotionally-sapping afternoon did not ultimately go Liverpool's way in the title race with Manchester City.
"The margin in the Premier League couldn’t have been narrower," Werner says in an exclusive chat with the ECHO. "When Aston Villa scored their first goal, I thought: ‘Oh my, this could actually happen!' The roar of the crowd was quite remarkable as the news from Manchester passed from person to person. In the end the prevailing thought I had was of pride in what the team did on Sunday and all season long.
"Certainly we couldn't be any more delighted with the performance of the team. I think that we had high expectations, as did all of our supporters, but this has been an extraordinary season and no matter what happens in the Champions League final, we feel that we have made huge progress both on and off the pitch.
"I agree that this season has been a remarkable one for both men's and women's teams and everyone associated with the club and the foundation. We set our sights on growing every year and progress and I think this year has been one we can all be proud of."
An incredible campaign for Jurgen Klopp and his team could become a legendary one when they meet Real Madrid in Paris for the European Cup on Saturday night. After picking up the League Cup and FA Cup in a memorable domestic term, Liverpool are going in search of their seventh European Cup in the French capital and Werner has paid tribute to a host of key figures he feels have been essential to keeping the club on course for a historic season.
"An enormous amount of credit goes to our three leaders who are Jurgen Klopp, our sporting director, Michael Edwards, and, in fact, I would say four leaders now in Julian Ward, too, in terms of the football operations. And then there is Billy Hogan, who has developed into one of the most well-regarded CEOs working within football.
"I think that Michael's contribution as our first sporting director and his legacy will stand the test of time. It's obvious that he doesn't have the profile that Jurgen has but he has been an enormous part of our success and he has also built an extraordinary team.
"I'd love to tell you about the structure he has created with other colleagues like Dave Fallows, Barry Hunter and Ian Graham (Liverpool's recruitment team). It has gone under the radar in some way but they have been critical to our success and we all owe a huge debt to Michael and he will always be part of our family and you should never underestimate his contributions because they have been an enormous reason why we are so well situated and have such great confidence in the future."
The vaunted Edwards has played a pivotal role in helping assemble the squad at Klopp's disposal at Anfield over the past five years, but as the club's only sporting director to date prepares for a new adventure after more than a decade, Liverpool chairman Werner believes Ward is the ideal replacement having worked in the assistant position for the last 18 months.
Werner adds: "Julian has been a big part of our success as well and he is the ideal person to take us forward. I just also want to pay an enormous amount of thanks to Mike Gordon who has been quarter-backing this from the start.
"Whenever I speak to him, whether it is 3am or 10pm or whatever, Mike is on the phone and communicating with Julian and Jurgen or whoever, so he has also been critical to what we have achieved and what we hope to achieve going forward.
"Mike is very much the day-to-day runner and it is not easy because we're also involved in the construction of Anfield Road and the training ground is a testament to Mike Gordon's vision - and so it's not just what is happening on the pitch, but everything off the pitch too. We run an exceptional team here and we're all just working very collaboratively."
Liverpool took the decision to pause the planning of the Anfield Road development project two years ago once the effects of the worldwide pandemic started to become known. After eventually getting the green light on planning permission nearly 12 months ago, a ground-breaking ceremony took place back in October to officially kick-start the 7,000-seat increase of their famous stadium.
An important factor in helping Liverpool to resume proceedings on the £80m build was FSG's partnership with RedBird Capital that was struck in April 2021. The 10% stake of the Boston-based organisation saw them receive an influx of £538m that has helped the club through a difficult period of so much financial uncertainty.
"RedBird are a group of individuals that I have been aware of, friendly with and respectful of for two decades," says Werner of the partnership. "And Gerry Cardinale, who is the managing partner, they do a number of projects in their own right apart from investing in Fenway Sports Group and we're going to be working on future projects together. They have been an excellent opportunity and have brought a number of ideas to us.
"We're indebted to them because we've recently acquired Springhill Entertainment with them, a company owned by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and they're very wise in their own right. I don't know anything more than what is said in the newspapers, but I know they are looking at acquiring AC Milan. They are very keen on investing in sports.
"I think, first of all, I want to say that we would always like to live by the motto of under-promising and over-delivering, and I think that growing the stadium capacity from 54,000 to 61,000 is appropriate for a club of our size, legacy and character.
"The fact we've spent an enormous amount of time to make sure the improvements are in line with our efforts to be sustainable is very important to us. We know how important the whole thrust of the point of change is and we're doing our part in creating the right kind of expansion of Anfield Road."
Werner was speaking just a few days after the LFC Foundation announced that £1m was raised from the Legends game with Barcelona in March. The funds will go toward helping a number of causes both locally and internationally and as a trustee of the club's official charity, the American beams with pride when the topic turns to how they were able to help during the pandemic.
He adds: "We feel we have touched the lives of thousands in Liverpool and actually around the world, working internationally at the LFC Foundation. We can talk about a number of different initiatives, but the one I am most proud of was during COVID and we dealt with the food poverty in the area.
"We got some data that said we cooked over 50,000 meals from our chefs at Anfield and we were instrumental in raising £300,000 all going to people in need around the community.
"One of the things I think was very commendable was the players matched the initial Foundation donation to the St Andrews foodbank. We're very grateful for all the players' support."
