While the focus for Liverpool fans has been the potential ownership change at the Reds and whether or not they will land Jude Bellingham next summer, for fans of the Boston Red Sox there have also been questions posed around ownership.
Last month it was revealed that Fenway Sports Group was ready to listen to offers for Liverpool having engaged major US banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley more than a year ago to seek outside investment.
While FSG have stopped short of stating that they are actively looking to sell, more opening themselves up to the possibility, it has been the first real indication during their 12 year tenure at Anfield that has pointed to them looking towards an exit plan.
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US sources have told the ECHO that the decision is explorative and that John W. Henry is "testing the waters", while well-placed sources last week told the Boston Globe, a newspaper privately owned by Henry, that the ownership group were leaning towards the sale of a minority stake with a view to providing some fresh capital into the business, potentially to be used on player recruitment.
For Liverpool fans the player recruitment talk lands consistently on Bellingham and where he might play his football next season, although with a valuation of £130m on his head it would take quite the change in approach from FSG's tried and tested model of seeking value in the undervalued to bring the 19-year-old to Anfield.
But it isn't just Liverpool fans who have been watching what happens and thinking about recruitment, with Red Sox fans starting to voice some concern over the potential loss of one of their major stars on the back of a 2022 season where the team finished last in the American League East.
FSG have owned the Red Sox since 2002, snapping an 86-year World Series drought by winning it in 2004, following that feat with successes in 2007, 2013 and 2018. No team has won more World Series during that period than the Red Sox.
The issue that they have had is that it has been something akin to boom and bust, with fallow periods often following periods of success and a long standing narrative that has prevailed in Boston around FSG not spending what they should to keep their best players, something that has often chimed with Liverpool fans. The most prominent example of seeing a star depart at Fenway Park came in early 2020 when Mookie Betts, a player who came through the farm system at the Red Sox and was an All Star that had the potential to be their anchor to future World Series success, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Betts had intimated that he wanted to test free agency at the end of his deal, and with a year left and risking losing him for very little when his contract expired they made a trade with the Dodgers. The Red Sox had offered him a deal but not one that was enticing enough for him to remain in Massachusetts, something that caused plenty of ire among Red Sox fans and one that saw Henry have to make a rare appearance before the media to explain his actions to the fan base.
Now there is some unrest building once more, this time with their star player from the last two seasons, Xander Bogaerts.
Aruban shortstop Bogaerts, who wore a Liverpool shirt to a post-match press conference in the hours after the European Super League's launch in April 2021 where he stated his opposition to it in front of the team's owners who had been a part of it, has an uncertain future in Boston.
To keep him at Fenway Park, where he is a two-time World Series winner and huge fan favourite a sum of more than $200m for the length of a new deal has been mooted, and with the Major League Baseball market appearing buoyant already, with more than $1bn committed without including the likes of New York Yankees' star and TIME Magazine's Athlete of the Year Aaron Judge's new deal, wherever that ends up being, FSG will likely have to spend big to keep him.
Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy told MassLive.com last week that he was under the impression that Bogaerts could come back to Boston, but with him already attracting interest from other teams and speaking with organisations over his future it has created a great deal of uncertainty around whether or not that will happen. And with Boston fans having seen FSG sell Betts in the name of financial flexibility it is likely that letting Bogaerts leave will be met with a less than favourable response.
As has been the view from this side of the Atlantic when looking at FSG's other teams, for some Boston fans the FSG ownership of Liverpool diluted their focus somewhat on what was going on at Fenway Park, an accusation that has been flipped the other way around by some Reds fans. It is an accusation that has been refuted by Red Sox executives, though.
Speaking last month at the Financial Times' Business of Sport Summit in New York, Samantha Barkowski, vice president of strategy and growth at FSG, Fenway Sports Management and the Boston Red Sox, said: "I think if you ask the fans, particularly in the Boston market and maybe the Liverpool market, that is sometimes a criticism or a question, whether our focus has been pulled away from our original properties, but absolutely not.
"We view it as very complimentary, it's an eco-system with a lot of cross pollination and each property helps the other, one is never taking away from the other.
"If you look at the teams in our portfolio, the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool and now the Pittsburgh Penguins, the one thing that is consistent across all three of those is the strength of those fan bases.
"Those fans are just incredibly passionate and so deeply engaged with their teams, and that is really important to us. We view team ownership as a public trust and we care about winning and view it as our obligation to put possible team on the ice or the field every year. We want fans that care."
There is a difficult dynamic at play presently, however. In Boston, with Liverpool appearing to be on the market and with a valuation sitting around the $4bn mark, there is the question as to why FSG wouldn't invest in their longest standing asset. There is also the potential that FSG may remain in situ and target a minority share sale to free up capital, something that may help them press ahead with the very much required task of reinforcing an ageing Liverpool squad that has stuttered in the early part of this season and is by no means a shoo-in for the Champions League next season.
With Liverpool's recruitment focused on a Bellingham move that could cost them £130m plus, the desire for Boston fans is that they keep hold of their best player in Bogaerts, a move that would not come cheap for FSG. There is an expensive recruitment drive coming up for both teams and there is little room for error on FSG's part from either side of the fan bases already feeling like they haven't had enough investment from their owners in the product on the field.
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