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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Paul Gorst

FSG's clever move has ensured next Liverpool owner can spend millions on transfers

So the glossy brochure has been produced, the presentation is ready to be pitched and the word is out: Liverpool FC is for sale.

Club owners Fenway Sports Group may not have explicitly outlined as much in their Monday statement, but the American group are more than happy to explore the possibilities around a complete sale just as much as they are content looking into external investment at Anfield now.

"FSG has frequently received expressions of interest from third parties seeking to become shareholders in Liverpool," the Boston-based owners said at the top of the week. "FSG has said before that under the right terms and conditions we would consider new shareholders if it was in the best interests of Liverpool as a club."

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It was not a particularly powerful statement taken on its own, but the intriguing part was in what wasn't said. The words came in response to a story from The Athletic's David Ornstein over the weekend that was set to reveal John W Henry and co's decision to search for a potential outright sale after over 12 years as owners.

That the Americans refused to dismiss the claims was an admission in itself before the Boston Globe - a news publication owned by Henry, where his wife Linda serves as CEO - also published a piece that read: "FSG is trying to gauge whether it is better to attract new investors in its Liverpool Football Club or simply sell it, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation."

The reasons for why now is the ideal time are numerous, but looking at it from the opposite side, the chance to own one of the most prestigious brands in all of world sport is one that will appeal to so many across the globe with a spare billion or four in the bank.

Whether outright buyers come forward or it is investors looking to buy-in for a percentage, the two major US banks instructed to act in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will no doubt earn their fees in the coming weeks and months.

Unlike 2010 when the club was on its knees, driven to the brink of administration by the ruinous reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, Liverpool are in rude health. The state of things back then enabled New England Sports Ventures to purchase a distressed asset and the keys to the Shankly Gates for a knockdown price of £300m, a sale that was later lamented as "an epic swindle" by the deeply distrusted Hicks.

Twelve years on from Hicks and Gillett's tenure ending and influential American financial publication Forbes has valued Liverpool FC as somewhere between £3.6 and £3.9billion and FSG are under no pressure to sell or even seek other investment outside of a desire to ensure their club are able to continue competing at the level they generally have been over the last five years or so.

To any prospective investor, everything is perfectly placed across all facets of the football club. With the Anfield Road development now into its final months of construction, Liverpool are edging closer towards a new dawn that will see them able to allow 61,000 supporters through the turnstiles every week and a world-class training facility that rivals any other in Europe will celebrate the two-year anniversary of its opening next week.

A passionate and sprawling fanbase spanning each corner of the planet is already in place, meaning little work will be needed on the 'LFC' brand to further that reach. Liverpool's 25 corporate partners, as listed by their official website, will only swell further with the arrival of the fresh and significant capital that will inevitably be provided by any would-be investors or new outright owners.

This is not a situation particularly comparable to Chelsea's earlier this year given the need for that deal to be expedited after the UK Government seized the assets of their previous Russian owner, Roman Abramovich. The Todd Boehley-led consortium's need to commit an additional £1.8bn to other areas of the club requiring attention following their £1.4bn takeover is something that is not necessary at Anfield.

Put simply, Liverpool don't need billions of pounds to be siphoned off to any one particular cause of what is an otherwise thriving operation away from the field. By next summer, their iconic Anfield will house 61,000, their training ground is as state-of-the-art as they come and in Jurgen Klopp, they have one of the most gifted managers in football just six months into a brand-new contract.

That the playing squad is likely the component that needs the most attention in the next few years must surely sound the Bat Signal for those whose interest has been piquing since Monday afternoon.

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