For John Henry and Fenway Sports Group one of the things that they have long been keen to try and achieve is an element of uniformity around how they go about the operations of their sports teams.
FSG, long-time owners of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool and, more recently the Pittsburgh Penguins, are an ownership group that seeks to grow the value of their teams, something that they achieve through investment in infrastructure that growth in revenue streams that helps to underpin success on the field, pitch or ice.
But their approach isn't always universally popular on either side of the Atlantic. Turning back the clock to January 2020 and the lack of transfer spend in the window as their title bid in 2020/21 fell away early doors was met with understandable criticism as the team limped through an injury-ravaged campaign with the likes of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams holding fort at the back while Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez were forced to watch on from the side-lines.
READ MORE: Harvey Elliott change explained as special training plan could help Liverpool
READ MORE: Naby Keita outlines double Liverpool target as contract decision awaited
This summer there has been a step change with FSG committing almost £100m in transfer fees on Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho and Calvin Ramsey, although the calls for a £100m addition of Jude Bellingham in the same window were always likely to be somewhat ambitious. Then came the successful renegotiation of Mohamed Salah's contract, seeing the Egyptian commit to Liverpool for the best remaining years of his career, becoming the highest paid player in Reds history in the process.
The Red Sox, too, landed a major signing in Trevor Story on a six-year $140m contract. But fans of a team who lost their star man in Mookie Betts back in 2020 when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers after contract talks broke down and Betts intimated he wanted to try his hand at free agency when his deal expired, have been restless again recently as the Red Sox, faltering this campaign on the field, have yet to agree new deals with their two key men; Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts ( who wore a Liverpool shirt to a post-game press conference when the European Super League plot unfolded last April and spoke out against it).
Henry, the principal owner of the Red Sox and Liverpool and FSG's supremo, rarely shares his thoughts on the teams he owns, save to address any burning issues that may effect either that would either be cause for celebration or to address ire.
Earlier this month he spoke to the Boston Globe, the newspaper he owns privately, at Fenway Park and addressed the current contractual issues facing the Red Sox. Such is the uniformity of how FSG and their teams operate, while all run independently, his comments, while specifically addressing baseball, gave an insight into the FSG approach to contract dealings on the whole. With Salah's now put to bed it eased the pressure on them in Liverpool, but that pressure continues to weigh heavy on their shoulders in Boston at present.
Speaking to the Globe, Henry said: "It’s difficult for any team in baseball to keep their team together, especially great teams together, for a long time. It’s very difficult unless you have a really strong organisation, a foundation for your organisation, and even then, you have to make tough decisions.
"It’s not 100 per cent our fault when we don’t end up signing a player. We’ve signed players where it’s really worked out. We’ve signed others that, it’s our job to try to sign the right players. Frankly, over the last 20 years, we haven’t done it [every time], so we’ve had to break teams up."
Liverpool are a team that has stayed together for longer than most.
While some have tended to rip up and start again during summers in pursuit of success, Liverpool under the management of Jurgen Klopp and with their more analytical approach to recruitment that has helped them identify players with longevity, have been able to keep the team together, adding when they need to and letting go when the time is right.
The Reds didn't want to lose Sadio Mane, but the Senegalese wanted a fresh start. Salah wanted to continue his Liverpool journey so the necessary work was done to make that happen eventually. Losing both Salah and Mane would have felt like the true breaking up of a team. Keeping Salah and making additions at the right age and profile gives some more certainty moving forward when it comes to maintaining success, although it offers no guarantees.
Investing in the team long-term is vital, but Henry also stressed the importance of investing in the things that may go under the radar when it comes to putting together successful sporting teams.
Henry added: "The key thing I think with a long-term deal is to make it with the right players. We’ve always spent to some degree on stars.
"Everyone focuses on salaries, which I totally understand. But there’s a lot of money being spent by clubs on baseball operations. There’s been an arms race in that regard, which nobody seems to understand. It’s hugely important, because there’s so much data being injected into the game. It’s not just analytics. Everything is on the table — nutrition, sport science.
"But there’s still no substitute for a strong foundation of players. [Building the baseball operations infrastructure is] something we’re focused on. That doesn’t mean we don’t have the resources to sign the players that we want long term."
READ NEXT
