World Soccer Presents - The Prem Era #2 (2022)

THE PREM ERA 47

In 2020, John W. Henry and NESV – or Fenway Sports

Group (FSG), as they became known soon after the

takeover – marked their ten years in charge of Liverpool by

watching Jurgen Klopp lift their first league title since 1990.

The owners have not always been popular – from sacking

club legend Kenny Dalglish as manager in 2012 to

attempting to join the European Super League in 2021 –

yet their ownership has undoubtedly seen Liverpool return

to their status as one of Europe’s finest football teams.

WHAT CAME NEXT...

Words:John Holmesdale

D

oesJohn W. Henry,

Liverpool’s new owner,

know what he has let

himself in for? The

billionaire owner of US baseball side

Boston Red Sox paid £300 million –

through his company New England

Sports Ventures (NESV) – to buy the

Premier League club after fighting

off legal action by previous owners

Tom Hicks and George Gillett to

prevent the sale.

Afteratensecourtroomdrama

ruled in Henry’s favour, Hicks blamed

a “conspiracy of British establishment”

and then dropped a £1 billion

compensation claim for “an

extraordinary swindle”.

Now Henry faces the challenge

of arresting Liverpool’s long-term

decline. Manager Roy Hodgson is under

pressure over poor results, with the

club dropping into the relegation zone

and being dumped out of the League

Cup by fourth-tier Northampton Town.

On top of that there are the

unsettling reports of mutiny within

the ranks, with Spain striker Fernando

Torres repeatedly linked with a move

away from Merseyside.

Another burning issue Henry must

deal with is the dilemma of whether

to upgrade Anfield or build a bigger

stadium elsewhere – a similar situation

to the one that confronted NESV when

they acquired the Red Sox and their

Fenway Park home in 2002.

“We have to listen, learn, talk to the

community, talk to the council, talk

with the supporters,” Henry said.

The bespectacled, mild-mannered

Henry appears to be cut from a different

cloth to the brash Hicks and Gillett,

whose time at Liverpool will be

forever associated with leveraged

debt and over-extended credit. But

while he has made all the right noises

since arriving on Merseyside so,

originally, did Hicks and Gillett.

NowHenryfacesthechallengeofarresting

Liverpool’s long-term decline