JC_81 » Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:24 am wrote:parchpea » Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:16 am wrote:FSG purchased the club under the impression that FFP would be closely monitered and allow their company to catapult Liverpool to the top without spending huge amounts.
The Americans did not envisage that other clubs had already made plans to circumvent the rules, because being American they know it all, despite not even being able to distinguish a throw in from a corner kick.
Comolli was their first embarrasment in tandem with Dalglish, then Hodgson which needs no words.
At this point they have a good manager but will not allow him to work freely by insisting on a committee to recruit players which has resulted in a catastrophic summer.
Turn on Fenway Sports Group nobody else, G&H wearing a different mask.
You are re-writing history there mate.
Hodgson was not hired by FSG. One of FSG's first acts was to remove him and replace him with Dalglish as a stop-gap until they found a younger coach for the long term.
But I believe you are right re FSG banking on FFP being upheld and therefore creating a successful 'franchise' and a winning team without a ridiculous outlay. In reality FFP was always going to be difficult to police and loopholes were always going to be found.
Look at Man City and Chelsea. Massively smaller fanbases than us, surely a smaller turnover, yet they can hand out 200k per week contracts for fun and still operate within FFP rules?? They are clearly fiddling the books, but proving it must be hard. City spent the guts of 30 mil on Bony despite 'restrictions' already in place for FFP breach - how does that happen?
Our best hope is that things even out over time. City and Chelsea have very valuable squads due to money spent on them pre-FFP, therefore they can still sell to buy and maintain superstar squads for a few years yet. We were at a disadvantage in having a very poor squad just as FFP was coming in and therefore massive outlays to overhaul the squad are clearly going to breach rules. The Suarez money was our chance to catch up, but Moreno, Manquillo, Markovic, Balotelli and Lovren have been disasters to varying degrees. A few of them might be better in their second season, but some won't.
All that said, we are still capable of challenging for top 4 as we have done this season. But for a really poor start we could even have been in the title mix.
I think with the right signings this summer we could kick on and with stadium redevelopment we would be moving in the right direction.
From a playing perspective my worry is that when I look at where our weaknesses are, it's the spine of the team. We need a more reliable keeper, we need a good centre back, we need a dominant central midfielder and we need a first choice striker. These players do not come cheap and the players bought are not guaranteed to be successes. I would still advocate selling Sterling and reinvesting the money in these areas. I'd also get rid of Balotelli and Lovren. Gerrard, Toure and Johnson will likely be off the wage bill too, freeing up more funds. With this degree of change we risk starting badly again next year if we have 4-5 new players to integrate, but it looks necessary.
Sorry i don't buy into the FFP argument, these are experienced and shrewd US businessmen we are talking about and it would be incredibly naive of them to think that with the introduction of FFP every club would live within their means and transfer fees and salaries would reduce. You see it every day in business, companies finding tax loop holes, all this anti-bribery legislation etc but companies will always find a way around these rules, why would FFP all of a sudden be any different.
