Liverpool FC Forum

by **JBG** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:44 pm

Football has moved on.

I remember in the early days of when I supported the Reds, Liverpool could match any British team in the transfer market. Sure, Man UTD and Spurs always had money, but they would blow it on block busting record signings that never worked out. Liverpool always had the cash to buy the correct players: buying Daglish from Celtic, Souness from Middlesboro, Lawerson from Brighton etc, as well as the bargain buys such as Hansen and Nicol.

In 1987 there was common consensus that we need to change the ageing side of the early to mid 1980s and Daglish went out and bought Beardsley, Barnes, Houghtan and Aldridge. At the time that was a fantastic shopping spree and those guys were among the best up and coming talents in the British game.

The club was well run and we had financial muscle when it was needed.

For much of the 1990s we could still match the other clubs financially, the problem being was that the money was being wasted. By 1998 when Man UTD went out and bought Dwight Yorke and Jaap Stam in two huge transfers, it was becoming clear that we could no longer compete.

The reason is that satelite tv was the golden goose. We were in pivotal position in the ealr 1990s to become the wealtiest club in the world but Martin Edwards at Man UTD had the foresight to see the opportunities available through the advent of Sky and other satellite channels, while Liverpool stagnated.

Parry was brought in at the end of the 1990s as the guy who was supposed to turn our financial situation around, but aside from the investment he acquired from Granada (which effectively was wasted on Diouff, Diao and Cheyrou), he hasn't really delivered.

The only thing which could save Moores and Parry's bacon is the miracle of Istanbul. That success will provide us with a short term boost of buckets of prize money but it should increase merchandise revenue over the next decade and make Liverpool FC more attractive for the kind of "ethical" investment Parry and Moores are looking for.

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