Fifteen Years of FSG - What Happened?

By  Steven Northover 

This week marks the 15th anniversary of FSG becoming owners of Liverpool Football Club. To give a full story of what has happened over the last decade and a half would take a novel, so instead here are some of the notable achievements (and failings) that have happened since their ownership. 

Getting Rid of Roy

Roy Hodgson arrived at Anfield with some pedigree - having been something of a ‘nomadic’ career, he had managed teams as diverse as Inter Milan to the Finnish National Team. His most notable achievement was to take his previous club Fulham to the final of the first EUROPA Cup Final, losing out to Atletico Madrid in a 2-1 extra time loss. 

But where some managers ‘fit’ (more in that later), Hodgson’s time was less rosy. 

Most of it wasn't his fault, Liverpool at the time of his appointment was at the back of the Hicks and Gillet era, where financial mismanagement, disjointed decision making, and a general apathy had caused the club to run up huge debts, and made the risk of administration a very real possibility. 

However, Hodgson’s own decisions left a lot of confusion in the stands. 

First came the transfers. Hamstrung by the club's precarious financial position, Hodgson had to sell to buy, so went Javier Mascherano and Albert Riera, and in came Joe Cole, Raul Meireles, and…Paul Konchesky.

In a later interview, Konchesky had been a mistake, stating they he had found the extra scrutiny of playing for a bigger club difficult to deal with, adding:

“One of the toughest, obviously. I went to Liverpool in the summer and when you move teams you think it’s going to be a big thing for you really. It obviously didn’t work out for different reasons.” 

The summer window did nothing to dissuade the feeling that Liverpool were now a crisis club - unable to find the best players to improve their squad, but also unable to afford them. 

Roy Hodgson's biggest failing, however, was his apparent inability to get the best from his players at all. His tactics were far more defensive than they had been under previous manager, Rafa Benitez - preferring to use a much more narrow midfield and much lower defensive line when defending, whilst prioritising wing play during attacking periods - largely nullifying Steven Gerrard as an attacking threat, and in turn isolating and increasingly frustrated Fernando Torres. 

This led to Liverpool having their worst start to a league season in 50 years, and meant that when he was eventually sacked in January 2011, Liverpool were languishing in 11th position.   

His replacement, who had been in the running to replace Benitez in the summer but was overlooked due to being out of football for too long, was none other than a certain Kenny Dalglish. 

Dalglish's (who wasn't knighted until 2018) reputation and passion for Liverpool goes without saying, and his return to the club was greeted with the excitement you'd expect for the returning King. 

But it was his performances as manager that really excelled. 

Almost immediately, he changed to a much more fluid 4-2-3-1 formation, moving Gerrard further up the field again, which allowed new striker Luis Suarez to become the attacking juggernaut he would become.  

Ultimately, Kenny Dalglish was able to do what Roy Hodgeson could not - stabilise the club through a particularly turbulent time, and build the foundations that would eventually lead Liverpool to glory. 

The 2013-14 Season

Fast forward two seasons, Dalglish has been sacked from his position as manager, however, is now a Non-Exective Director - a largely ceremonial role but it gives fans the sense that they have ‘one of their own' on the board. 

His replacement was a young Irish manager called Brendan Rogers - who had left Welsh side Swansea to become Liverpool's next manager. 

There are some seasons, for better or worse, that seem to stick in the memory - the 2013/14 season was one of them. 

Now, there have been a number of seasons where Liverpool have been in with a whisker of winning the league, but the 13/14 season was different. 

Perhaps it was the ‘attack at all costs' mentality that led to Liverpool scoring 101 goals, but conceding 50. Or maybe it was the general ’chaos’ of that season, a number of clubs had new managers, who were still trying to find their way with their new teams. 

Either way, it was the first time in a long time where Liverpool appeared to have a real chance to finally win the Premier League - they were top of the league at Christmas, no team had ever lost the league when they were top on December 25….

However, that leaky defence would come to haunt Liverpool. 

As the season progressed, Liverpool's attacking prowess continued - Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez scored 28 goals between them - but the team conceded 31 goals between January and May. 

The season came to a shuddering halt at the end of April, at home against Chelsea. Liverpool were top of the league, after an 11 game winning streak, meaning they required just seven points from the next three games to clinch the title. 

But it was a game where either the occasion, the end of a grueling season, or a myriad of other issues, had got to players. Liverpool's attacking threat was seemingly nullified, creativity from midfield had disappeared, and the ‘SAS’ (Sturridge and Suarez) partnership had faltered. 

This is typified by an incident that has echoed through Steven Gerrard's career, and something Chelsea fans still sing about to do to this day. 

Following a fairly innocuous pass from Mamadou Sakho, the Liverpool captain appeared to miss control the ball, turning and then slipping, leaving Chelsea's Demba Ba to collect the loose ball and score against an onrushing Simon Mignolet. 

From there, Liverpool's season fell apart. 

Unable to get back into the game, Cheslea were able to score a second, again from Ba, leaving a fearful Steven Gerrard to collapse to the floor at full time. 

Even when the season appeared to be rescued in the next match, Liverpool's defensive frailties came back to haunt them. Racing into a 3-0 lead at half time against Crystal Palace, the London club came back to draw the game, ending Liverpool's season - eventually finishing two points behind eventual winners Manchester City.  

That season ended with Luis Suarez leaving the club for a club record £75 million transfer to Barcelona.

The money raised by his transfer, plus Liverpool's return to Champions League football, was meant to lead to a transfer window where Liverpool bought the calibre of players that would allow the team to push on and improve from the previous season, ultimately winning the league. 

That didn't happen.

Missed Opportunities 

When FSG took over the club, they made two things abundantly clear: 

1. Resources were not unlimited - Liverpool would still need to be able to spend within their means. 

2. After the success of ‘Money Ball' at the Red Socks, a similar approach would be undertaken at Liverpool, with science and analytics as important as scouting reports. 

The second stipulation mandated the creation of a ‘Transfer Committee' - where the manager and other senior members of the club could meet and discuss the future ... well, transfers. 

Neither Kenny Dalglish or Brendan Rodgers were particularly happy with the set up.

At the time Rodgers stated: "I am better when I have control... I wouldn't directly work with a director of football... If you want to have a sporting director, get him in and then you can pick your manager from there but if you do I won't be the manager." 

Although Rodgers eventually acquiesced, the set up remained something of a bottleneck within the Liverpool hierarchy, with transfer decisions largely being made on compromise rather than consensus.

An example were the transfers of Christian Benteke and Mario Balotelli. 

With Suarez leaving the club, there was a need for a new striker. Brendan Rodgers preferred Benteke, as he felt the Belgian was a better fit for Liverpool's fast, fluid playing style.  

Meanwhile, the Committee felt that Mario Balotelli - then AC Milan - was a better option, as he had proven Premier League experience, was a gifted player and would represent major singing at the club. 

Thus, a compromise was made, Balotelli would join in August 2014, with Benteke joining a year after. 

Neither player amounted to much at Liverpool - but they were indicative of a time where Liverpool seemed directionless, despite being in a position of strength.  

Despite being linked with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Ezequiel Lavezzi, actual signings amounted to Rickie Lambert and Lazar Markovic. 

But within the chaos, there were the shoots of the strategy that would take Liverpool to the very top, just not yet. 

You see, FSG had a broad strategy that never expected Liverpool to be challenging for the league within three years of them taking ownership. 

Indeed, the focus had been on redeveloping Melwood (before deciding to move Kirkby), as well as improving the youth facilities. 

So, with that in mind, it makes sense that the club seemed a little…distracted. 

However, it was a period where Liverpool really should have grabbed the nettle, and pushed forward. 

Marketing, Pros and Cons

It's not the most romantic aspect of the improvement of Liverpool since FSG have taken over, but it's the most telling. 

As mentioned, prior to that day at the High Court in London, there was a real chance that Liverpool were about to go into administration, if a buyer had not been found. 

In the intervening years, FSG has turned the club into a financial behemoth - soon to take over Manchester United as the league's most profitable club. 

There have, however, been moments of failure. 

One of the more farcical episodes happened when FSG attempted to copyright the name ‘Liverpool’. The ramification would have been stark - any business, company, and even the city itself, were at risk of being in breach of copyright by simply being named ‘Liverpool’. 

The idea was rejected fairly quickly by the UK's Intellectual Property Office, but it represented the lengths that FSG were willing to go to market what was fast becoming their most marketable asset. 

Indeed, in just a short few years, Liverpool has become part of the marketing landscape, and with it the financial riches that come with it. 

The Super League

There had been discussions about a pan-European Football league since as early as the 1920s. Eventually these ideas would form what would become the European Cup. 

However, the modern concept of a ‘Super League’ really came in the 1990s, as English Clubs became flush with Premier League money and became more competitive in European competitions. 

That didn't mean that it had broad appeal however, and it wasn't until April 2021 where any concrete plans were put in place. 

Led by some of Europe's largest clubs (and Manchester United), with FSG and by extension Liverpool - being front and centre. 

The plans were wide ranging, and stark. The twelve founding clubs (Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal) would be guaranteed a place in the competition every season, regardless of where they finished in their respective national leagues. Moreover, those clubs would not be relegated from competing, even if they finished bottom of either of two prospective groups. 

In short, it would have been a ‘closed shop', where Europe's richest football clubs would be able to hoard even more wealth than they already did - all the while ‘lesser’ clubs would be left to scrap it out in the largely ineffectual domestic competitions, with three clubs qualifying based on league position. 

The backlash was swift. 

Within hours of the announcement, fans marched on their respective clubs. Individual leagues protested the plan, with the Premier League threatening to expel the six English clubs if they did not reconsider their position, with both FIFA and UEFA stating they would follow suit. 

Within 48 hours, the six English teams had pulled out of the plan. Twenty-four hours later, Atletico Madrid and both Milan clubs also abandoned the plan, leaving just Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus, but the European Super League was effectively dead. 

Despite its almost universal unpopularity, however, the chances of a similar style league being set up in the future remains likely - especially given the financial incentive setting such a league would be. 

The Normal One 

Whatever happens to Liverpool - or FSG - in the future, it's almost certain that the defining moment of this era was the appointment of Jürgen Klopp.

If Roy Hodgson was the wrong man at the wrong time, the appointment of Klopp was the opposite.

As a manager, he espoused an exciting, creative form of attacking football, based around the gagenpress, often referred (falsely) as ‘heavy metal football’.

More than that, however, was Jürgen Klopp the man? Arguably, not since Shankly had a manager ‘got’ a football club, the city it was based, and the culture that created it, in the same way that Klopp did. 

For FSG, it meant they finally had a figurehead, but more than that they had a conduit. 

Unlike Rodgers and Dalglish, Klopp was more than willing to work within the ‘Transfer Committee’ and willing to accept their decision - the notable example was during the summer of 2017.  

Liverpool required a winger, someone who could score and create goals. Jurgen Klopp had his sights on Julian Brandt, then at Bundesliga - he fit the bill, a young wide attacking winger, who could score as well as assist. 

At the same time, using a mixture of old fashioned scouting and data analytics, the Transfer Committee (who included Michael Edwards and Julian Ward) preferred then Roma forward, Mohammed Salah. 

Given the data and scouting reports, a compromise was not needed, and Mo Salah was signed in July. 

It meant that Klopp was a ‘team player’ who would allow his ego (certainly in the first few years of his reign) to drop, if it led to an improvement for the squad - which it, inevitably, did.

Ultimately, Klopp and FSG formed the perfect partnership - when Liverpool the team were winning things on the pitch, FSG made sure the club was winning off of it. In tandem, they gave the entire club and its fanbase an identity and a mindset that had been missing since at least the 1980s. 

It’s a mindset that has continued into the Slot era, and despite a fairly rocky start this season, looks likely to continue into the future. 

So, I don’t know what is to come in the next few years - whether we’ll continue this upward trajectory, and become the dominant team in Europe, or if it will be the slow decay of a dynasty that has reached the end of the road. But I do know one thing. 

It's been a wild ride getting here.