21 Aug 2015 15:11:12
FSG - I know that Ed001 will be doing one of his (and Benny's) great podcasts on FSG soon but I thought I'd express some opinions here as a precursor. Before I start I'd like to say I'm no expert and only really have the internet as my source. but here goes.
FSG bought LFC for £300m a majority of which (£237m) was used to cover debt accrued by the evil pairing of H&G. Most (if not all) of us were overjoyed and are eternally appreciative as they kept the Administration wolves from our door and replaced bad with good owners. people forget we were days away from administration and an automatic points deduction that could have been disastrous. Unlike H&G John Henry and the FSG partners gave money on an interest free basis (non-interest bearing loans) to the club since taking over and although I do not know our current situation the books from March 2014 indicated that £68.9m was owed to the FSG holding company UKSV. So we have an immediate outlay by FSG of £369m and this doesn't include the current stadium expansion (just in excess of £150m). This means that FSG would have spent more than £520m before even accounting for transfer activity. Is this sustainable with such little success?
Couple this with their business activity. Our commercial activities have steadily increased since FSG bought us. As of 2014 we stood fifth but it is worrying that not only have we not closed the gap to the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea but that gap has actually increased. That said, our owners have a good model and that gap is due to reduce with the stadium expansion and they are still to explore other commercial turnover activities that could lift us into the top four of clubs in relation to business activities. So from a business perspective FSG have been very good for us at LFC given a paltry return of one single trophy in the time of their ownership. more importantly they have been very good for themselves should they decide to sell up.
(sourced from http://tinyurl.com/p77zk4w )
But then we get to transfer activity and the niggling question on advice and lack of knowledge begin to poke us. but that's for Ed001 and Benny Baller in one of their podcasts. Some of the questions I'd love to hear their opinions on include: 1] Is there a strategy to the LFC transfer policy? ; 2] Is the transfer Committee a good idea? ; 3] Were Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh used as scapegoats to cover bigger failings? ; 4] Is our turnover of staff too high compared to other clubs and does that make our strategies disjointed? ; 5] Is our youth policy in danger of being a feeding farm for other clubs with the lack of career development that seems to plague our Academy prodigies?. I better stop because the list goes on and on. Ed001 is right, it will need much longer than one hour. perhaps a part 1, 2 and 3.
{Ed001's Note - I am going to talk about the situation with Pascoe and Marsh to a degree in the next podcast, I have made a note of the questions though to answer when we get a chance.}
21 Aug 2015 16:58:01
Ed001, is there a chance you doing these Podcast could jeopardise your relationships with insiders and risk them refusing to pass information on to you for fear of facing punishment from the club?
{Ed001's Note - no because I never say who it is giving me the info and I do know a lot of people within the club and ex-exployees etc. So there are a lot of possible people that could have told me the info.}
21 Aug 2015 18:31:40
the site is meant for fans to get a little insight to club, and i'm very sure ed001 and ed002 will have plenty of info, ones which they can share and ones which they cant. so i think its safe to say the infos we get are the ones that they can share, you can't have it all.
21 Aug 2015 20:17:31
The "Days from administration" is a myth. Ed002 has already explained that it would never have came to that.
22 Aug 2015 05:40:00
The Irish Rover - regardless of what Ed002 has said (which I did not see) I went on what Christian Purslow said back in 2012 to Radio 5 Live when he declared that fickle fans had short memories as "it's only 15-16 months ago we were a day away from being in administration." He might of taken some dramatic license and it may very well be "myth" but it was said as a fact by our then Managing Director. who was later removed for disagreeing with FSG on stadium plans.
22 Aug 2015 09:46:24
Am I allowed to ask how you met all these people?
{Ed001's Note - you want me to go through them one by one explaining how I met them?}
22 Aug 2015 11:52:07
Well not exactly, just a general explanation. maybe how it all began? I'd actually be really interested to hear that.
{Ed001's Note - maybe one day I will do that on a podcast, maybe during the offseason when there is no news.}
22 Aug 2015 12:58:54
Hi Ed001. if you want I've done some intro/outro music for the podcast. just email me with a place to send the file (256kb MP3) it's only 659kb and 28 seconds long.
Rey ;)
{Ed001's Note - ok great thanks, emailed you