Newsletter #009: Out With The Old, In With The New...
Evan and Charlie deliver two contrasting tales of American ownership in the Premier League. FSG look for an out, whilst Todd Boehly is just getting in.
#009
We’re back! With the World Cup on the horizon, we hope to deliver some World Cup content to you all throughout the next month. But for now, Evan and our debutant Charlie deliver stories on their respective loves, Liverpool and Chelsea. Evan follows on from our very first headline piece in #001, with a part 2 to FSG’s Moneyball and Morality story. Charlie on the other hand assesses the early form and pressures of Graham Potter at Chelsea, a notoriously impatient club with their managers.
I would also like to apologise for the absence of a newsletter last week but we are back and will look to go from strength to strength. Work is in progress behind the scenes for us to expand and we will keep on pushing to maintain our charge upon the mainstream footballing world.
Enjoy #009. Ömz x
Moneyball and Morality #2: FSG’s Impending Departure and The Crimes of Billionaires
Evan Gregory (SawkurGod)
As Far As They Can Go…
It has now been a little over a week since David Ornstein of The Athletic broke the news to the footballing world that Fenway Sports Group were actively trying to find a buyer for the crown jewel of their sporting conglomerate: Liverpool Football Club.
The reception was a predictably mixed bag; ever the source of controversy and a key player in the imaginary war Liverpool fans fight amongst themselves, FSG divided opinion throughout the entirety of their tenure as custodians of the club. To some, they are wildly clever operators who hired the right people at the right time and took the club from a position of complete financial collapse to unprecedented financial strength, vastly improving infrastructure and winning everything there is to win along the way.
But to others, they are stingy and unambitious because they cannot financially operate like a sovereign oil state.
Take your pick.
FSG have been an objective success at Liverpool, but the vibe from the top is that it’s the right time to get out. Global economy this, strength of the pound that. You get the idea. There’s also a feeling that their model has become outdated as the landscape has shifted. The recent acquisition of Newcastle by the Saudi Arabian wealth fund has set a scary precedent. The term “Moneyball” probably means something completely different these days.
When John Henry and co bought the club 12 years ago, they were (correctly) under the impression that Financial Fair Play was going to be a functioning, enforced system in European football. They, like so many others, were wrong. But rather than sell up inside their first few years (they still would have netted a tidy profit) FSG hung around and hired some incredible people. The rest is history.
Worthless to Priceless…
Liverpool is worth around 4.5 billion dollars, according to Forbes. FSG’s success in growing the club financially has narrowed the scope of potential buyers. Someone with pockets like John Henry, for example, with his net worth of 4 billion dollars, is unlikely to purchase the club.
That means a buyer would almost certainly have to be on a different tier of wealth than Liverpool’s current ownership. This presents a few positives as well as a few issues.
In theory, this prospective buyer would have money to burn alongside Liverpool’s recent record-setting revenues. Providing liquid cash for player acquisitions probably wouldn’t be a problem, and with the recent construction of a new training facility as well as an expansion of the Anfield road end, there wouldn’t be any looming mass infrastructure projects in need of funding. The club is in great shape, regardless of who is at the helm.
Morality…
The issues lie in a grey area: morality. Long associated with working class values and progressive politics, the city of Liverpool and its people are proud of this identity, and the fans of England’s most successful club have certainly spent many years enjoying the moral high ground above the inherently transactional nature of Chelsea and Manchester City’s success, as well as the source of their rivals’ wealth. The idea of welcoming a new owner like the Qatar Investment Authority, for example, would not only be hypocritical, but also borderline unfathomable to Scousers and a notable portion of the fanbase. Liverpool’s fanbase is global, however, and not every fan will share this same commitment to the club’s values, but there’s no denying that a prospective owner with a transparently shady background would face some significant hostility.
This very conversation has also become the source of frequent hostility within the fanbase. It’s difficult to gauge the actual temperature given Twitter’s incentivised outrage algorithms, but there seems to be a 50/50 split amongst fans in terms of actually caring about where the money comes from. For some, the presence of the club’s values creates a special aura around the club that aligns with them as people. Others aren’t so romantic. Couple these debates over morality with the simultaneously occurring debates over the morality of Qatar’s impending World Cup and you have an absolute cesspit of racism, xenophobia and tribalism.
FSG aren’t stupid. They know much of their legacy at Liverpool will be determined by the success of their passing of the torch. A new name is presented with each passing day, but the ficklest of fans needn’t worry–whoever is the chosen one will be much, much richer than good ol’ Uncle John.
Evan Gregory
Potter’s Wand Has Stopped Working…
Charlie Patrick
A growing sense of unrest is gathering amongst Chelsea fans heading into the World Cup break.
Saturdays dismal 1-0 defeat at Newcastle leaves the Blues eight points off fourth place and coveted Champions League football.
Chelsea are without a win in the Premier League since October 16th and elimination from the Carabao Cup, albeit at the hands of Manchester City marked the Blues earliest exit from the competition since 2011.
Three Premier League defeats in a row for a club with the stature of Chelsea simply isn’t good enough and the last time this happened, Jose Mourinho, the greatest manager in the clubs history was sacked by Roman Abramovich.
Graham Potter, despite what you read from fans on social media is not under that same pressure.
Any manager occupying the Stamford Bridge hot seat is going to feel the pressure after a poor run especially Potter who has only been in the job just over two months but its something the former Brighton manager was prepared for.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect it at all. When you take this challenge on, of course there are going to be times where it’s not a pleasant road, should we say.”
Before the City game Potter was very honest in admitting “You have to deal with that and be honest and say, okay, we need to do better and that’s my responsibility.”
Injuries & A Tough Run…
The run up to the World Cup has been very demanding with the Blues playing 13 matches in a six week period with eight of them away from home and injuries to key players like Reece James, N’Golo Kante, Wesley Fofana and Ben Chilwell have made things more difficult.
The Todd Boehly - ClearLake ownership group gave him a five year contract worth £12m a season and paid Brighton a total of £22m for him and his backroom staff in September and are fully committed to a long term project that would build around him.
Boehly spent great time and care in selecting Potter and believes that he is good enough to bring success to Chelsea in the long run.
Despite sacking Thomas Tuchel seemingly out of nowhere Boehly does like to give people time, which is a far cry from the man he replaced as Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
His baseball team, The Los Angeles Dodgers have had coach Dave Roberts in place for nearly 10 years.
The new owners are facing a test of nerve with an increased number of supporters calling for Potter to go despite only being at the club since September.
The feeling amongst the match going fans is more measured but isn’t all positive.
The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge has been poor for a while and has declined since the early days of Potter’s reign as supporters appear to be struggling to get behind a coach with less charisma than his predecessors.
Potter hasn’t built up a large amount of credit yet and sections of the fan base are still undecided on whether he’s the right man to lead the club forward.
Stepping Into Big Shoes…
The man he replaced, Thomas Tuchel not only had a more impressive CV upon his arrival having coached the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint Germain but very quickly etched himself into the clubs history books by delivering Chelsea’s second Champions League in their History within four months of his arrival.
Of course Potter doesn’t have to do that and it would be stupid to think otherwise but the pause for the World Cup in Qatar will provide some much needed time to reflect and regroup and few could argue that Chelsea need this more than anyone having had nine players missing through illness or injury for the Newcastle game.
Potter said in his pre match press conference before the Newcastle game: “ I’ve come from Brighton where everything was pretty much organised.
“I ended up here pretty quickly, you need time to reflect and there is that because of the World Cup break.
“Sometimes you need to think, to analyse and if you have the space to do it, it’s better.”
An Impatient Fanbase…
The negativity from the fans is now creeping into the team and the task facing Potter is to turn this season around starting when Chelsea return to Premier League action on December 27th against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues will hope to have key players back and the return of James and Fofana in December will provide a much needed boost.
Potter will assess plans with the owners for the January window which is part of a collaborative approach the new owners want as they work away from all the scrutiny that comes from owning an elite level football club.
Right now, results are not good enough and there are serious problems to resolve.
Chelsea fans are a highly demanding group of supporters used to winning having been the most successful club in England trophies wise in the last 20 years under Abramovich’s ownership.
Chaos and trophies became the Chelsea mantra under the previous ownership because despite numerous poor runs of results there was always light at the end of tunnel whether it was an FA Cup or a Champions League with a lot of that being linked to the frequent switching of managers.
Social media isn’t the best place to get balanced reaction and opinions but you only have to scan through the reaction to the recent results and you can see many people already questioning Potter’s position but perhaps the sanity of the fans should be questioned because expecting miracles in two months with a group of players that has been struggling for a while is totally unrealistic.
A New Age…
However, can we really expect anything different given this was the model set out under Abramovich? Chelsea fans have become conditioned to see the position of the manager as almost irrelevant amid the consistent success.
Chelsea have not come close to winning the title since Antonio Conte in 2017 and have been in a fight to make the top four in each of the subsequent seasons, even dropping into the Europa League on an occasion.
The idea that changing the manager again would bring the club any closer is nonsense you only have to look at Manchester City and Liverpool to see that football has changed in that regard since Chelsea last won the league.
The Champions league win in 2021 papered over the cracks that have been evident for a number of seasons and allowed people to believe the problems at Chelsea weren’t that big but the reality of the situation is that win has done more damage in the long run than good.
Give Potter time, allow him to bring his own players in and get rid of those he doesn’t want and only then can we begin to judge his work and whether he’s the right man for the job.
By all means give criticism where it's fair but to expect miracles from a manager who has never managed at this level with the same group of players that have been underperforming for years is nonsense.
Charlie Patrick
Ömer’s Outro:
Just a quick one from me today. Thank you for your continuous support of Revamp The Game. Every like, retweet, share and comment is super appreciated. I have started to reach out to many well respected professionals in this industry and their feedback has been immensely useful. Moreover, we hope to use this reach to share our platform and produce a greater quantity of content supplied at the same quality.
Enjoy the World Cup and see you next week!!