We keep hearing Fenway Sports Group are building for the long-term. They buy players with potential for the long term. We are told they are in for the long-term not for short-term return. It will be useful for the fans to know the length of what is called long-term and what that long-term has in store in for the club.
In my basic strategic management class I was taught plans should be time bound, specific and measurable. I appreciate the role FSG has played in moving the club on from the heart ache of the Hicks-Gillet era. I also know they are astute and accomplished business men who are in this venture to make returns. The passion belongs to the fans but they are in it ultimately for the profit. They aren’t a charity organisation. And they did not come to save Liverpool FC, they bought a good business to make money.
So it should not be in doubt that FSG wants Liverpool to do well. Whether that “well” means profits on the books, positive balance in the accounts or trophies in the cabinet is another issue all together. The Hicks-Gillet era together with the financial muscle of rivals have made fans a lot more concerned about the profitability and cash flows of the club more than ever. Positive financial figures are celebrated in the same manner as a spectacular Coutinho goal.
But does the owners’ passion for trophies match the fans increasing interest about balance sheet, income and cash flow statements? From where I sit- very very far from Anfield- all I know is the plans of the owners for the club are long-term plans. But beyond those vague statements about wanting the want the club to do well, I doubt there is a strategic plan with defined goals for the club. I mean a football plan, not a plan to triple the financial value of the club. What do they intend achieving by the end of the long term? A bulging trophy cabinet? Or a strong set of financial statements that brings the best buyer if they decide to sell the club?
It is a sense of worry for me that all we hear is long-term plans without really knowing what defines that period. May be am just ill informed. But am very sure the global media and social media has blessed us with symmetry of information such that a fan sitting in Accra as I am, can have as much information as the fan resident in Huyton provided I am interested in it. And of course I am interested. I am sure I would have had a sniff if FSG had a 5 year plan with ultimate goal of achieving an Premier League title or champions league crown at the end of it. Too many outlets of information- fan sites, blogs, pods- exist for me to be ignorant.
The benefit of such plans is that among other things they help assess how the present contribute to or take away from the achievement of those strategic goals. This season has been a dire one. This performance in terms of points, goals scored, number of wins etc are all a decline on last season’s. For instance, if we had say a 4 year plan starting from Rodgers’ tenure with the ultimate goal of a Premier League crown, this season would clearly tell us we fall short massively and that for that goal to be achieved some radical measures ought to be taken. It could come in the form of getting a more experienced manager or recruiting just young potentials. In the absence of such a football plan it seems we are all plodding along hoping for a repeat of 2013/14 season.
Simply put the plan will help assess the gap between the resource we have (playing and technical staff) and the goals we seek to achieve. In 2004 the Germany Football Federation put in place a strategic plan for their football after their national team suffered group stage elimination in Euro 2004. Dearth of talent was identified as a key challenge. As a result a comprehensive academy program was put in place to supply the talent to propel the Germans towards the goal in their plan. Their world cup triumph was a fitting crown for their plan.
If our recruitment policy is a pointer to “our football plan”, then I am worried. It may appear we are we aiming to make LFC the most prestigious feeder club in the world. We seem to be the only club is filling both first team and academy with potentials. As the saying goes, ‘you don’t win anything with kids’.
At the start of 2000 Barcelona was not the force it is now. It’s last European title was 1997(UEFA Super Cup) and had only won one Champions League title (1992). Barcelona’s 2004/5 league triumph was its first in six years. During Joan Laoprta’s reign as club president, the term “virtuous circle” was popularized. It aimed to strengthen the club economically and prepare the ground for a winning team. That pretty much set off their era of European domination. Juventus and Borussia Dortmund have had plans that had seen them emerge from relegation and near collapse respectively to European prominence. Swansea and Southampton have also had plans that have lifted them from near liquidation to the richest leagues of the world.
October marks the 5th anniversary of FSG’s take over. Some successes have been achieved but nothing compared to what a Dortmund did 5 years after it almost collapsed. The finances of the club have stabilized, stadium is being expanded, profit recorded for the first time in several years. A semblance of progress is taking place. But there's only one League Cup to show for and no closer to adding to that.
I am very interested in knowing what the plan for the other 5 years will be. Fatten the cow for sale or re-establishing Liverpool FC as a consistent achiever in its core function- playing football? I am in no way downplaying the financial stability and progress the owners have brought to the club. But profits without trophies make Liverpool no different from Tesco.
I know I am just a football fan with no qualifications to pontificate on the principles of managing a business to accomplished business men. But having followed football for a while I know such specific long-term plans do help and they work. Just last week I read that Southampton had set a five year plan to culminate in champions’ league qualification. It's not just having a plan in name. You are sure such plans will then inform recruitment, coaching and other aspects of running the club towards the achievement of the target.
May be I’m ignorant. After all I am just a fan who wants to see Liverpool win trophies, excel and excite. I really do, perhaps as much as the owners. The taunts of rival fans and the feeling that rival clubs and their accomplishments are leaving the club in the shadows of the elite are unbearable.