6 months ago John W Henry had probably not even have heard of Liverpool Football Club. That’s no criticism of the Liverpool owner; after all, the Reds maybe well known in some parts of the US, they are hardly a household name in a nation where Baseball and American Football are king. It is all the more remarkable then how much the principal owner of the Reds and primary stakeholder of FSG knows about the club in such a short period of time.
In his interview with the Fox Soccer Channel, he goes into quite impressive detail as to why Roy Hodgson was sacked and Kenny Dalglish was put in temporary charge until the end of the season:
”We wanted a ‘caretaker’, and we wanted to change the type of football we were playing. We wanted it to be a more positive, ‘pass and move’ philosophy, which would help stabilise the club. The team was playing in a way which wasn’t suiting the club. It is early days yet, but I don’t think we could have made a better choice. The fans can see that we are moving forward and that we are making changes, it’s positive.”
For a fan of the Reds for just six months, and of the sport itself for not much longer than that, the reason he gave for Roy Hodgson’s departure (that he wanted to change the “type” of football being played towards a style more suitable to the club) suggests he is already beginning to understand the intricacies of the team he is now ownership of. Certainly his experience of Liverpool’s “pass and move” philosophy will not have come first hand. The prodigious studier that he is, Henry would have read about the style in the books he has read about the club and sport. I remember him walking out of his first meeting with Liverpool’s supporters with Rogan Taylor’s book “Football and its Fans: Supporters and their Relations with the Game, 1885-1985.” He would probably have also talked to Kenny Dalglish about the style of play in football too and no doubt Henry’s thought was on the PR Angle as well.
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This week it is even more of Liverpool WAG Carly Zucker!
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Around about the time of the take over I remember reading that NESV had been fans of Liverpool for a while. Apparently they had pictures of our various successes on their walls in Fenway Park long before the take over and even watched the Istanbul match regularly. It’s not just a 6 month old affair, I think they’re smitten.