When he was appointed Commercial Director in 2007, Ian Ayre couldn’t believe the state that Liverpool Football Club was in, in regards to the managerial infrastructure at the club. In an interview with Management Today, Ayre said
“Both as a fan, and as someone who’d worked on the commercial side of football, it was pretty evident that Liverpool wasn’t punching its weight. It hadn’t really capitalised on the growth of football. Revenues had grown for all clubs almost by default because of the size of media contracts and so on, but in Liverpool’s case, the club hadn’t geared itself up to support and manage that revenue growth. It’s like the corner shop growing into a superstore without bringing any staff in.”
As Ayre states, it has been well documented that the Reds had failed to capitalise commercially on the incredible success of the club for the last few decades. With the advent of the Premier League, and the already global status which Liverpool had accrued via years of success, the Reds never really had the business acumen at the club to capitalise on the worldwide renown of the club. Without accusing previous owner David Moores and CEO Rick Parry directly, the corner shop-superstore metaphor works pretty well. Ayre had to completely overhaul the organisation as it was in 2007 and describes how he had to fill an entire area of middle management, which had been missing at the club previously.
The club had fallen behind the likes of Manchester United commercially for a long time, and although turnover had increased from £45.6million in 1999 to £121million in 2005, the club was still leagues behind the rest of the football world’s top clubs. It was no coincidence though that from the period of Ayre’s appointment in August 2007, things started to move at a pace. The accounts reports for July 2006 – July 2007 which were recorded a month’s previous to his appointment showed annual revenues at £133.9m. At things stand with the club’s most recent announcement of the accounts for the period between July 2009 – July 2010, revenues now stand at £184m, a significant 37% increase, one which could get even higher when the record deal, which Ayre brokered, for shirt sponsorship with Standard Chartered, is included in next year’s report.
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die hard liverpool support from india and proud of it..
i’m giving my age away now but is ian ayres the old irish american actor pat o’brian’s love child.
that should be o’brien
Word on the street,(form a very, very reliable source) is that Kenny may not be given a contract at thee end of the season. This has everything to do with Comolli. Kenny insists that he wants the last word when it comes to transfers, giving Comolli less responsibility within his position. In turn Comolli has already begun scouting for a new manager to replace Kenny at the end of the season, speaking to several agents of respected Managers.
Comolli is a dog, same reason that Harry got rid of him at Spurs. He is a cancerous little piece of work and we need to stand up and let it be heard that we do not need him if this is the case.
Just letting you all know why they have not given Kenny a contract as yet. YNWA
You really shouldn’t read the Sun, or any news that comes from it. It’s the end of the season and that article was purely in response to the fact there was no other breaking news out there. Notice how that bit of “news” wasn’t picked up by any reputable sources (Guardian, Times etc.).
Furthermore, Comolli is the Direction of Football at Liverpool Football club and deserves more respect than what you have written above, simply because you believed what you read in a cheap rag.
HEAR!!! HEAR!!!!
never in history has there been a more nailed on appointment than daglish. he has deone so brilliantly that our enemies in the press are trying to upset the applecart. no chance.