It has now been one year since Fenway Sports Group completed their purchase of Liverpool football club, and how things have changed in that time. In the days prior to the sale, the Reds were a club in crisis.
Their most recent result was an embarrassing home defeat to Blackpool, which left them in the relegation zone and just one point off the foot of the Premier League table. Roy Hodgson was struggling to win over the fans, and new signings such as Milan Jovanovic, Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen were doing little to impress.
In the first few months under their new owners, Liverpool’s fortunes did not greatly improve. Indeed, when FSG co-founders John W. Henry and Tom Werner attended a game for the first time, they witnessed a damaging 2-0 defeat to local rivals Everton.
By the time of a 3-1 defeat to Blackburn in January, the club were only four points clear of the relegation zone, and Hodgson’s time was up. He was relieved of his duties, and FSG appointed former playing and managerial legend ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish as his replacement, initially on a temporary basis.
It proved to be a masterstroke. Dalglish spearheaded a revival in fortunes as Liverpool began to restore their pride and started to play the football everyone knew they were really capable of. Youngsters such as Jay Spearing, Martin Kelly and John Flanagan all featured in the first team, and under the guidance of Dalglish showed great potential with solid displays.
Although Liverpool lost Fernando Torres to Chelsea for £50 million, they were able to bring in Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll for a combined fee of roughly the same figure. And just for good measure, the Reds spoiled Torres’ debut for his new club with a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
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