Liverpool F.c.

[Devil]

John Henry's Open letter to fans!

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/john-henry-s-open-letter-to-fans

Liverpool Football Club's principal owner John W Henry has written the following open letter to supporters:

john henry

I am as disappointed as anyone connected with Liverpool Football Club that we were unable to add further to our strike force in this summer transfer window, but that was not through any lack of desire or effort on the part of all of those involved. They pushed hard in the final days of the transfer window on a number of forward targets and it is unfortunate that on this occasion we were unable to conclude acceptable deals to bring those targets in.

But a summer window which brought in three young, but significantly talented starters in Joe Allen, Nuri Sahin and Fabio Borini as well as two exciting young potential stars of the future - Samed Yesil and Oussama Assaidi - could hardly be deemed a failure as we build for the future.

Nor should anyone minimise the importance of keeping our best players during this window. We successfully retained Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Luis Suarez. We greatly appreciate their faith and belief in the club. And we successfully negotiated new, long-term contracts with Luis and with Martin.

No one should doubt our commitment to the club. In Brendan Rodgers we have a talented young manager and we have valued highly his judgement about the make-up of the squad. This is a work in progress. It will take time for Brendan to instill his philosophy into the squad and build exactly what he needs for the long term.

The transfer policy was not about cutting costs. It was - and will be in the future - about getting maximum value for what is spent so that we can build quality and depth. We are avowed proponents of EUFA's Financial Fair Play agenda that was this week reiterated by Mr Platini - something we heartily applaud. We must comply with Financial Fair Play guidelines that ensure spending is tied to income. We have been successful in improving the commercial side of the club and the monies generated going forward will give us greater spending power in the coming years.

We are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes. It will not happen overnight. It has been compounded by our own mistakes in a difficult first two years of ownership. It has been a harsh education, but make no mistake, the club is healthier today than when we took over.

Spending is not merely about buying talent. Our ambitions do not lie in cementing a mid-table place with expensive, short-term quick fixes that will only contribute for a couple of years. Our emphasis will be on developing our own players using the skills of an increasingly impressive coaching team. Much thought and investment already have gone into developing a self-sustaining pool of youngsters imbued in the club's traditions.

That ethos is to win. We will invest to succeed. But we will not mortgage the future with risky spending.

After almost two years at Anfield, we are close to having the system we need in place. The transfer window may not have been perfect but we are not just looking at the next 16 weeks until we can buy again: we are looking at the next 16 years and beyond. These are the first steps in restoring one of the world's great clubs to its proper status.

It will not be easy, it will not be perfect, but there is a clear vision at work.

We will build and grow from within, buy prudently and cleverly and never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees and unrealistic wages. We have no fear of spending and competing with the very best but we will not overpay for players.

We will never place this club in the precarious position that we found it in when we took over at Anfield. This club should never again run up debts that threaten its existence.

Most of all, we want to win. That ambition drives every decision. It is the Liverpool way. We can and will generate the revenues to achieve that aim. There will be short-term setbacks from time to time, but we believe we have the right people in place to bring more glory to Anfield.

Finally, I can say with authority that our ownership is not about profit. Contrary to popular opinion, owners rarely get involved in sports in order to generate cash. They generally get involved with a club in order to compete and work for the benefit of their club. It's often difficult. In our case we work every day in order to generate revenues to improve the club. We have only one driving ambition at Liverpool and that is the quest to win the Premier League playing the kind of football our supporters want to see. That will only occur if we do absolutely the right things to build the club in a way that makes sense for supporters, for us and for those who will follow us. We will deliver what every long-term supporter of Liverpool Football Club aches for.

JOHN W HENRY

[bkkjames]

I can hear Stevie tapping away heavily in Bangkok (and he's in Chiang Mai) lol

[carmine]

Henry has obviously been made aware that his directives not to spend have not gone under the radar..

If i were a Liverpool fan that letter would leave me seething, forgetting the lies but in its patronising tone alone.

[MrRed]

John Henry's Open letter to fans!

http://www.liverpool...-letter-to-fans

Liverpool Football Club's principal owner John W Henry has written the following open letter to supporters:

john henry

I am as disappointed as anyone connected with Liverpool Football Club that we were unable to add further to our strike force in this summer transfer window, but that was not through any lack of desire or effort on the part of all of those involved. They pushed hard in the final days of the transfer window on a number of forward targets and it is unfortunate that on this occasion we were unable to conclude acceptable deals to bring those targets in.

But a summer window which brought in three young, but significantly talented starters in Joe Allen, Nuri Sahin and Fabio Borini as well as two exciting young potential stars of the future - Samed Yesil and Oussama Assaidi - could hardly be deemed a failure as we build for the future.

Nor should anyone minimise the importance of keeping our best players during this window. We successfully retained Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Luis Suarez. We greatly appreciate their faith and belief in the club. And we successfully negotiated new, long-term contracts with Luis and with Martin.

No one should doubt our commitment to the club. In Brendan Rodgers we have a talented young manager and we have valued highly his judgement about the make-up of the squad. This is a work in progress. It will take time for Brendan to instill his philosophy into the squad and build exactly what he needs for the long term.

The transfer policy was not about cutting costs. It was - and will be in the future - about getting maximum value for what is spent so that we can build quality and depth. We are avowed proponents of EUFA's Financial Fair Play agenda that was this week reiterated by Mr Platini - something we heartily applaud. We must comply with Financial Fair Play guidelines that ensure spending is tied to income. We have been successful in improving the commercial side of the club and the monies generated going forward will give us greater spending power in the coming years.

We are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes. It will not happen overnight. It has been compounded by our own mistakes in a difficult first two years of ownership. It has been a harsh education, but make no mistake, the club is healthier today than when we took over.

Spending is not merely about buying talent. Our ambitions do not lie in cementing a mid-table place with expensive, short-term quick fixes that will only contribute for a couple of years. Our emphasis will be on developing our own players using the skills of an increasingly impressive coaching team. Much thought and investment already have gone into developing a self-sustaining pool of youngsters imbued in the club's traditions.

That ethos is to win. We will invest to succeed. But we will not mortgage the future with risky spending.

After almost two years at Anfield, we are close to having the system we need in place. The transfer window may not have been perfect but we are not just looking at the next 16 weeks until we can buy again: we are looking at the next 16 years and beyond. These are the first steps in restoring one of the world's great clubs to its proper status.

It will not be easy, it will not be perfect, but there is a clear vision at work.

We will build and grow from within, buy prudently and cleverly and never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees and unrealistic wages. We have no fear of spending and competing with the very best but we will not overpay for players.

We will never place this club in the precarious position that we found it in when we took over at Anfield. This club should never again run up debts that threaten its existence.

Most of all, we want to win. That ambition drives every decision. It is the Liverpool way. We can and will generate the revenues to achieve that aim. There will be short-term setbacks from time to time, but we believe we have the right people in place to bring more glory to Anfield.

Finally, I can say with authority that our ownership is not about profit. Contrary to popular opinion, owners rarely get involved in sports in order to generate cash. They generally get involved with a club in order to compete and work for the benefit of their club. It's often difficult. In our case we work every day in order to generate revenues to improve the club. We have only one driving ambition at Liverpool and that is the quest to win the Premier League playing the kind of football our supporters want to see. That will only occur if we do absolutely the right things to build the club in a way that makes sense for supporters, for us and for those who will follow us. We will deliver what every long-term supporter of Liverpool Football Club aches for.

JOHN W HENRY

The boss said this season it is critical that Liverpool qualify for the Champions League...........that last paragraph is so contradictory of his boss and also himself many times over.

[Chicog]

I can't see Liverpool ever winning the Premier League. Let's face it, they were doomed from the minute the back pass was outlawed.

And with Premiership TV revenue in the UK alone almost doubling from next year, it's only going to get worse, with even average English players demanding fortunes and the rules dictating that you have to have some on your books.

[BangrakBob]

In reply to John W Henry's letter:

[wellred]

A letter is all good and well but it fails to address the key point. Rogers says that he wouldn't have let Carroll go had he known he wasn't getting a replacement. So what happened? And what of the stadium and the new MD? Too many questions that will im sure not be answered until FSG want to and that will only unsettle the fans further. If we can't afford chicken feed for Dempsey are we ever going to get Drogba or le sulk? I wouldn't mint rat boy back as quite frankly we may need him should Suarez or Borini get injured.

------

An open letter to John W Henry

Dear Mr Henry,

Firstly I would like to go on record and thank you with the utmost sincerity for rescuing the club from administration at the 11th hour a couple of years ago. I think I speak for Liverpool supporters from Breck Rd to Boston when I say we suffered greatly under the previous regime of Hicks and Gillett. They arrived with lots of big promises and failed to deliver the vast majority of them. This has taught us to be very wary of statements from owners and managers alike.

Kenny Dalglish is a Liverpool legend and although the performances in the league last season were not what anyone connected with Liverpool would have hoped for, he did steer the club to both the FA and Carling Cup finals, winning the latter. There were also signs that, in time, the league form would have improved as the team took on an attacking style of play and they dominated possession in many games. If we had added a proven, top class goal scorer we would probably have finished a lot higher up the table. The fact that the club still hasn’t added that player to the squad is obviously disappointing. If there is one type of player we need it is a natural goal scorer. You will therefore understand we are disappointed that this kind of player was not acquired in the transfer window before other players were allowed to leave.

It was a massive call to replace Kenny and an incredibly brave one. In Brendan Rodgers there’s no doubt that the club has a talented young manager. But the team has been dealt a tricky opening set of fixtures and the next two games against Sunderland (away) and Man Utd (at home) are extremely difficult. Supporters will recognise this but should we lose badly to United at home we will be incredibly unhappy. Losing to them at all is horrible for us fans but if we were humiliated it would be sickening.

The manager will inevitably need time to instil his beliefs and get the players to adapt to his style of play. And while there have been some encouraging signs already, it’s fair to say that yesterday’s performance against Arsenal was awful and, with all due respect to West Brom, a 3-0 defeat to a team of their stature is not good.

What’s worrying is that many of the problems at the club under previous managers, both on and off the field, are sill evident. Specifically we need iron out the following problems:

1. Transfers. I understand form a business point of view there are limits to what we can afford to pay when buying players. But in addition to not overpaying for players, we need to stop allowing players to leave for less money than they are worth. Allowing Charlie Adam to leave for almost half what we paid for him a year earlier is madness. Over the years we have repeatedly lost money when selling players including McMananman, Owen, Keane and Aquilani, to name a few.

2. A goal scorer. It’s fair to say that since Torres left we have failed to replace him with someone who will score 20 or 30 goals a season. Liverpool have been lucky enough to have some great natural goal scorers over the years such as Rush, Aldridge and Fowler. Whilst Borini looks like he has the potential to score lots of goals, he isn’t proven and the fact that we haven’t added this type of player when we have been desperately lacking one for the last two seasons doesn’t offer much encouragement.

3. Players getting in the box. This point is linked to the previous one. A natural goal scorer like Robbie Fowler would get into the positions that other players wouldn’t. These types of players have a knack of being in the right place at the right time. But scoring goals isn’t about one player getting into the box. When you watch successful teams attacking they have several players in there, looking to get on the end of the ball. Too often we only have one player in there which means any pass has to be perfect and it’s a lot easier for teams to defend against. This has been a weakness of ours for too long.

4. Closing players down. Again this is a problem that has existed for a while now. Our defenders don’t seem to close players down. Often they allow the opposition to run 20 yards from the half way line with the ball. It happened several times in yesterday’s match against Arsenal where players, notably Diaby, were invited to run at our defenders. This is surprising because Brendan Rodgers likes his players to press when they don’t have possession but our defenders are still doing it. This gives players the chance to shoot from inside the box, and even if they don’t score it often leads to penalties or corners. We shouldn’t be allowing the opposition to run at goal with the ball. It’s better to make a challenge further up the pitch rather than wait until players are inside our penalty area.

I hope this letter is taken in the manner with which it is meant. I believe both you and Tom Werner have the club’s best interests at heart and I don’t mean to insult you in any way. But when you bought Liverpool Football Club you said you wanted to hear what the fans were thinking and this is how I feel. I’m only writing this because I want the club be successful.

A life-long Liverpool supporter

[SantiSuk]

`Slating Rodgers transfer nouse off though!! bit harsh when he pulled sahin out from under the arswipes noses`

You imply that Rodgers beat Arsene to the draw on Sahin, Rijit. You must have special sources as Arsene and Rodgers have said nothing, the press has speculated that Arsene pulled out of the deal and the fans had speculated before the pull-back that he was only needed to replace Walcott if he left. The timing of the announcement of some kind of gentlemans agreement on Theo and the reported pull-back suggests there may be some truth in that

We will never know, but Im not gonna let you get away with that slur unless you have good sources.

[brit1984]

Lots of words in Henry's letter but it doesn't say much.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

[StevieH]

Henry has obviously been made aware that his directives not to spend have not gone under the radar..

If i were a Liverpool fan that letter would leave me seething, forgetting the lies but in its patronising tone alone.

it's an appalling piece of PR puff and reminds me of david cameron trying to excuse the latest economic balls-up by george osborne. doing our best, wait and see, looking long-term, problems inherited from the previous administration etc. utter nonsense.

i stick to my view that these owners are looking to make the club a lean asset ready for sale to the next interested bunch of carpetbaggers. there's nothing in that letter or in their actions since they bought the club for a knockdown price that implies they are committed to any kind of sporting success. only the financial variety.

[StevieH]

W'ell listen to offers might not be a slap in the face to a reserve team striker , but to a 35 mil pound striker brought in, 2 presumably take liverpool on and up , it could well be perceived as such. My take on the 'failure' to sign Dempsey is that you made an early bid, dempsey probably said ok lets see what else is on the table, last min dot com we, spurs, needed a striker so we met fulhams valuation

yeah well, bugger perception eh? carroll was signed by one manager, new one didn't like him, happens all the time. but you back the manager's calls or what's the point?

on dempsey, we tapped him up early doors and thought that him wanting to move to us would force fulham into selling him cheap - they didn't to their credit, fair play to them. then we offered 3m then jordan henderson and fulham said 'nah, you tapped him up, it's 7m to you i'm afraid'. again, which they were entitled to do. we behaved like amateurs in the transfer market, as we so often do when it's non-football people doing the work.

[rijit]

`Slating Rodgers transfer nouse off though!! bit harsh when he pulled sahin out from under the arswipes noses`

You imply that Rodgers beat Arsene to the draw on Sahin, Rijit. You must have special sources as Arsene and Rodgers have said nothing, the press has speculated that Arsene pulled out of the deal and the fans had speculated before the pull-back that he was only needed to replace Walcott if he left. The timing of the announcement of some kind of gentlemans agreement on Theo and the reported pull-back suggests there may be some truth in that

We will never know, but Im not gonna let you get away with that slur unless you have good sources.

Is that Source' or sauces santi? LOL we'll never really know, but sahin intimated to the guardian, he was sold on LIverpool by the rodgers factor, as opposed to the wenger factor. But we can speculate al we like the press write nearly what they want and the truth of what actually happen is left for us 2 speculate on.

http://www.guardian....brendan-rodgers

Edited September 3, 2012 by rijit

[StevieH]

Is that Source' or sauces santi? LOL we'll never really know, but sahin intimated to the guardian, he was sold on LIverpool by the rodgers factor, as opposed to the wenger factor. But we can speculate al we like the press write nearly what they want and the truth of what actually happen is left for us 2 speculate on.

http://www.guardian....brendan-rodgers

it was a combination of rodgers' friendship with mourinho and xabi alonso bleating in sahin's ear.

john henry claiming sahin as a transfer success this summer when he's on a year loan with no option to buy is a bit brazen too mind. it's hardly a coup, it's treading water.

[Chicog]

Sahin would have preferred Arsenal, but Liverpool were willing to pay more of his wages and forego a buying clause, so ultimately he had little choice other than to stay on the bench in Madrid.

[uptheos]

Carroll doesn't fit into Roger's system - too tall............hey just a minute, Graham did and he's 6' 2"

[JacknDanny]

Sahin would have preferred Arsenal, but Liverpool were willing to pay more of his wages and forego a buying clause, so ultimately he had little choice other than to stay on the bench in Madrid.

That in itself is a strange bit of business!!

They pay his wages, and a huge fee for a year, without having an option to buy?? So if he has a good year, RM will just jack his price up!!! No wonder Wenger passed on him!!

[MrRed]

It does smack a bit of desperation no wonder that siggy and sinny never followed there master,i also have a feeling that Dempsey did not want to join Liverpool even if they offered the extra.

Is it correct that they can only take on a free agent now the window is closed.

[MrRed]

Ok after looking at who you can get .......Drogba will join you.

[SantiSuk]

Drogba is likely to have more options than just Liverpool. Owen will be mindful that hearts and minds will be hard to win. Neither of them are slam-dunks. Both are gonna be greedy as hell on the wages front.

[mrbojangles]

Owen will be mindful that hearts and minds will be hard to win.

Footy fans are a fickle bunch. Put on the shirt and bag some goals and it goes a long way to forgiveness.

[MrRed]

Emile Heskey

[StevieH]

Owen will be mindful that hearts and minds will be hard to win.

Footy fans are a fickle bunch. Put on the shirt and bag some goals and it goes a long way to forgiveness.

fuc_k that he can fuc_k off. i would rather sign satan. i would have a very hard time getting behind owen in a liverpool shirt now.

[Devil]

It gets worse... Del Piero, Ivan Klasnic, Crespo, Raul, Inzagi all free agents

[smokie36]

It gets worse... Del Piero, Ivan Klasnic, Crespo, Raul, Inzagi all free agents

Get them all in the time machine and hey presto!

[wellred]

They may as well sell us because at the moment they cant be making anything from the club. We need to be back in Europe and these lot haven't the funds to get us back there.

[sharecropper]

A good analysis of Fantastic O'Henry's letter in today's UK Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9518913/Liverpool-owner-John-W-Henry-offers-some-laughable-points-with-his-letter-to-fans.html

[carmine]

`Slating Rodgers transfer nouse off though!! bit harsh when he pulled sahin out from under the arswipes noses`

You imply that Rodgers beat Arsene to the draw on Sahin, Rijit. You must have special sources as Arsene and Rodgers have said nothing, the press has speculated that Arsene pulled out of the deal and the fans had speculated before the pull-back that he was only needed to replace Walcott if he left. The timing of the announcement of some kind of gentlemans agreement on Theo and the reported pull-back suggests there may be some truth in that

We will never know, but Im not gonna let you get away with that slur unless you have good sources.

Is that Source' or sauces santi? LOL we'll never really know, but sahin intimated to the guardian, he was sold on LIverpool by the rodgers factor, as opposed to the wenger factor. But we can speculate al we like the press write nearly what they want and the truth of what actually happen is left for us 2 speculate on.

http://www.guardian....brendan-rodgers

No, its more a case of "you'll never know!"

[BangrakBob]

It gets worse... Del Piero, Ivan Klasnic, Crespo, Raul, Inzagi all free agents

Get them all in the time machine and hey presto!

Yep Hey Crespo too would help

[brit1984]

I reckon Ian Rush is the one we need.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

[BangrakBob]

I don't think they'll bring anyone in on a free, they'll just have to blood the young. The damage has been done, the window has closed and a used plaster might makes things worse than better for all concerned.

Yesil and Morgan are both good young strikers, get them out there, can't do any worse really.