New MD

[Dan Vito Corleone]

That load of shite he come out with when the Yanks pocketed the Alonso transfer money. Trying to pull the wool over our eyes and act like it never happened. Errand boy for the Yanks. Cunt.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

That load of shite he come out with when the Yanks pocketed the Alonso transfer money. Trying to pull the wool over our eyes and act like it never happened. Errand boy for the Yanks. Cunt.

 

So one interview about his new employers and he's a cunt? I think that's harsh.

 

Again, he might well be a cunt. I'm just not ready to lynch him yet.

[The Party Boy]

I bet he's goosed some class ass in the "city".

[jackofdk]

Whatever bullshit spin Purslow has tried to peddle, and he will probably do so again at some point, I think we should all be happy that Rafa seems to be working well with him.

 

Just as even though the owners are lying, stealing cunts, it is in all probability a good thing that the club now has a big sponsorship deal.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

 

"Nothing but a lapdog to the slip of a girl."

 

Purslow, Ayres in particular, and those fucking Yanks can all fuck off.

[edinjapan]

There are some interesting rumours going round in The City of London. Apparently our new MD, Christian Purslow, is a mergers and acquisitions guy ie. specialized in company takeovers.

 

Even more interesting, rumour in the financial circles has it, that he is on a 12-18 month contract at Liverpool and that he will get a significant bonus, if he sells more than 50 percent of the shares within that contract.

 

The thing about him being a Liverpool season ticket holder should be true - even though he doesn't make it to that many games due to business. He should also be a straight shooter and a very hands on type of boss.

 

If this is true, I'd expect the day to day running of the club left with Ian Ayre, while Christian Purslow will be travelling around trying to make a deal happen.

 

All this is from a mate of mine who works in the financial sector in Denmark and who has friends in the financial circles in London.

 

Did you ever hear anything more around this Jack.

 

Thought it was pretty interesting at the time, and sounded highly plausible.

[king7]

He can fuck off.

 

Don't care if Rafa or Kenny love him, he's a cunt and he's got to go.

 

Care to elaborate on this?

 

I'm not trying to start an argument here, I just haven't read much about him or what he does. Rafa and Kenny seems to like him, and he's obviously been instrumental in the new sponsor-deal, but if he has a negative influence on the club I would appreciate to be enlightened.

[redrosetints]

Whatever people think of Hicks and Gillet, the fact is that Purslow and Ayre are now running our club day to day and I think we have to accept that they have done a great job with this sponsorship. It doesnt change our loathing of the owners, but lets give credit where its due, this is a good deal for the club and therefore should be applauded.

 

Purslow has done in a few months what Parry failed to do in 10 years, capitalise on our global fan base and strength.

[Funkasy]

anyone think that we would get a md that didnt work with the owners ?

[jackofdk]

Did you ever hear anything more around this Jack.

 

Thought it was pretty interesting at the time, and sounded highly plausible.

 

Not a thing, mate.

 

But there are a couple of things in my original post that didn't come off, it seems: Purslow seem to be running the day to day operation more that I guessed he would. And he can hardly be called a straight shooter after his spin on transfer funds.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Strange one this, as the deal is essentially Ayre's baby and was more or less agreed before Purslow was officially appointed.

 

In regards to Rafa and Purslow being bezzie mates, I very much doubt it, but hopefully he'll now stop stalking Rafa at press conferences and attempting to vet what he is saying

 

He's known Dalglish for a while though

[SpeedyG]

Strange one this, as the deal is essentially Ayre's baby and was more or less agreed before Purslow was officially appointed.

 

In regards to Rafa and Purslow being bezzie mates, I very much doubt it, but hopefully he'll now stop stalking Rafa at press conferences and attempting to vet what he is saying

 

He's known Dalglish for a while though

 

Are you sure about that because I wondered. What with those forecasts showing an improved deal with carlseberg. We appoint a banker as MD. The bank gets beaten out of the manure sponsorship a couple of months ago and then hey presto we're sponsored by a bank.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Are you sure about that because I wondered. What with those forecasts showing an improved deal with carlseberg. We appoint a banker as MD. The bank gets beaten out of the manure sponsorship a couple of months ago and then hey presto we're sponsored by a bank.

 

He (Ayre) let slip to someone I know earlier in the year (Possibly as early as February) that he'd just done a deal with a new sponsor worth around £18,000,000 pa, but he wouldn't divulge a name, possibly because it was well before the exclusivity period that Carlsberg had was due to expire and it could have caused murder.

 

I remember telling a few of the lads from here about it at the time and they might have a better idea of when it was.

 

Purslow has been about for a lot longer than the club let on anyway, and may very well have been involved, but as I said, it was before he was officially appointed

[jackofdk]

UEM, have you heard anything similar to what I posted earlier about Purslow's task at the club?

[redrosetints]

Strange one this, as the deal is essentially Ayre's baby and was more or less agreed before Purslow was officially appointed.

 

In regards to Rafa and Purslow being bezzie mates, I very much doubt it, but hopefully he'll now stop stalking Rafa at press conferences and attempting to vet what he is saying

 

He's known Dalglish for a while though

 

Cheers Andy. If he's known Dalglish for a while can we assume his ST holding credentials are valid, (ie that he is a Fan etc) or just the usual 'kiss the badge, always loved this club' rubbish ?

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

UEM, have you heard anything similar to what I posted earlier about Purslow's task at the club?

 

 

In regards to running the day to day stuff?

 

He's alot more visible than what he should be at the moment, but then again, we are currently working without at CEO, so he's effectively doing two jobs at the moment, probably with a little help from Ian Ayre.

 

I've no idea on what timescale they've put on getting a CEO in place, but i'm aware of a few names that have been approached, all of whom have more of a history in football (Business wise) than Purslow.

 

I haven't a clue what he (Purslow) is like, as I've never met him, but those that have think he's got a bit of small man syndrome about him.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Ulysses Everett McGill

[jackofdk]

In regards to running the day to day stuff?

 

He's alot more visible than what he should be at the moment, but then again, we are currently working without at CEO, so he's effectively doing two jobs at the moment, probably with a little help from Ian Ayre.

 

Haven't got a clue what timescale they've put on getting a CEO in place, but i'm aware of a few names that have been approached, all of whom have more of a history in football (Business wise) than Purslow.

 

I haven't a clue what he (Purslow) is like, as I've never met him, but those that have think he's got a bit of small man syndrome about him.

 

I was thinking about the rumour about him being hired on a 12-18 month contract where he'll get a significant bonus, if he sells a majority stake in the club within the contract.

 

But cheers for the info. I wasn't aware that there was actually a search for a CEO going on. I assumed that the MD title covered that as well.

[edinjapan]

I wouldn't put it past H&G to lure Purslow with that kind of bonus promise, and then sell the day after his contract expired. That's the way they operate.

[rebel23]

Kenny on the website thinks this deal will improve Rafa's zero budget, i think that's optimistic but it would be nice if they would at least let him have it next year the problem is the debts will just swallow it up.

 

Benitez must have some assurances on a budget in the next year if he's coming out with positive crap.

[navbasi]

I bet he's goosed some class ass in the "city".

 

For that reason alone, I like him.

[navbasi]

Whatever people think of Hicks and Gillet, the fact is that Purslow and Ayre are now running our club day to day and I think we have to accept that they have done a great job with this sponsorship. It doesnt change our loathing of the owners, but lets give credit where its due, this is a good deal for the club and therefore should be applauded.

 

Purslow has done in a few months what Parry failed to do in 10 years, capitalise on our global fan base and strength.

 

I wouldn't be too disappointed if these two stayed if and when we get new owners. They seem to know what they are doing and go about it quickly and effectively.

[ali]

September 09, 2009

Purslow has difficult balancing act at Liverpool

 

Tony Barrett

 

Why would anyone want to be managing director of Liverpool Football Club in its current state of malaise? That is the question which has been nagging away at so many Liverpool fans ever since Christian Purslow took on that very role in June of this year.

 

Sure, enjoying the financial benefits of a salary commensurate with what is one of the loftiest executive positions in English football isn’t exactly a hardship during a recession and having your own personal chauffeur to drive you to and from meetings has its advantages, although surely investing in a hands-free kit for the inevitable stream of vital phone calls would probably be more cost effective to the club at a time when cash is so scarce there must be a growing temptation for You’ll Never Walk Alone to be replaced with Money’s Too Tight to Mention as Liverpool’s anthem.

 

A seat in the directors box at Anfield is another obvious attraction, apart from the fact that it affords you one of the best views in the house of Ryan Babel’s ongoing attempt to disprove the widely-held theory that Jimmy Carter was the worst Liverpool winger of all time.

 

Then there is the hospitality provided in the boardroom, which recently became a David Moores free zone at the behest of owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett who no longer want to breathe the same air as the man who sold them the club two and a half years ago. Although the fact that the closest the American duo have got to Merseyside in recent months is probably a cable TV re-run of the Beatles’ legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan show defeats the object somewhat.

 

If they are the rather limited pros, then the cons are surely enough to make even the most highly qualified executive wish for an easier life, say as image consultant to Gordon Brown, accountant/therapist/make-up artist/husband/voice coach of Kerry Katona or just being George Burley. It can’t be too much fun, after all, to be the meat in not one, but two, sandwiches, knowing that pleasing one of your two warring bosses will not necessarily satisfy the other and that keeping both of them happy is likely to upset a first-team manager who has a past history littered with outbursts against his superiors.

 

If Purslow didn’t realise just how demanding Rafael Benitez is then his first few months in one of the most difficult roles in football must surely have filled in any such gaps in his knowledge. Somehow, and this may be down to contractual restrictions rather than an unlikely outbreak of peace and harmony at Anfield, the lid has been kept down on Benitez’s frustrations at the transfer budget he was afforded this summer. Fortunately for the Spaniard, there have been no shortage of fans and media commentators who have been willing to say what he either can’t or won’t and this is that is for the first time in several years, Liverpool’s net summer spend has got nowhere near the £20m mark.

 

In keeping with his apparent brief to keep costs down and keep trouble and controversy as far away from the Shankly Gates as possible, Purslow has handled what could have been an intensely difficult situation with no little adroitness. Firstly, by helping deliver his manager’s main transfer targets and thus avoiding the kind of Gareth Barry row which delivered the fatal blow to Benitez’s relationship with Rick Parry, and secondly by using the kind of sleight of hand characteristic of the most expert of bean counters in massaging the figures well enough to stop any outcry from becoming an outright rebellion.

 

Purslow insists that Liverpool have spent £20m net this summer and there is little question that he is spot on in this assessment. When transfer costs are grouped together with agents fees, signing on fees and other such overheads it is easy to see how the Merseyside club’s outlay has reached its traditional mark even after the incoming transfer fees received for the likes of Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa are taken into account. But what the co-founder of MidOcean Partners has neglected to mention is that in the past, up until this year in fact, Liverpool’s net summer spend on transfers has only ever included transfer fees themselves, with all other ancillary costs being absorbed into the general running costs of the club.

 

Without this subtle change to the way Liverpool keep their accounts then their net spend on transfers this summer would be virtually zero with Benitez having pretty much balanced the books when it comes to incomings and outgoings.

 

The thing is, no-one should have been expecting any different. Purslow has been appointed to act as a much needed rudder for a ship which remains in danger of sinking under the sheer weight of debt which has been accumulated since Hicks and Gillett took over in February 2007.

 

With £1m in interest payments needed every nine days just to service their debt there is unlikely to be too much spare change down the back of Anfield’s sofas even at a time when Liverpool have just received £50.1m as their share of TV revenues.

 

Purslow’s invidious choice was either to find a way of backing Benitez in the transfer market and running the risk of putting an increased and potentially intolerable strain on the club’s finances in the process or to put financial stability first and run the risk of failing to make the necessary improvements to the first-team squad.

 

There are minute gaps between rocks and hard places which are more fun to be in and Purslow should not be criticised for refusing to spend money which was not there, even if it does mean that Liverpool’s title hopes are unlikely to be realised this season as a result.

 

This, in essence, is why Purslow’s position as managing director is such a poisoned chalice. Fall short in the title race this year and featuring near the very top on the list of results provided by the inevitable annual inquest will be a failure to invest adequately in playing staff. Not too many fans will be handing out credit for keeping the ship afloat, though, as the very least they expect of a club of Liverpool’s size and potential wealth is that it will function adequately as a business.

 

Somehow, by the time the next transfer window opens in January, Purslow needs to have found some middle ground. It won’t be easy because Hicks and Gillett will probably still be as willing to sell the club as they have been for the last 12 months and as such will be equally keen to keep Liverpool’s cost base down to the kind of level which attracts investors and the noose of massive debt will still be tight around the necks of all at Anfield. As ever where Liverpool are involved though, inspiration can be taken from the time of Bill Shankly, although not from the great man himself.

 

At the end of his first season in the manager’s hot seat at Anfield, Shankly had identified the improvements that needed to be made to his squad if he was to be able to guide them from the old Division Two to Division One. The problem then, as now, was that enhancements cost money and the Liverpool board was not willing to cough up what was needed.

 

“Knowing what needed to be done was one thing,” recalled Shankly years later. “Convincing the directors was another. It is difficult to believe how hard I had to fight to make certain people realise the potential of the club. At other clubs where I was manager, I knew their limitations. I knew when it was no good, when it was pointless.

 

"But not at Liverpool. I could see what was possible and yet I had to convince people that they should not do things on the cheap.

 

“At the end of my first full season at Liverpool, we finished third in the Second Division and I was determined to sign players before the start of the following season. Ron Yeats and Ian St John were the players on my mind, but when we discussed possible transfer moves at board meetings, the tune was still ‘We can’t afford them’. That’s when Eric Sawyer stepped in and said ‘We cannot afford not to buy them’.

 

"‘Bill’, he said ‘if you can get the players, I will get the money’.”

 

Liverpool have spent much of the past couple of decades looking for the new Kenny Dalglish, the new Alan Hansen and the new Graeme Souness. But what they need right now more than anything else is the new Eric Sawyer, an administrator who can realise the huge potential of the team and its manager without jeopardising the future of the club. That is the challenge facing Christian Purslow, a man tasked with one of the most difficult and precarious balancing acts in football.

 

in Columnists, Featured, Liverpool, Tony Barrett

 

 

TheGame - Times Online - WBLG: Purslow has difficult balancing act at Liverpool

 

 

I'm absolutely convinced he's in situ to sell the club, anything along the way is purely diversonary, until he achieves the end result

[Anubis]

Rafa and Kenny both happy with Purslow.

 

This should be interesting.

 

Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer.

[JohnnyH]

Good old Tony. Him and Brian Reade are doing great work in trying to keep this in the public eye.

[WhiskeyJar]

I have been back for a few days now, just working too damn hard I suppose, but I found this thread quite interesting.

 

For staters we dont know what the owners hidden agenda is, but the fact is they do have a plan for Liverpool FC. Wherever thats to expand or dismantle us is up for debate.

 

The point is though what is Purslow role in all of this?

 

To say that he is a cunt is an analysis done too early. If a man is defined by his action then Purslow has achieved much more than Parry, who lets face it, could not in a million year land a deal of this scale.

 

That being said I am sure Purslow is like a mole, reporting all his hard work he had done with Rafa back to the yanks. Beyond all the positive talk from Rafa and Kenny, this is the more disturbing part, and one that should not be ignored.