Go fuck yourselves FSG

[Barrington Womble]

6 hours ago, Jarvinja Ilnow said:

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2023/08/boston-journalists-criticise-fsg-as-red-sox-transformed-into-underdogs/

 

Boston journalists criticise FSG as Red Sox “transformed into underdogs”

• August 5, 2023
• Jack Lusby

In a situation which may seem familiar to Liverpool fans, Fenway Sports Group have been criticised for turning the Boston Red Sox to “underdogs.”

The Red Sox are one of the most iconic franchises in baseball, founded in 1901 and winners of nine World Series – more than all but two others, the New York Yankees (27) and the St Louis Cardinals (11).

 

Four of those have come under FSG, who purchased the Boston outfit in 2002, but things have turned sour in recent years.

A lack of investment has seen them unable to compete with the likes of the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros, and they are at risk of missing the post-season tournament which leads to the World Series.

 

While the complexities of baseball and its recruitment are hard to decipher for those not following the sport, journalists around Boston have summed it up.

“The Red Sox are one of the most powerful brands in American sport,” the Providence Journal‘s Bill Koch wrote on Twitter.

“They’ve been transformed into underdogs by an owner content with a midtier payroll and a chief baseball officer who is risk averse.

“John Henry and Chaim Bloom are making this team smaller. It’s disappointing.”

 

Koch’s criticism came after chief baseball officer Bloom pitched the Red Sox as “underdogs,” after this week’s trade deadline, despite their status as one of the giants in baseball.

NBC10 Boston’s Sam Murray added: “It’s amazing how the Red Sox had an opportunity to either buy or sell at the deadline and did neither.

“Now they’re three back in the Wild Card, have lost five of their last six, and are treading water.

“Thanks John Henry and Chaim Bloom! Such a fun product to watch!”

 

Risk averse you say. At least they're not like that here. 

[Red74]

Klopps gonna pay for that Annie road not being ready in time. 

[TheHowieLama]

24 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Risk averse you say. At least they're not like that here. 

 

They are never there - so they are averse.

[Daisy]

Cunts 

[VladimirIlyich]

How do we fix this though? Do you want Arab owners? Do you want 'big talkers' who haven't really got the cash and push the club to the brink of bankrupcy again? Or do you just want an FSG mark 2 who will probably do the same as FSG but appoint a shit manager? I really don't see a way out other than option 1,which will turn me away from the club for good.

[Daisy]

Theres about 10 other clubs that spend more than us that aren't owned by states and arent on the brink of bankruptcy 

[Grinch]

Owners that spend what we earn would be a good start.

[Lurtz]

They're a miserly set of shitcunts. We don't need Arabs. We're not a fucking Wigan or a Sunderland like city and Newcastle have always been. We're one of the biggest names in global football and we have the earnings and the potential to act like it.

 

We need these fucking wankers gone. They've been holding us back for years. 

[BeefStroganoff]

36 minutes ago, Redder Lurtz said:

They're a miserly set of shitcunts. We don't need Arabs. We're not a fucking Wigan or a Sunderland like city and Newcastle have always been. We're one of the biggest names in global football and we have the earnings and the potential to act like it.

 

We need these fucking wankers gone. They've been holding us back for years. 

The mood is turning though. For the first time in a long time im seeing lots of posts and comments from the likes of rawk and this is anfield that we’re previously very defensive of FSG, change.

 

if we go into the season on a low and have a few poor results the crowd will be next and Jurgen will get pelters off the media every game.

 

Patience has evaporated.

[Barrington Womble]

8 minutes ago, BeefStroganoff said:

The mood is turning though. For the first time in a long time im seeing lots of posts and comments from the likes of rawk and this is anfield that we’re previously very defensive of FSG, change.

 

if we go into the season on a low and have a few poor results the crowd will be next and Jurgen will get pelters off the media every game.

 

Patience has evaporated.

Don't worry, the whole "evil Saudis unbalanced us and it's always tough when you can't offer CL football" will be wheeled out and lapped up. Just so many of our fans don't want to believe our owners done care about winning. 

[stringvest]

I don't believe that the fans are so stupid not to realise that FSG are in it for the profit, and that winning anything is a bonus.  The investment required to turning the slight possibility of winning into a probability is just not worth the risk to them. 

[Jairzinho]

5 minutes ago, stringvest said:

I don't believe that the fans are so stupid not to realise that FSG are in it for the profit, and that winning anything is a bonus.  The investment required to turning the slight possibility of winning into a probability is just not worth the risk to them. 

 

I think that probably absolves them slightly more than they deserve. There have been several occasions where they wouldn't have needed huge spending to make a difference. Need a defender, sign someone from the worst team in Germany on loan. Need a midfielder, sign a crock on loan. They've had plenty of chances to simply show a bit more respect to the best manager in the world, and give him a better chance of continuing to hugely overperform. This is, after all, a man who has turned their 300m investment into one which they apparently value at somewhere around four billion.

 

For all the tedious binary lickspittling on their behalf suggesting it's them or Kim Jong Un, most people who criticise them haven't called for City like investment. Just not to be utter, utter scrooge like cunts in key moments.

[Barrington Womble]

3 minutes ago, stringvest said:

I don't believe that the fans are so stupid not to realise that FSG are in it for the profit, and that winning anything is a bonus.  The investment required to turning the slight possibility of winning into a probability is just not worth the risk to them. 

You've seen plenty on here repeat the same mantra for year "but winning is good for the value of the club", but not associating the risk and cost of a decision to invest like that as a trade off on a hit to their piggy bank. They just don't care and the reason they were invested in the ESL was they just don't want the risk like this season of relegation out of the CL, which is getting harder to qualify for. 

[an tha]

2 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

How do we fix this though? Do you want Arab owners? Do you want 'big talkers' who haven't really got the cash and push the club to the brink of bankrupcy again? Or do you just want an FSG mark 2 who will probably do the same as FSG but appoint a shit manager? I really don't see a way out other than option 1,which will turn me away from the club for good.

What were we on the last 'money list' the 3rd highest revenue generating football club in the world?

 

All I want is for us is when we need to, to spend money on our squad in a manner that is befitting for a club of such wealth and size.

 

Why are we "unable" to sign footballers who cost 100m for example, and make noise about fact we can't - but Arsenal who bring in 230m a year less than us can - something is just wrong there.

 

Here we are in the middle of our biggest rebuild in 8 years with us having fallen out of the top 4 and with glaring issues to fix in our squad and as it stands we have spent 50m net. Meanwhile Arsenal have spent 200m net from a much better starting point.

 

Now don't get me wrong - we can argue quite clearly that our model has worked over last few years - we have the trophies, likes of Arsenal and Mancs don't - FSG can point to that and it is inarguable - but now we need to spend to rebuild and to claw back ground we have lost, we seem to be sitting on our hands and so far have brought in just 2 players at a net transfer spend of 50m and lowered our wage bill by around 40m a year......

 

We send out signals that we can't and won't compete for the best players/those who cost most......The 3rd highest revenue generating club in the world.

 

Nobody wants reckless spending, nobody wants huge debt - but frigging hell we don't act like a club as wealthy as we are and it has caught up with us now.

 

They have a month to prove they are ambitious, to prove they want to win and to back the brilliant manager they have.....Surely they will - if they don't then IMHO they should sell and do one.

 

[Rushies tash]

1 hour ago, Redder Lurtz said:

They're a miserly set of shitcunts. We don't need Arabs. We're not a fucking Wigan or a Sunderland like city and Newcastle have always been. We're one of the biggest names in global football and we have the earnings and the potential to act like it.

 

We need these fucking wankers gone. They've been holding us back for years. 

 

3rd highest income in world football - this summer's net spend behind Burnley, Bournemouth and Brentford. And that's before you factor in saved wages from those released.

[stringvest]

34 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

I think that probably absolves them slightly more than they deserve. There have been several occasions where they wouldn't have needed huge spending to make a difference. Need a defender, sign someone from the worst team in Germany on loan. Need a midfielder, sign a crock on loan. They've had plenty of chances to simply show a bit more respect to the best manager in the world, and give him a better chance of continuing to hugely overperform. This is, after all, a man who has turned their 300m investment into one which they apparently value at somewhere around four billion.

 

For all the tedious binary lickspittling on their behalf suggesting it's them or Kim Jong Un, most people who criticise them haven't called for City like investment. Just not to be utter, utter scrooge like cunts in key moments.

 

I agree, but I also understand any decisions they make are not out of malice or disrespect, they're made against the criteria on which they make any business decisions.  There's no emotion involved.  And it would be naive to think that anyone buying the club (apart from any state entity) would procure and operate the club in a materially different way.  That's where I think fans are divorced from reality.  I'm not saying this is as good as it gets from an ownership perspective, but it's not that far off it.  

[El Dangerous]

People who like to use the “We either spend like we do or we sell our souls to blood money” argument always ignore United, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona. Can we spend as much as all those teams? Probably not. Can we spend as much as most of them? Why not? It’s not one or the other, piss poor and morally sound or super rich and morally corrupt.

[Leyton388]

Just be prepared for another FSG con job of a transfer window.  They are true to form and have taken the piss for years and this summer is no exception. 

 

Would love to know where thr clubs money is going if not on player recruitment as we again dont appear to have a pot to piss in.  

[Moo]

1 minute ago, Leyton388 said:

Just be prepared for another FSG con job of a transfer window.  They are true to form and have taken the piss for years and this summer is no exception. 

 

Would love to know where thr clubs money is going if not on player recruitment as we again dont appear to have a pot to piss in.  

 

Wages.  

Breakdown of those wages, no idea.

[stringvest]

49 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

You've seen plenty on here repeat the same mantra for year "but winning is good for the value of the club", but not associating the risk and cost of a decision to invest like that as a trade off on a hit to their piggy bank. They just don't care and the reason they were invested in the ESL was they just don't want the risk like this season of relegation out of the CL, which is getting harder to qualify for. 

 

Yep, I agree.

[Elite]

They'll never change and will have wasted one of the best managers we've ever had. We've had success but could have had far more.

[Anubis]

For some reason I thought the transfer window closed next week, not a month away, so I’m giving John a brief 2 week reprieve on the “buy somebody you cunts” campaign.
 

Don’t rest on your laurels John.

[clangers]

16 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

Just be prepared for another FSG con job of a transfer window.  They are true to form and have taken the piss for years and this summer is no exception. 

 

Would love to know where thr clubs money is going if not on player recruitment as we again dont appear to have a pot to piss in.  

 

It does appear to be heading that way. Another typical FSG summer spend so far, £95 million out, £60 million in. A nice net £35 million. Lots of huffing and puffing on deals we can't quite get over the line in time. Oh well, there's always next summer for that £250 million rebuild as long as we're in the CL.

 

I don't understand the finances but it always seems a bit odd that with one of the highest turnovers in world football we're incapable of spending at the level of many mid-table Premiership teams?

 

What happened to the $735 million from selling a slice of FSG to Redbird? They were happy to float the idea of extra investment for LFC being available at the time. Mind you they have to fund that $1.6 billion Red Sox project they announced recently.

 

Patience is now running thin, I suspect that'll run out completely if it turns out they're diverting any of our turnover to fund their 'other' projects.

 

I don't even think they bother with the PR front they used to keep up, we're barely mentioned these days.

[Harry Squatter]

Convenient that after Gvardiol signs for Man City the club sycophants release a story that we bid for him in January but were told he wasn't for sale. Once he was for sale the club had already moved onto other targets. Targets that we haven't signed yet. It's always the "we tried/the club wouldn't sell" routine to pretend we are in the market for top signings that don't have release clauses. 

 

We were also told that signing Gakpo in January stretched the clubs finances. So signing a centre back for £80m would have stretched them a little bit more. 

[Jairzinho]

43 minutes ago, stringvest said:

 

I agree, but I also understand any decisions they make are not out of malice or disrespect, they're made against the criteria on which they make any business decisions.  There's no emotion involved.  And it would be naive to think that anyone buying the club (apart from any state entity) would procure and operate the club in a materially different way.  That's where I think fans are divorced from reality.  I'm not saying this is as good as it gets from an ownership perspective, but it's not that far off it.  

 

Oh agreed, and they've made it easier (for better or worse) for fans to detach some of the emotion as well. Essentially, they've made it easier to care less. Helped, in no small part, by the opposite end of the spectrum happening with other clubs.

 

Obviously, for some people it is much more difficult to let go, and I feel fucking terrible for them. Personally, I find the sport so utterly ridiculous and depressing that the only really joy I would get is seeing the whole lot go completely belly up now.