Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Selling a 35% share of the club for 1.5 billion, massively recouping everything they've put into it and still having a controlling interest would be a masterstroke, and they still wouldn't have to put any money into the club....

I see no talk of a sale, just shares. Someone is looking foolish.

I'm sure FSG will put it straight either way.

For what it's worth:

If the cost of "keeping up" with City and Newcastle is selling to a group that assassinates journalists then I'm content with not keeping up and I think it's frankly disgusting that anyone would be happy for that to happen as long as the guy wearing the t-shirt they like lifts a couple more trophies than usual.

whether it's outright selling, or whether it's looking for big investment, FSG knows that moneyball is not sustainable. FFP has failed, blood money is running the game and it's not going to get any better than this for them, outside of getting their Super League off the ground.

it's probably a good time for them to make some money.

If it's shares in the club, then good. The FSG model is working to an extent.

If it's a 100% sale, Steve Ballmer if you are reading this get the chequebook out

It's unlikely they'd come out and say they're putting it all up for sale outright. This statement is pretty much saying we're open to listening, come make us an offer. I think it'd be naive to think they won't sell the lot if they get a good offer in this economic environment.

A mere billionaire can't afford Liverpool these days, you need to have a net worth of 40 billion to contemplate buying it

I think that's it. Don't think there's any room behind the Centenary (obviously they could try to buy up the houses, but I'm guessing that was painfully slow for the Main) and there's no way the Kop can grow, I don't think

That's true - but the athletic's headline makes it read like they're only selling it outright, which really doesn't seem to be the case. As you say it's more likely they're looking to release some funds, but with the right offer would sell more.

As far as the 'this economic environment' bit goes - the other side of that is that if they get their money out, they have to find something else to invest in which will perform at least as well, which is no easy feat.

This ☝️

No way FSG retain Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley unless they are committed to selling a major portion of or possibly all of their shareholding in the club. By the time something like this is made public 80% of the preparatory work will have been done to feel out who the likely buyers etc are and they may already be well engaged with various interested parties under the protection of Confidentiality Agreements.

Wouldn't surprise me to see FSG do a two-step exit i.e. sell a good chunk of their shareholding to X but retain 10%-15% to show confidence in the new guys etc but ultimately have an option to sell the remaining amount to the new guys within 12-18 months once everyone is comfortable with the new arrangement.

The PR will be that FSG have stabilised and brought the club as far as they can winning the CL and PL along the way (which is 100% true) but they now need to pass on ownership to new owners who can take the club forward.

My order of preference for new owners are:-

1. If the Forbes valuation (https://www.forbes.com/teams/liverpool/?sh=528f7e7d6045) of $4.45 Billion is true then 50,000 fans each paying $89,000 to buy the club would be a dream. (Literally a dream given £5,000 a head when H&G were last in town didn't fly!!)
2. A bigger more well resourced version of FSG who run the club on a commercially sustainable basis i.e. not a sugar daddy type owner.
3. A self-made sugar daddy type owner who is a Liverpool fan (or at least a serious football / sports fan) who will put his/her own money into what would be a hobby / benevolent / vanity type project.
4. Owners whose money comes from morally repugnant exploitation of resources or people or both a la City, PSG and Newcastle.

If it's #1 I'll eat my hat!

If it's # 2 we double down and hopefully go on another but bigger and better roller coaster over the next 5-10 years.

If it's # 3 all bets will be off but it'll be an interesting 3-5 years and not necessarily in a good way.

If it's #4 I doubt I'll ever set foot in Anfield ever again as the club would no longer have any of the attributes which made (and still make me) proud to say I'm a Liverpool fan.

I thought the World Cup break was going to create a bit of a lull in Liverpool news and activity but by the time it's over we could have new owners or at least know who the new owner will be once due diligence and contracts are drafted etc.

Exciting and worrying in equal parts.

Listening to Ornstein on the Athletic pod today and him saying he is breaking that FSG are selling Liverpool football club only then to say they are considering just selling shares in the club if they get the right offer

Total clickbate headlines from him and the Athletic and it worked.

If they were that close they wouldn't jeopardise the deal putting it for sale, it's a bit strange, a whisper in the ear of the right agent and every potential buyer would be informed, a public statement like is more aimed at the fans.

They haven't been shy in saying they are willing to sell shares for investment in the club.

Depends.

For simplicity let's assume ownership of LFC is made up of 100 Ord Shares with FSG owning 89 and Redbird Investments (or whoever) owning the remaining 11.

If FSG sell 38 of their existing 89 shares for $1.7 Billion they get to keep it all. No money is invested into the club and FSG remain majority owners with 51 of the 100 shares.

If 25 new shares are sold to DirtyOilInvestments Ltd for $1.1 Billion all $1.1 Billion goes into the club bank account and FSG remain majority owners as they now own 89 of 125 issued shares i.e. 71% and the club goes from a market value of $4.45 Billion to $5.55 Billion as its still worth the $4.45 Billion it was prior to the new investment but now has an additional $1.1 Billion in its bank account.

Would be interesting if Musk did buy though and he could bring in some changes:

Players notified of transfer out by e-mall.

Players must pay an monthly sub to register and verify their squad number.

Increase in Ads revenue.

Tesla battery engineers could look at improving players' fitness.

Dunno where you got that info from but the 1st leg is on Tues Feb 21st after a trip to Newcastle and the return leg is on March 15th after a trip to Bournemouth

Liverpool and Chelsea also not playing in the same week means there is no free dates yet to fill that postponed fixture.

Going by Dale Johnson from ESPN that is where I got them from.

Just assumed the fixtures on google were correct 😅

I wish the 2nd leg was earlier, going to have to find a place to watch the 2nd leg somewhere around Dublin airport

Yeah I got on board with The Athletic when they first launched but I felt like they quickly strayed from the type of content they originally sold themselves as.

Ali & Fab going to the World Cup.

Bobby staying at home.

FSG have twice turned down investment from the Middle East in recent years so this would give me some confidence that if they are indeed going to sell the club it won't be to an Arab oil state. If it is an outright sale of the club, then RedBird Capital is a likely option - they already own 11% of the club and Gerry Cardinale believes the Premier League is significantly undervalued commercially.