Christian Purslow tells of amazing job for Liverpool FC

14 September 2009 06:50
ANFIELD supremo Christian Purslow today described working at Anfield with Rafa Benitez as a pleasure and a privilege - as he told of his determination to drive the club he has supported since boyhood into a new era of success on and off the field. And he insisted the club needed to embrace 'all its great legends, like Kenny Dalglish' to help cement the family feel at the world renowned club. In his first major interview since taking over the helm at Anfield from Rick Parry three months ago, Purslow also told of his concern at seeing how the Liverpool Academy in Kirkby had until recently become 'disconnected' from the Reds first team set-up. He pledged to continue helping restore the link between Kirkby and Melwood - as well as to ensure all footballing decisions remained firmly with the manager and his team. The top city banker, whose father and grandfather hail from one of Birkenhead's poorest districts, was brought up a Liverpool fan by his father. He estimates he has attended 400-500 games since 1970, and was among thousands of Reds fans for great occasions like Istanbul and the UEFA Cup victory in Dortmund. He was also close to the Leppings Lane end in 1989 and, along with so many other supporters, witnessed first hand the horrors of the Hillsborough Disaster. Purslow was at Anfield on Saturday with other club officials and Benitez to personally welcome Michael Shields back to his first game since being wrongly jailed in Bulgaria. The 45-year-old, who along with the Reds board was today celebrating the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in football, with Standard Chartered bank, said: 'My grandparents are from the avenues in Birkenhead and that's where my dad was born and lived until he was 20. 'My granddad and dad were fanatical Liverpool fans and that's why I am. And by the way so are my four children. 'I am incredibly proud and honoured to be now the custodian of the football club that my grandparents and my dad and I have been fans of. 'I don't think I've been hired because I am a fan. Hopefully I've been hired because people think I'm an experienced businessman who can drive the club forward. 'But I'm not embarrassed about being first and foremost a fan.' 'The job satisfaction I have felt in my first three months every day to go home from work, where unlike most normal jobs, satisfaction comes from maybe doing a good job. 'The sense of satisfaction I get is that if I do a good job here something that I absolutely love, second only to my family, will be better. I can't describe it any differently to that.

Source: Liverpool_Echo