Des Kelly: Can Liverpool's new owners revive club as they did with Boston Red Sox?

30 October 2010 00:02
It's certainly quite a welcome. When I arrive at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, two World Series trophies are out on the reception desk glittering in the light.[LNB]The silverware cabinet is having its annual clean and I'm told this is why baseball's greatest prizesjust happen to be placed casually alongside used coffee mugs and an office stapler.[LNB]The fact that the Red Sox are polishing up their Tiffany and Co creations just as a journalist arrivesfrom England to discuss their acquisition of Liverpool seems a little too perfect, although I'm assured it is not deliberate. But slapping some silver on the table is a confident way for New England Sports Ventures to begin the conversation.[LNB] One of sport's great venues: Des smiles for the camera on his visit to Fenway Park[LNB]Peering inside Fenway Park, the heart of John W Henry's Boston empire, is the surest way to establish how he operates. This is where Anfield's new American owners have had a decade to impose and establish their methods.[LNB]How does Henry compete? Can he succeed in the Premier League? There are many questions. Butthen Brenna, the Red Sox receptionist, asks whether I'd like my picture taken with a World Series trophy and they all have to wait for a moment while I grin for the camera like a starry-eyed tourist.[LNB]The new owners: John W Henry and Tom Werner at Liverpool's recent clash with Everton[LNB]Boston's Fenway Park does that to a sports fan. It is more than just a building. It is part cathedral, part shrine and part movie set. The old bricks have absorbed almost a century of emotion, from BabeRuth's bitter departure to the New York Yankees, 86 years of championship failure, and on to theredemptive triumphs of 2004 and 2007.[LNB]This is why the Red Sox have sold out a recordbreaking 631 consecutive games and why a quarterof a million people just turn up each year to take the stadium tour. Today proud sons of Boston still sit in the same cramped wooden seats their fathers and grandfathers used before them. The place is too knee-knockingly small for many of the demands of a more commercial age, yet it is too full of memories to be abandoned.[LNB]Wisely, Henry and Co decided to renovate rather than replace after toying with a new stadium plan,and on the day I arrive the ball park is alive with noise as workmen upgrade sections of the arena. New seats, giant screens and walkways are being fitted into the old museum in the last stage of a 10-year plan.[LNB]Then Red Sox chief operating officer Sam Kennedy, one of the team involved in sealing NESV's deal to buy Liverpool, whisks me to a boardroom overlooking third base to explain how Henry works and clear up a few misconceptions. I point to the construction outside and wonder if this supports the assumption that Liverpool's new 60,000-seat stadium project, abandoned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, is dead and Anfield will be modernised in line with Fenway's £200million facelift.[LNB]'The idea that any decision has been made about Anfield is inaccurate,' says Kennedy. 'Henry hasbuilt his businesses on having the benefit of all of the information before he makes a call. Nothing isgoing to be done in a rush. I understand why people draw a link but, frankly, when NESV took overthe Red Sox at the end of 2001, we didn't know what to do build a new facility or redevelop here?[LNB]'It wasn't until 2005 that we gave the commitment to stay at Fenway for the next generation.[LNB]'We'll do the same at Liverpool, listening and learning about what the employees, the council andsupporters want before making any move, for however long it takes.'[LNB]The presence of two major figures among the NESV investors, co-owner and Red Sox chairman Tom Warner and Boston CEO Larry Lucchino, is also significant, since they were behind the new venuebuilt for the San Diego Padres baseball team before joining Henry on the East coast. So the final call on Anfield will be a cold calculation, not a sentimental one.[LNB]'At Fenwaywe wanted to preserve one of the most important ball parks in the country,' Kennedyexplains. 'But if we didn't think it could work economically we would not have pursued it. We have theexpertise for building new and renovating old, and both options are definitely still on the table.'[LNB] Sheer ecstasy: The Red Sox celebrate after winning the World Series in 2007[LNB]If the decision is to remain at Anfield, then fans will pay if Boston is to be any kind of measure. TheRed Sox always rank among the top five paymasters of the major leagues, often second only to theNew York Yankees. But, with a much smaller stadium, the revenue shortfall is vast and ticket priceshave rocketed to bridge the gap, as Bostonians continually complain.[LNB] A winning team tends to stifle criticism and, although Boston missed out on the play-offs this year, Henry has enough credit to avoid the brickbats. But Liverpool are waiting to see what their newman is made of.[LNB]There has been speculation Henry will let Liverpool flounder without major reinforcements in theJanuary transfer window and even oversee every deal himself. However the people who work with him regard most of this as fantasy, and he went out of his way to pour scorn on the claims on Friday.[LNB]Kennedy is well placed to add insight. He has been shuttling to and fro across the Atlantic completingthe due diligence on the Anfield books and, alongside his Red Sox role, he is also president of Henry's marketing company, the Fenway Sports Group, and liaising between Liverpool, the Red Sox and NESV.[LNB]'Henry is a man who creates an environment for people to do their jobs,' he says. 'He does not micromanage. We may share some ideas and best practices, but Liverpool will be run by their own management team. That is how he operates with all his companies.'[LNB] The agony: Liverpool have had a dreadful start to the season and were bundled out of the Carling Cup by Northampton[LNB]Looking back through Red Sox 'best practices', Henry's regime usually recruit free agents, such asdesignated hitter David Ortiz and pitcher John Lackey, and promote young prospects. It's worked inBoston and Henry and his team are bullish the ame strategy will work at Liverpool.[LNB]But, in the absence of any swift announcements at Anfield, quotes have been represented as dramatic shifts in transfer policy, while stories circulate declaring Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina have secret get-out clauses in their contracts that they intend to trigger because of the sense of inertia.[LNB]NESV insist they are not rattled by the adverse publicity. Henry has come out fighting at the 'destructive' coverage, insisting nobody of quality is for sale and there will be sufficient funds to buy new players.[LNB]The mantra is 'strengthen not weaken and plan for the long term just as it always has been at theRed Sox'.[LNB]Of course, there is another factor that might impinge on the American owners' long-term view. Top flight US sport does not usually have to concern itself with the inconvenient threat of relegation, with all the associated panic.[LNB]Finish bottom of the pile in the States and you are usually handed the best player in the draft and offered a helping hand to start anew. Finish bottom in the Premier League and everything plummetsthrough a trap door, including untold millions in cash, before rivals dine on the club carcass.[LNB]'I'll be honest here, the very idea of relegation is a frightening one,' Kennedy admits. 'Nobody is comfortable looking at the league table and seeing Liverpool near the bottom. But it's early and we will give the club the support they need to be in a better position.[LNB] Under pressure: Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson[LNB]'If you look at all of Henry's businesses, there has always been stability. We're here to compete. That's why NESV invested they want to win.'[LNB]In fact the Red Sox have a rule for the way they do business in sport. It consists of three words. 'Do No Harm.' The  phrase was coined by Boston's Lucchino and covers everything from the way they negotiate with the playing staff to the sympathetic renovation of a famous old stadium. This is the principle they intend to apply to Liverpool.[LNB]Kennedy says: 'We'll work through it and build the organisation the right way. Guys like Henry andco-owner Tom Werner could do all sorts of things with their lives. They are hugely successful men. But they chose this and it will be done properly.'[LNB]I travel 30 miles south from Boston to get a second opinion. All the way to the Gillette Stadium, home of NFL's New England Patriots and New England Revolution 'soccer' team, which dominates the landscape like a huge open clamshell.[LNB]It is the adopted home of former Liverpool defender and Footballer of the Year, Steve Nicol. As head coach of the Revolution for eight years he has carved out a successful Stateside career, so much so that he has been touted as a future boss of the US team and linked with a possible return to Anfield if Roy Hodgson cannot turn his season around.[LNB]Nicol is well placed to judge the credentials of Henry and Co and he has no doubt about the owners, just qualified reservations about the manager.[LNB]'These people understand what running an enterprise like Liverpool is about,' he says. 'The Red Sox are held in the same sort of esteem as my old club and they've kept their traditions, taken care of the name and won championships.[LNB]'I can't remember any otherowners coming into football with a background like that, can you?'[LNB]Having made 346 appearances in 14 years at Anfield, Nicol still ensures he sees every Liverpool game, although it is done with a grimace these days.[LNB]Former favourite: Steve Nicol now lives and works in the United States[LNB]'It's becoming hard to watch them,' he says. 'I'm at the point where I record the match and wonder whether I should check the score beforehand just to spare myself all the anguish.[LNB]'It's torture. I sit here in my housegoing absolutely mental at the screen. I can't imagine what it's been like for the fans at the ground.'[LNB]So how do the American owners turn things around? 'The hardest decision they have to make is who to give the money to? Do they give a transfer pot to Hodgson in the January transfer window, or do they wait?[LNB]'I believe they will wait. They will strengthen the team in a couple of positions in January, but they won't go crazy this time around, not unless some superstar drops from the sky right into their laps.[LNB]'They'vealready forgotten about the Champions League. Next season will be the big push and that means spending serious money. Right now, they won't be 100 per cent convinced Hodgson is the man they want to give that money to.[LNB]'That's not meantas a slight on Roy, it's only natural for any new owners to want to wait and see.[LNB]'The trickiest challenge is always picking the football side. Luckily for NESV, that's where someone likeKenny Dalglish can also help. He's been there and done it, whether it'smanaging, operating behind the scenes or scouting players. Not many clubs have someone like that sitting on their doorstep.'[LNB]Their other big decision is on the future of the stadium. 'Liverpool should go it alone and build a new ground a bigger and better one,' says Nicol.[LNB]'Here the Gillette Stadium holds 68,000. But it's not just about the games. It's a modern complex. Every day there are conferences, or trade fairs and all of that brings in more revenue. I've heard that talk about ground sharing with Everton, but there's no point in building a new ground if you have tohalve the profits afterwards.'[LNB]So would Nicol ever come back to Merseyside if asked?[LNB]'I'm settled on the East Coast,' he says. 'The children are here and my grandson is too now. But you never know what might turn up, do you?'[LNB]Cheer we go: but nobody at the famous bar knew Torres[LNB]Back to Boston, for the obligatory stop at the Cheers bar made famous by the long-running situation comedy. It's the place 'where everybody knows your name'.[LNB]Only they don't. Not even if you are Fernando Torres.[LNB]Boston might be obsessed by sport, but football still fails to register much interest. I showed Americandrinkers photographs of Liverpool's biggest stars and asked them to identify the faces.[LNB]One asked if Torres was in Glee. A couple thought Hodgson was 'the guy running for Governor who got into trouble', which was closer to the truth than they could possibly know.[LNB]The response would be similar no doubt, albeit more blunt, if I waved Red Sox pictures around a Liverpool bar. But everyone knew who Henry was 'that Red Sox guy'.[LNB]Two trips to Fenway Park are more than enough to endorse NESV's credentials and it is patently obvious Henry has got it right with the Red Sox.[LNB]Serious tests loom in the Premier League, however, that will test his instincts and resources. Should Hodgson's side stumble at Bolton on Sunday and, with Napoli and Chelsea lying in wait, the long-term planning and instructions to 'Do No Harm' go out of the window.[LNB]There will be sackings and strife, which is a path Henry is obviously loathe to take, but otherwise any harm suffered will be self-inflicted.[LNB]The fact that Henry has gone on the offensive at last, tackling the speculation, can only be an encouraging sign.[LNB]But, as they say in Cheers, 'making your way in the world today, takes everything you've got'[LNB]We're about to find out how much that really is.[LNB] Hodgson insists Torres and Reina won't leave Liverpool in the lurchAre you for Real, Roy? Hodgson bids to battle Madrid and Barca for starsTorres is finding his form, warns Liverpool boss Hodgson LIVERPOOL FC

Source: Daily_Mail