Henry: I knew very little about Reds
Liverpool owner John W Henry admits he knew “virtually nothing” about the club or English football before his Fenway Sports Group (FSG) completed their takeover at Anfield a year ago.
On Saturday it will be 12 months to the day that it was confirmed that the American company had assumed control of the Reds.
Since then Henry has overseen Kenny Dalglish’s appointment as manager and a significant spending spree on new players such as Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll.
In an interview with The Guardian, FSG’s chiefs have explained they were attracted to buying Liverpool after considering the financial potential of the club’s global following.
Henry saw parallels between the Merseyside outfit’s situation and that of Major League Baseball side Boston Red Sox when FSG took them over in 2002 – and the opportunity to perform a similar reviving act in a sport with greater international appeal.
But when asked what he knew about Liverpool and English football before being alerted to the club’s financial difficulties last August, the 62-year-old said: “Very little. We knew virtually nothing about Liverpool Football Club nor EPL (the Barclays Premier League).”
Tom Werner of FSG, who is now Liverpool’s chairman, also had limited knowledge of the Reds.
“I had been in sports so I was aware of the EPL and its strength globally,” Werner said.
“But I didn’t know the inner workings of it. I certainly knew about Manchester United.”
