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A quick roundup on our probable (lawsuits pending) new owner after a couple of busy days, and let's start with something not about Henry at all. Amongst the random oddities that pop up as you try to keep track of the comings and goings on days like these, occasionally you end up reading about how it was sailors from Liverpool who brought baseball to America. Learn something new (and entirely useless) every day. Anyhow...
*You can get your "Henry 101" sorted over at The Guardian.
*For a more personal take from a Liverpool fan and baseball fanatic (who thinks Henry will make a perfect custodian for Liverpool), check in with the LFC NY Supporter's Club.
*With a tip of the hat to commenter dbrito02 for both, if you want to get a little more in depth there's a good little interview of Henry from The Charlie Rose Show where he says such encouraging things as that "Generally you don't look at (owning a sports club or franchise) from a financial perspective," and that you "Want to be somewhere where what you do matters" because of the history and fans. You can then swing by the NYTimes Goal blog for a primer on soccernomics, the attempt at a football equivalent of the sabermetrics system Henry used to great effect when helping to bring the floundering but storied Red Sox their first title since 1918.
*If you're still looking for more, Mike Georger at Avoiding the Drop rips apart a hackneyed Soccernet piece (no linking to rubbish punditry) on the sale and gives you some background insight in the process.
As a final note, frequent commenter red2death had some questions and concerns I think a lot who follow Liverpool are asking themselves right now, so a quick take on my answers to some of them (for whatever that's worth) after the break
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They're not some ridiculously rich gazillionaire and They're still owners motivated by profit rather than by LFC (albeit better handlers of a sports team, and more financially shrewd, I'd think).
Fair enough, but Platini's getting closer to pushing through a UEFA-wide salary cap in the near future, at which point prudent management, quality coaching, and the ability to dig up good value for money when it comes to players may get you a lot further than having a sugar daddy.
They're suitors chosen by Broughton, Purslow and Ayre - doesn't inspire much confidence.
Again a fair concern, but with Hicks challenging the sale in court, if this wasn't the best offer on the table there would be a very good chance of the judge siding with Hicks' demands to scrap the sale and eject Broughton and the other board memebrs. They were specifically tasked with finding the best buyer for the club, and you'd better believe they feel they can back up in court that they did just that by any number of measures.
They're American.
Sure, but as a group they fit in the rich north-eastern Democrats category of Americans instead of the brash Texans contributing to George Bush Americans. Whether that's better is up to you, but it's a fairly big difference no matter where you stand on politics and culture.
Do they really know Liverpool Football Club? Will they treat us as more than a franchise?
The Red Sox are one of the few American "franchises" that arguably transcend the label of franchise. We'll still have to cross our fingers until the results are in (which will take a few years in all likelihood) but that Henry did well by that club's fans and supporters after they initially doubted him is at least reason for a little hope.
Businessmen generally don't venture into areas they're not familiar with. Why would NESV want anything to do with LFC?
They think they can turn a profit, at the end of the day, but that doesn't have to be all bad. Short of getting a rich gangster to bankroll the club--which a lot of fans sneer at others for, and many still think would kill LFC as a worthwhile entity for good in the long run--that doesn't have to be a bad thing. As was touched on in a number of the links above, he's a businessman who believes in achieving long term success through investment. He thinks the best way to profit from owning a sports club in the long run is to put a successful product on the field, and he proved that when he went to Boston and poured a great deal of money into the club both on field and off, far more than previous owners had. So sure, he's in it to at least not lose money, but he's a proven sports fan with a track record of equating success on the field of play (whichever type of field it happens to be) with success from a business standpoint. If that is actually what we get, I think I'll be able to live with it.
Anyhow, that's it for your late night/early morning roundup, depending on where you are across the many time zones. I know Ed's got a couple of things in the works for tomorrow, so he'll see you then and I'll stick to seeing you in the comments.