Say what you want about Ian Ayre — and many have, at length — but when it comes to the business side of a football club, the man has had tremendous success at Liverpool. Since he became the club's Commerical Director in 2007 and then Managing Director in 2011, Ayre spearheaded many of Liverpool's largest and most lucrative partnerships, expanding the club's sponsor and partner portfolio and significantly beefing up commercial revenue.
It's unsurprising, then, that the club's owners saw fit to reward him for his efforts in a very public way.
Liverpool have promoted Ian Ayre from managing director to the club's new chief executive. #LFC
— Ben Smith (@BenSmithBBC) June 4, 2014
It's unclear as to what exactly this means in terms of Ayre's functional role at the club, of course. Smith says this is a promotion, while others have suggested that it's a title change only, as the managing director role in the UK is often similar to that of a CEO in the USA. With the volume of work being done in the three weeks since the season ended, though, it's clear Ayre will continue to play a major role in transfers, as he has done in the past.
Whatever the ultimate reason for the promotion, it's a lovely personal achievement for Ayre and congratulations will be doubly in order if he succeeds on landing a few more impressive signatures in the coming weeks. For now, we'll have to be content with the idea maybe, just maybe, there's even more to Ayre than meets the eye.
If you take the c in ceo & turn it clockwise by 90 degrees you get neo. Basically what I'm saying is Ian Ayre is the One.
— Patrick Moloney (@CalvLyfeson) June 4, 2014
Whoa.