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Liverpool could sign next Lamine Yamal thanks to £68m off-pitch deal
Liverpool have a storied history of developing world-class young talents, and Fenway Sports Group’s latest strategy aims to attract even more top prospects from across Europe.
From Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in the late 90s, to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Raheem Sterling in more recent years, the club has always placed great emphasis on producing rising stars.
As well as having an impact on the first team, the academy in Kirby has also been immensely lucrative.
Liverpool have generated almost £200m in academy player sales over the last decade.
Now, with FSG in talks to take over historic French side Bordeaux, they have an opportunity to develop more top young talents on the continent.
To find out how a Liverpool-led multi-club network could benefit them in terms of recruitment, TBR spoke exclusively to Liverpool University football finance lecturer and Price of Football author Kieran Maguire.
Multi-club incentive key to Michael Edwards’ return
There has been a shake-up behind the scenes at Anfield already this summer, with Jurgen Klopp’s departure sparking a flurry of changes.
As well as Arne Slot’s appointment as head coach, Richard Hughes has joined as sporting director and Michael Edwards has returned to the club as CEO after a two-year absence.
Maguire suggests that FSG’s multi-club vision, which is set to have a number of commercial and regulatory benefits as well as for recruitment, was central to his decision to come back.
“Firstly, I think this is one of the carrots that have been dangled in front of Michael Edwards to try and persuade him to return.
“He has a much broader vision for the club. They have bought into the way he has sold that.
“There are also merits they have seen at City Football Group and elsewhere. With an MCO, you can spread your costs over a much broader base. That’s good from a PSR point of view.
“You can also get consistency and continuity in terms of kit manufacturers and sponsors. That allows you to go to the market and generate greater revenues off the back of that.
“We’ve seen this at New York City and Melbourne City, whose kits are very similar to Man City’s, and there are revenue and cost synergies and economies of scale.
“FSG are spectacularly good at the business side of football. I can understand why this appeals to them.”
Liverpool’s multi-club ambitions: Creating a pathway to the first team
The likes of Man City’s City Football Group and the Red Bull network have been trailblazers on the multi-club scene.
In City’s case, they have generally used their network of 12 clubs to serve the mothership in east Manchester.
In FSG’s multi-club network, Liverpool would similarly sit at the top of the food chain.
Aside from the financial benefits, Maguire explains that the acquisition of Bordeaux will also have a number of sporting benefits.
“If you look at it through a risk-reward lens, you’re creating a pathway to Liverpool.
“Moving to a club like Liverpool can be intimidating. If you’re a foreign player, you have to adapt to the language, the culture and what is expected from you in terms of conduct, diet, sports science, training etc.
“If you have an MCO, you can have these philosophies embedded across the whole of the MCO.
“If FSG see a player who they think might be good enough to play for Liverpool’s first team in two years time, you can take him to Bordeaux instead.
“There, they will learn everything and the step from Bordeaux to Liverpool isn’t as severe.
“The expectations of 60,000 passionate Liverpool fans can break a player. Therefore, you can see this as an intermediary step.”
Liverpool to use multi-club model to bypass post-Brexit recruitment restrictions
Following the UK’s decision to withdraw from the European Union in 2016, the FA implemented a points-based system to assess which clubs can be signed from abroad.
Brexit also restricted UK clubs from signing under-18 players from Europe, a rule which would have prevented Arsenal from signing Cesc Fabregas, for example.
Alluding to generational talents like Barcelona and Spain star Lamine Yamal tipped to win the Euro 2024 golden ball, Maguire claims a foothold in Europe could create a Brexit workaround for Liverpool.
“In 2016, the country looked at the side of that bus and said: ‘I like what I’m reading.’
“One of the consequences of Brexit is that you are no longer able to recruit promising 16 and 17-year-old players from the European Union because they can’t sign a contract until they are 18.
“As some people may have observed, there are one or two half decent players in Europe who are only 16 years old…
“The danger is that Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona, all of these clubs are beating you to signing these players.
“By having Bordeaux, you can take a player to the club and put them in a bubble and give them a degree of protection and make a decision after they turn 18.”
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Why Bordeaux?
FSG been linked with a number of clubs, including four in Brazil, and own the baseball side the Boston Red Sox and NHL franchise the Pittsburgh Penguins.
All of those teams are, on face value, far more valuable and, arguably, glamorous than an admittedly famous but financially imperilled Ligue 2 club in Bordeaux.
And with FSG also set to pay up to £68m to take over the club, including assuming responsibility for their debts, why have the Boston-based group zeroed in specifically on Bordeaux?
“I don’t see it being a natural partnership,” Maguire said.
“However, looking at it through FSG’s perspective, Bordeaux are not where they are expected to be. That will be reflected in the price.
“They are potentially about to be demoted to the third tier because they have not been able to prove to the French authorities that they would be able to fund the club in the second tier.
“The situation has not been helped by the collapse of the French TV deal. The consequences for Bordeaux will mean a lower price.
“FSG are good at picking up bargains. Liverpool for £300m is looking like one of the bargains of the century.“
How will Bordeaux takeover affect the way FSG run Liverpool?
FSG’s time is split between their assets in the US and the group has a complex potential merger with LIV Golf on the horizon for the part-FSG-owned PGA Tour.
Supporters naturally might ask how the addition of Bordeaux might affect operations at Anfield given that their owners’ resources are already considerably stretched.
But Maguire is optimistic that the proposed takeover is all upside for Liverpool.
“I don’t think there will be any drain on resources in FSG’s wider business.
“They will have done their sums. They run a very tight ship and have put their money into investments they know will generate a return in time.
“So I don’t think Liverpool have anything to fear. FSG see themselves as a multi-club and multi-sports network.
“Sport is currently being seen as part of the entertainment industry by these types of investors.
“They think it generates access to particular demographics that don’t tend to watch a lot of traditional TV. You can leverage that.
“There seems to be no resistance to ticket price rises in sport with the exception of clubs in the Premier League.”