13 Apr 2018 21:34:37
Ed002,
Could you give your opinion on Klopp's Liverpool tenure so far? Do you think the club is moving in the right direction behind the scenes also ed?
I'd be interested to hear a balanced view. You haven't held back in your criticisms of Klopp in the past so I know you won't go easy on him.

{Ed002's Note - Well he has got the side playing well at the moment and he and the owners approach has changed and they are clearly intending to try and buy success. They have a great opportunity in the Champions League this year and as long as he doesn't try and change too much in the summer then going forward the club should be well placed next season to consolidate their position in the top four. As for off-field I previously provided a list of things they could do better.

This was a simple six point plan to get the entire club back on a good footing that I proposed a while back:

1. Corporate Business: Liverpool have done well financially out of the sponsorship and partnership agreements but in some cases have sold their soul to the devil and in others the deal is not as good as it could be for a club of the profile of Liverpool. Look to move away from Standard Chartered and bring in a higher profile and better paying sponsor as soon as is practical. The deal with New Balance/Warrior was a major mistake and the club need to exit it as soon as possible – sadly the boat to get a deal with Adidas after Chelsea dumped them has sailed. Any deals with organisations that are socially questionable (e.g. Bet Victor), socially bankrupt or have caused the club embarrassment (e.g. Dunkin’ Donuts), nonsense (Nivea and the club’s official coconut water supplier TCC), are from a country with controversial human rights (flag carrier Malaysian Airlines – who replaced just as bad Indonesia’s Garuda) should be cancelled or run down as soon as possible. Being on morally better ground will make a club with Liverpool’s profile to get better profile sponsors.

Status: Still not good but I hear there is a new Pencil Sharperner partner coming on board. Club need to be smarter still.

2. Football Business: Liverpool has revamped in the past three years from top to bottom but yet Klopp is still getting an easy ride and the transfer windows are far from successful. Two things to do (a) get a decent Director of Football in (not taking the advice of anyone who suggests Damien Comolli would be a good idea), and (b) explain to Klopp that his inability to adapt is a large part of the problem as to why Liverpool are still inconsistent.

Status: Michael Edwards appointed - still not ideal in my view. I think a real DoF with knowledge of the game, the market, the contacts etc. would do a lot more good.

3. Fan Considerations: Establish a point of liaison with fan representatives (Ed001 perhaps and the sad fat guy who runs the other site - I don't recall his name) but do not involve the Spirit of Shankly in any way – a bunch of morons in a pub who want the club handed over to them and are planning already to give the owners a hard time starting again this summer need to be brushed aside. If they are interested in buying the club they need to be told to have their bankers call when they have a $1B Banker’s Draft in hand and the club will be sold to them. If they want to act responsibly and represent supporters they need to lose the aggressive and controntational approach.

Status: The club has addressed this and appointed someone. Unclear to me how it is going and would appreciate feedback from someone closer to the situation. Maybe Waro knows.

4. Wrest Power Back from the Players: Players at high profile teams (in particular in the Premier League and a few other individual players dotted around Europe) are not fully focussed on doing what they are employed to do, and in many cases are paid well to do. I would get someone in (a really knowledgeable football guy who can advise the club) and have them speak to each of the players to really understand where their focus is and where they want to be. I would also have a suitable advisor go right through all of the coaching staff and look at the methods of coaching. I would then get the players together and tell them that the club will be making addendums to their contracts requiring such things as responsible behaviour, not wearing flimsy designer football boots that offer little protection, wearing black boots only in games, responsible usage of social media, banning all at club visits by hairdressers and car salesmen, banning the use of all hair care products etc.. The players need to be controlled in any interviews and interviews, and any endorsements, should all be arranged through the club. Any players to which the club is making payments to third parties for such nonsense as image rights need to be moved on or the contracts amended at no penalty to the club. Then they need to be asked if they buy in to the club and these changes – if they don’t their agents can be told that the club is happy for them to find new employers for their charges.

Status: Nothing has been done so far and Liverpool has had a number of unsavoury off field issues over the past year or so. Keita has proven himself to be a real jerk on and off field and that needs resolving. The significant fine for providing fake paperwork has attracted attention well beyond the German courts. The club needs to fix this..

5. Reserves and Loans: Firstly get some structure and planning for a career path and look to establish relationships with a couple of sides such that the loan system can work for the club. The liaison structure is critical as whilst managers may occasionally see players it is generally something undertaken by others dedicated to the task. As an example, each loan player from Chelsea has a liaison officer assigned (some are ex-players) who regularly see them, deal with any issues and report progress back to the club. For instance there was a problem with a couple of players in the Netherlands and that resulted in the club having them get involved with spending some time with the local community (schools and charities). Chelsea has also helped clubs they have and are building relationships with - this may include providing training facilities, loaning coaching staff, having ex-players works with them in some capacity etc.. They have a structure in the Netherlands and Belgium in addition to relationships with South American and old Eastern Bloc countries. They are currently working a deal with a Champions League side as well. Similarly in Italy I know that the clubs with a significant number of players on loan have regular contact and bring them back as a group for training on a couple of occasions mid-season. I am sure there will be someone at Liverpool keeping contact with the younger players on loan where there are legal responsibilities as some are still technically children but others on loan from Liverpool reported the occasional text message only – simply not good enough. Many clubs in Spain and Portugal have built relationships with other sides and it helps with brining in players from South America.

Status: The club has started to understand the potential benefits and is working on getting a structure in place - it will take time but the understanding is there now. Well done.

6. On Field: Whilst the fans want significant changes every year the club needs to get in to the position of making small changes to improve the team each season, not simply discarding the work done and starting again. It has not worked with the recent managers at the club and Damien Comolli was a massive mistake (which I did explain here the day he joined). Right now the side is not too far away but like other managers it is a task Klopp struggles with – so the club need a good footballing guy as Director of Football to help out. Financially the club need to be self-sufficient or making a profit – particularly given the additional media income. Give Klopp the marquee buy of Julian Brandt this summer and then fix the problem areas though sales.

Status: Financially the club is better placed, on field the side is playing well and perhaps less inconsistent - but very much moving in the right direction.

So things are pretty good right now.}

1.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:00:59
Very detailed and informative feedback ED002. Brilliant read, thank you very much for sharing.

2.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:04:50
Great post.

Out of curiosity when do the current deals with Standard Chartered and New Balance end?

{Ed002's Note - (a) June 2019 (b) many years time).}

3.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:08:23
Wow what a reply. Thanks for such a detailed informative post.

4.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:09:32
Bloody good read that 002 thank you very much

i do think klopp is learning to adapt his tactics but its a work in progress example is the professional performances as of late but think once middfield is strenghtened we need some better depth in the squad as we look thin on quality and the young lads don't get the game time to develop.

5.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:13:08
Amazing Ed, thank you. I agree with you about Ed001, but I also think you have a lot to offer as well. I wish you could be involved with Liverpool, I think you'd do a fantastic job helping the club.

6.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:16:34
Thanks for the reply.

7.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:18:37
Cheers Ed for your insight.

Definitely some good ideas in there and I like your thinking particularly around sponsorship deals and on field performance.

I do think some of your views on player contracts might be idealistic and unfeasable but I don’t disagree with the sentiment.

{Ed002's Note - Actually most clubs address that whereas Liverpool have had a number of such issues including a massive one involving a player still at the club.}

8.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 00:22:35
Maybe he already is stone. Makes me wonder at times lol.

9.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 02:59:33
I don't think klopp adapting is a problem anymore and I think his main issue has always been him not trying to buy success. he's tried to make it work with the players he inherited and was too stubborn to admit the squad was just sh***e for his system. Instead of adapting he chose to stick to his guns and slowly upgrade each transfer window. Its taken him this long to finally develop a team with some consistency. My only major concern since january has been the right back postion but it looks like arnold is finally stepping up to the plate and klopp was right to have faith in him. Everything now seems to be falling into place. We have a great team that we can further strengthen in the summer.

10.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 03:15:22
It is a good read but I don't know why Ed002 is so critical of SoS.
It may have a left wing ideal, but so did the man it is named after, and so have many people of the city and of the club's supporters.
The game belongs to the people, it's the national game after all, and anything that brings supporters and the club together can only be a good thing?

Supporter ownership has to be an ultimate aim, giving the people a true say in their clubs.
Private ownership has brought us stadium disasters, bankruptcy, spiralling admission costs and is taking the game away from the very people it was meant to serve.
Public ownership, run by the people, for the people.

{Ed001's Note - it has NO LEFT WING ideal, SoS is quite the opposite and should not bear the great man's name. It is completely opposed to what he believed in. It is full of racist bigots whose sole opposition to the owners is based on where they are from. That is the issue. They are an embarrassment.}

11.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 06:39:30
100 percent agree eds. Sos are a total embarrassment to all. Why the club has any interaction with them I'll never know.

{Ed001's Note - because they shout so loud. I mean they are constantly shoving themselves forward pretending to represent the views of the vast majority of Liverpool fans. They absolutely do not represent me in anyway shape or form.}

12.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 07:12:51
There was no way Klopp would have been able to achieve success without significant funds. Since the start of the Premier League era pretty much all of the clubs have bought their success, United, Arsenal, Chelsea. Blackburn, City.

Football sold itself to the devil - The birth of the PL.

13.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 03:12:29
I wouldn't think that LFC are still in for Julian Brandt. I'd love to see him coming in. Thanks ED2!

14.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 08:34:39
Thank you very much ed!

15.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 09:26:24
Ed02 every day is a school day and that was a brilliant read. I love how you have dropped a teaser in at the end wth the Brandt line. I feel like I have been seduced, teased and left wanting more.

This was an update on the original plan I wrote a year ago. Brandt won't be moving to Liverpool.}

16.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 09:39:03
ED002,

Are Liverpool still looking at bringing Brandt in this summer do you know?

Thanks

Crooky.

{Ed002's Note - No, he will not be joining Liverpool.}

17.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 10:00:23
Great detailed response. I particularly agree with how top clubs should be dealing with their top stars and preventing all rubbish that comes with player power.
Also completely agree with how the youngsters out on loan should be looked after, both for their well being and career advancement.

18.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 10:05:20
awesome ed2, from memory your original 6 point plan was in response to a question I asked some time last year, so awesome to read your updates on that and how you think it is getting on.

I certainly agree with taking small steps with the aim to develop a club that can sustain is competitiveness. I think we are definitely heading in that direction under FSG and Klopp.
Whenever FSG sell they will be passing on a club in far better position than when they purchased it. It galls me to see that there are people who still don't see or appreciate that.

regards partnerships with compaines who have questionable morale standard, I wonder if simply it is about getting "good" people internally to identify and cut those deals? I can see we've got ourselves in trouble with dodgy transfer dealings, made poor negotiations in terms of sales and then there's sponsorship deals you've mentioned. To me that's one too many instances that suggests their may a systemic or cultural issue in the club. Simply put, perhaps the people in charge of these types of activities and deals are questionable themselves? ed2, is that conclusion a bit of a stretcH?

{Ed002's Note - These are the original points and the status is a really brief update. I would say that generally the club is doing the right thing or trying to do the right thing in most of these areas.

From a Corporate business perspective they really do need to try and get better and clean the situation up a bit and, in response to your conclusion, they need some guidelines in place and to follow them regarding who they get in to bed with.

Football business is another area the club still needs to improve. Since I wrote this originally, there were the tapping up/illegal approach issues surrounding VvD and the disaster with the kiddie from Stoke that led to the transfer ban - perhaps the lesson has now been learned - we will see. And keep in mind debt is growing again.

They have seemingly addressed the fan communication issue, but I have had no detailed feedback. They need to fix the contract issues going forward - they have been caned financially and should have learned the lesson. Attempts to get permission to talk with Keita about his issues have been rejected by RBL so that still needs to be done.

Certainly they have got the point about the youngsters on loan and are trying to get a framework inplace. It will take time and they need to build relationships with other sides - to do that there is unfortunately a level of arrogance that needs to go, but they will get there eventually.}

19.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 11:09:37
Thanks edd 2 some great points there. let's hope the club can follow a few of these points to make us a better club.

{Ed002's Note - Interestingly they have picked up and dealt with a couple already.}

20.) 14 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 12:16:41
Cheers ed2, heartening to hear the club are taking steps in right direction in most areas. Hopefully for the club they can win some titles to help win over sections of fans! But truthfully I admire how fsg have continued forward with their plans, made adjustments along the way. Sure they can do better, couldn't we all!?