Any fan that thinks Henry is the "sign the checks guy/let the football people make all the decisions guy" has no clue how this man approaches his businesses.
Fenway Group has proven to be experts at maximizing game day and marketing revenue first with their Red Sox/Fenway Park/ NESN Broadcast Co. ventures and the similarities with their LFC ownership are undeniable.
And Henry has demonstrated a long history of thinking outside the box and into the future using analytics that often didn't exist until he threw his support behind it. He created his commodity algorithms and successfully rode that wave for years until Wall Street figured out the nuances that made him a fortune.
Henry used his newly purchased Boston Red Sox's strong financial position to bankroll and reconfigure the team's baseball operations department charged with a new mission to build player rosters based on analytics rather than the sideline opinions of old guard fossils.
Google "Theo Epstein" and read why John Henry brought in a kid to be his new GM and build a new roster .
Note: Red Sox hoisted their 1st trophy in 83 years one year later.
Today in baseball, analytics are everything both in team building and how the game gets played on the field.
People ask why Henry sacked Dalglish so quickly and it is my personal opinion Henry decided quickly to move away from old-guard philosophies and incorporate a more analytic, open minded approach to the entire operation with people more in tune with modern football.
Mentioned before and I'll say it again, watch the movie Money Ball to get an idea of the battle: old-guard vs analytics in sports (MLB)....both in the front office and game day management. ......and see where Henry fits during the transition.
The best news for LFC is that Henry has displayed a long history of spending big on the "right" players and going after trophies.....and this tendency is already on display with 2 "best in category" purchases: Allison and VvD.
Henry and his team of analysts are certainly not perfect and have whiffed a few times over the years and some of these mistakes have been incredibly expensive. The Red Sox ate close to $100 million in terrible contracts last year and still won the World Series.
Good news again, he opens up the check book and fixes mistakes quickly. The Red Sox having been winning their Championship on average every 4 years since he took over despite playing in the league's smallest capacity stadium.
Note: Despite deficient seating capacity, Boston is top 4 in MLB revenue thanks to a massive fan base comparable to LFC. As I said, experts in marketing.
Note: The Red Sox 2013 title is perhaps their analytics department's greatest single piece of work.
The Klopp hire is very reminiscent of Henry's first manager hire after he bought the Red Sox.....Terry Francona......popular with players, willing to incorporate on the field analytics into game day strategy.....and most importantly, managed the team in accordance with the team's designed philosophy. In other words, "we built this squad to fit a certain way and we want you to manage using this blue print as best you can." Again, watch Money Ball to see an old guard manager who refused to fit the parts together as the front office designed. Of course Klopp is a key component in team creation because of the final stamp he holds, but I would argue his recruiting ability is his greatest attribute once handed the list.
As someone with much familiarity with Henry & Co for the past 3 decades and also as someone not overwhelmed with extreme LFC supporter sentimentality (yet), I try to look at this team like the analysts.........and I like what I see but see opportunities to continue the advancement.
I am very eager to see how Henry reacts after his first embrace of a major trophy.
In the states, the "without question" best coach/GM in any professional sport is Bill Belichick.....coach of the New England Patriots NFL football team ...a team that plays in the championship game every other year on average for almost two decades and wins 67% of those games. His approach to team building is perhaps the least sentimental in the history of team sports. He has mastered defining a players value and when the cost/value ratio exceeds his calculation, he sends them packing to other teams in exchange for assets: either new players or draft picks. Belichick is cold and clinical and his formula for team building is the envy of the league though few have the guts to send fan favorites packing.
The Red Sox and Patriots reside in the same city but management styles don't really get compared because their sports' business models are very different. Team building in English football has commonalities with each of these US sports and I will be curious if Henry can set aside sentimentality and make cold hearted roster decisions when player values get out of whack like Belichick does seemingly every other day. (His rosters are in flux 365 days a year)
Henry's one flaw has been the value he places on the "show".
Fenway Group owns a broadcast network that televises all Red Sox games and in years after a TV ratings decline, the Red Sox have too often bought an overpriced "star" with hopes of boosting TV ratings for the coming season. Some of these "ratings" purchases have defied their typically sound analytics approach.
Will Henry keep an over valued fan favorite because of their impact to the Anfield spectacle....or will Henry be more clinical like the greatest coach in US sports whose rule #1 is: better to send them packing a year too early than a year too late.
Can the supporters handle such an approach? The old guard pundits will no doubt define such moves as lack of loyalty.
My opinion: no room for loyalty anymore in big stakes football and LFC is seated at the head table. Lets keep it that way. This shark needs to keep swimming forward.
« Last Edit: Jun 17, 2019 08:01:58 pm by Borg »
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