http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/john-henry-the-first-interviewLiverpool Football Club's new owner John Henry has spoken of his delight after New England Sports Ventures completed their purchase of the Reds.
In an exclusive interview with Liverpoolfc.tv, Henry reveals his pride at the deal and explains why he believes NESV can lead the Club into an exciting new era.
First of all John, welcome to Liverpool Football Club...
Thank you. I'm really happy to finally be here.
How pleased are NESV to be our Club's new owner?
We're incredibly pleased. Talking to all the partners in the States, they're extremely happy.
It's been a dramatic few days - what have they been like from your point of view?
It has been a dramatic few days, twists and turns, it's been stressful but finally we have it done and that was our goal and our hope. I'm extremely proud of this team that worked on this deal.
Were you always confident this deal would go through?
No. There were many days where I was wondering whether or not we'd be going home. In fact, even today I wasn't a hundred per cent confident. There were days where I was confident but there were a lot of twists and turns here. It was a terrific team - Martin, Ian, Christian - who did a tremendous job of managing this process and I'm just happy it ended successfully.
Now the deal has been done and we can look forward, do you see similarities between Liverpool now and the Boston Red Sox team you took over?
There are a lot of similarities and that was something we've been discussing as we started doing our due diligence. We found more and more similarities between Liverpool 2010 and the Red Sox of 2001. I won't go into them at this point, but for instance the stadium issue was a big issue in Boston in 2001 and we went in there not knowing what we should do, whether we should build a new ball park or refurbish Fenway. We have the same issue here. We have to listen, learn, talk to the community, talk to the council, talk with the supporters, but the biggest issue of all is really what makes the most sense for Liverpool long term.
We're going to have to work very hard. There's a lot of work to be done to get this club to where it needs to be in the grand scheme of things. We really, through all the work we've done over the last two months, saw the challenges and problems which exist and we've got to work to address those. There is a great nucleus here off the field and on the field and we think we can build from that, but it's not going to be easy. We've got real challenges.
Some Liverpool fans expressed concern when it emerged that their Club could be sold to a new set of Americans - can you understand those fears?
I can, I absolutely can. It's been a tough three years and there were a lot of expectations created, so one thing I'm going to try not to do is to create a lot of expectations. I'm going to hopefully rather than make promises, deliver. When I say I, I mean New England Sports Ventures. We've got a very strong organisation, financially and otherwise, we have some terrific strategic thinkers and we're going to be attacking this head on starting tomorrow.
A lot of Liverpool fans all over the world are very happy today - what's your message to them?
All I can say at this point is we're going to work as hard for you as we possibly can and there's no doubt about it, you deserve it. You have supported this club through the worst of times now and we're going to do everything in our power to make the supporters proud of their club and of us. It's a big challenge but I think we're up for that challenge.
I really like this fella and envisage good times under NESV.
