Yesterday’s phone-in with Liverpool co-owners John W Henry and Tom Werner was a great opportunity for fans to find out some telling answers about the future direction of Liverpool Football Club. Although I believe it was right to some extent to show that the majority of Reds fans are unhappy about manager Roy Hodgson and it was a good thing to let the owners know about how many of us feel, I kind of felt it was a missed opportunity to really go into detail about their long term plans for the club. There was some short-term thinking in some of the question posed, not in all of them, and I hoped to learn a bit more about what Henry and Co’s long term plans were.

For sure, we found out that ground-sharing is a “non-starter” if fans don’t want it, and we also found out that King Kenny will hopefully have a more “substantive” role at the club in the future, but what are the club’s long term goals? This is the question I would have asked Henry and Werner. They outlined that they have a 3-5 year plan for success but what does success entail? Of course, the promise of returning to the summit of English football was made but how were we going to get there? Here are a few pertinent issues I would have liked the pair to have spoken on:

• Do you believe, that like Barcelona, Liverpool should have a specific style of play, formation and football philosophy they should stick to no matter who is manager? If so, could Kenny play a key role in substantiating the “Liverpool Way”?

• How do you plan to increase revenues in the next three to five years so the prospect of a Premier League title is realisable? Do you have set financial goals for the next one/two years etc to ensure the Reds can compete financially with the best in the league?

• The Boston Red Sox have the second highest wage bill in the MLB, will you be looking to take the same approach with Liverpool once increased revenues are in place or will you focus on youth as you’ve said in the past?

• What are the plans for Liverpool’s academy? Liverpool players and Damien Comolli have stated they would like Melwood and Kirkby to be merged? Do you believe this is essential to the future youth policy of the club?

• Have you set any parameters in regards to transfer targets? Will you spend money on players over 25 or will you instruct Comolli and Hodgson to look for young players who will be investments for the future?

• How do you plan to keep the likes of Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina if your plans sacrifice short term success for long term goals? Can you convince them to stay if there is no guaranteed of instant improvements in the playing squad both in January and in the summer?

For me, these questions and issues would have made for a more interesting phone-in with the Liverpool owners yesterday. Too much time was focused on ensuring that Henry and Werner understand the fans’ grievances over Hodgson, and I hope the pair will do a programme again in the not too distant future where such questions as the ones above are put to them.

Read more Liverpool articles at the excellent Live4Liverpool

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