One of the major criticisms of Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group during their time at the helm at Anfield has been a perceived reluctance to invest as heavily as their rivals in the transfer market at key times.
This summer saw the Reds added goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia for £30m, joining the club officially in the summer of 2025, and Italian winger Federico Chiesa from Juventus for £10m plus £2.5m in add-ons.
The deals came on the back of a failed pursuit of Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi, with the 25-year-old opting to remain in Spain after the Reds had been willing to meet his £50m-plus release clause. That failure meant Liverpool went into the new season without the new number six that it was felt they needed, although the form of Ryan Gravenberch in that position has reduced the need to look at the market with immediacy.
But the same criticism of a lack of spending to acquire the top talent that will help the club get their hands on the biggest pieces of silverware has also been heard in the United States by fans of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, the MLB franchise that has been owned by FSG since 2002 and that has won four World Series titles in that time after snapping an 86-year drought in 2004.
Last season was a miserable one for the Red Sox as they missed out on the post-season play-offs with a record of 81-81, putting them 13 games back from the second place in the American League East that they would have required.
With Red Sox fans wanting to see a more competitive team in 2025, and calling for FSG to spend more in order to achieve that, Red Sox president and FSG CEO, Sam Kennedy, says that the ownership are ready to invest, something that Liverpool fans will be hoping rubs off on this side of the Atlantic when the time requires.
Speaking to the Boston Globe, Kennedy said: “Even if it takes us over the CBT (competitive balance tax that stands at $241m).
“Our priority is 90 to 95 wins, and winning the American League East, and winning the division for multiple years.”
Last year the Red Sox paid big money to tie star Rafael Devers to a $313m decade-long contract. When pressed on whether the ownership of the Red Sox would be ready to go all-in for another major deal, with one of the MLB’s star players in Juan Soto set to hit free agency, Kennedy was bullish.
“Is that possible? If that’s what it takes, yeah, absolutely,” Kennedy said. “We are investing more than we did last year. We intend to invest going forward.
“There is an extreme urgency internally to be competing for the American League East Championship and to set ourselves up for a deep postseason run in 2025 without question. The goal is to win 90 plus games to not be worrying about a wild-card spot
