Jose Enrique believes that the huge profit FSG stands to make, should they sell Liverpool Football Club, is in part down to getting "very lucky" with Jurgen Klopp.
The football world was given a shock on Monday when it was reported that Liverpool's owners were putting the club up for sale, a claim that was partially endorsed by a statement from the American consortium which confirmed that they were open to some form of third party investment in the club.
FSG became custodians of the Merseyside outfit when an ugly court battle was resolved with previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett in 2010 at a cost of £300million. But the group, lead by principle owner John Henry, now stands to sell their improved asset for an eye-watering sum in excess of £3billion.
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And according to former Liverpool left-back Enrique, the owners can thank Klopp for making such an amount possible in the first place.
Speaking to Lord Ping, Enrique said: "FSG will make a massive amount of money as they bought the club for £300m or £400m and the numbers being rumoured are that of around £4billion. They have done a great job with the stadium and the training ground, but they have also been very lucky to have a manager like Klopp there as well.
"Ultimately I think it will be good if they sell as they can finally compete with Man City in terms of spending. If they don't sell I still think Liverpool can still be successful, as they have been over the last few years, but if they sell and someone wants to come and invest, I believe it will be amazing because you need to take a chance on someone like Klopp to spend what he wants."
In the past four seasons, Liverpool have won the Champions League, Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup, before coming within two matches of completing an unprecedented quadruple last season. But despite those near-heroics, Enrique insists that underinvestment compared to Manchester City has finally caught up with the Reds.
Enrique added: "Liverpool have lacked a little bit of investment over the last few years. When Liverpool won the Champions League, they then needed to invest, but they didn't. When Liverpool won the Premier League, they needed to invest, they didn’t. When competing with a team like Manchester City it is essential because they don’t stop investing!
"This year again, they want to win trophies, to do so they need to invest. They invested in Darwin ( Nunez ), but (Sadio) Mane left, Divock ( Origi ) left and (Takumi) Minamino left. It seems as if their investments depend on the outgoings. I think to be a consistently successful team, that can’t be the way to function.
"Manchester City are spending, Arsenal are spending, Chelsea and United are also spending. Manchester United have not been good for a long time, but they keep spending, they try to get the right players and at the end they will get it right because they try to buy good players and they try to get the right manager as well."
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