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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
John Aldridge

FSG transformation unbelievable after shocking events left Liverpool going nowhere

It is ten years this week since Liverpool were taken over by Fenway Sports Group and it has to be said they have done a great job for the club.

You only have to look at where we were when they came in and where we are now.

The transformation has been unbelievable because we were going nowhere fast 10 years ago.

Their very first game, ironically a Merseyside derby at Goodison, showed exactly what a mess we were in.

We lost 2-0 - and were lucky to get nil - only for Roy Hodgson to come out and say how well we'd played when we'd been shocking and that just made it even more of a body blow.

It took some time, and they made some mistakes along the way, but they have revitalised the club on and off the pitch.

They kept us at Anfield and built us a magnificent new Main Stand, reorganised the commercial side of things so we're now punching our weight given the size of the club we are, and revamped player recruitment so much so that our model is now the envy of many in world football.

You have to give them credit for getting the right people in in so many areas of the club and especially of course bringing Jurgen Klopp to the club.

It really is night and day from what went before and what we were subjected to under those two clowns, Hicks and Gillett.

Rick Parry has been getting some stick over the last few days but he was been very fortunate not get more stick over the mess we were left in with the previous owners.

Selling the club to those two clowns in 2007 when Dubai were in the wings was one of the worst decisions ever made and almost killed the club.

There have been some really special moments over the last ten years and it's quite hard to pick the best one.

Winning the Champions League in Madrid was massive, it was the breakthrough for Klopp and this team after making real progression over the previous couple of seasons, and put right Kiev the year before and the disappointment of not winning the league despite getting 97 points.

I really enjoyed seeing us win the World Club Cup as well, something we'd never managed to do before and I remember the disappointment of us going close a couple of times in the early 80s.

But ending that 30-year drought and bringing the league championship back home to Anfield has to be the ultimate highlight.

I was lucky enough to be around when we won it almost every year so for all of us who had to wait so long and especially those kids who'd never seen it before, it was brilliant to win it and in such style, dominating from the first weekend.

And we hope, of course, that there's still more to come.

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