Should Red Sox fans take a second to recognize what’s going on across the pond with the Red Sox’s sister franchise under the Fenway Sports Group umbrella, Liverpool Football Club?
The reigning champions
of the English Premier League are one of the biggest sporting brands on the planet. Beloved by millions across the world (for the sake of comparison, LFC has 49 million followers on Instagram compared to the Red Sox’ 2.4 million), the Reds have consistently put themselves into the conversation of being one of Europe’s top club teams. Since our beloved ball club last won the World Series, Liverpool has won a couple of pieces of domestic silverware—namely a pair of Premierships—to go along with the 2019 Champions League crown. They’re an elite team that competes with the best of the best.
They’re also currently a club in crisis.
To very briefly summarize things to catch you up: Coming off the heels of a fantastic 2024-25 campaign that resulted in another Premier League title (at the expense of my beloved Arsenal), Liverpool have recently hit a run of horrible form. They’ve won just two of their last 10 domestic games and they were recently spanked at their historic home of Anfield in the Champions League. In the Premier League, they are as close to the top spot in the table as they are to the relegation zone.
A slump like this isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary for big soccer clubs, but it is especially noteworthy when you consider that Liverpool — and thus, John Henry and the FSG brass — committed nearly $600 million in transfer fees to improve their squad during the Premier League transfer window this summer. Liverpool ponied up more money than the GDP of Tonga and all they currently have to show for it is to be tied on points with Sunderland, a team that was in the division below the Premier League last season.
On top of all of that, club legend Mohamed Salah is beefing with manager Arne Slot. Like, legit beefing. After being one of the best players in the world and a mainstay in the club’s starting 11 for years, Salah’s not getting starts, and has now taken some shots at Slot in the press, real messy stuff. This big war of the words means there’s a very real chance that Salah—perhaps the best player in Liverpool’s history—could be packing his things to play elsewhere within the next few weeks. Slot could also be shown the door by FSG, which would be an outcome that would’ve been unthinkable back in May…or shit, even in October.
(Side note: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tragic passing of one of Liverpool’s players, Diogo Jota, back in July before the season started. Diogo’s brother André Silva also lost his life in that accident. That is a horrible loss that transcends sports. This piece isn’t even meant to dive into the X’s and O’s of why Liverpool is in the spot they’re in today, but I can’t imagine it’s easy to continue to play on when your teammate—your friend—is no longer with you. Just an additional thing to consider when you talk about Liverpool’s status.)
Long story short: Liverpool is coming to a crossroads. The future of their manager and their star man are hanging in the balance, and whoever is left on Merseyside will have to work hard to salvage something for a team with so, so, so many dollars invested in it.
So, what does that say about the Red Sox?
I guess we’ll find out on that front. The Red Sox and Liverpool—along with all of the other parts of the FSG portfolio—have been able to coexist for some time with sizable checks signed across the board. Revenue generated by one of the teams is not funneled to the other (doing so would actually break Premier League spending rules, even if those rules are often flaunted). Acquisitions and decisions for one FSG team do not directly impact the acquisitions and decisions for the others. Boston will likely be a hot stove darling across baseball, just as they have in years past, as the excitement of blockbuster contracts and trades will fuel us in the coming weeks.
But at the same time, Liverpool is facing these questions amid quite the unique set of circumstances considering the investments that were made in their summer transfer window and considering who could be walking out the door. Will that set of unique circumstances have a trickle down effect on the Red Sox’s operations? Perhaps not—there are enough dollars coming in and enough smart people steering this ship on our side of the Atlantic to make whatever the LFC fallout is moot for the baseball operations.
But I can’t say with 100% certainty that this crazy Liverpool scenario won’t have any implications for the Sox. Failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League could make a dent in FSG’s overall portfolio (LFC won about $133 million in prize money via the Champions League last season). And monitoring how John Henry and FSG handle the coming months could be both fascinating and telling to Red Sox fans. Is Henry going to be just that little bit more hesitant to throw money around like crazy when the fruits of acquiring guys like Florian Wirtz or Alexander Isak (I’m not making those guys up, trust me) hasn’t paid dividends yet? Is he even more motivated to flex his financial muscle to get a real winner on the field? Will he get personally involved with Salah as he did with Rafael Devers, and how could the two situations echo each other? These next few months are going to be massive for FSG in regards to where Liverpool goes from here.
Maybe this is a nothing burger as far as Sox fans are concerned. I can also envision some of the comments below bemoaning the suggestion that a English soccer team’s crisis is of consequence for Boston’s baseball club. And hey, maybe you’re right in rolling your eyes.
Yet at the very least, even if there’s no tangible impact, I think it’s something that we should keep an eye on. Besides: we don’t have much else to keep an eye on right now.
Anyways, come on you gunners.
