John W Henry's confirmation that Liverpool is no longer for sale has at least brought some clarity for supporters this week.
The Reds' principal owner told the Boston Sports Journal that Fenway Sports Group are no longer exploring their options with regards to fully offloading the asset they purchased for £300m in October 2010. After three months of intense, daily speculation, talks of an outright sale in the region of £4billion were finally shot down by the man at the very top at Anfield.
Mr Henry said: "I know there has been a lot of conversation and quotes about LFC, but I keep to the facts: we merely formalized an ongoing process. Will we be in England forever? No. Are we selling LFC? No. Are we talking with investors about LFC? Yes. Will something happen there? I believe so, but it won't be a sale. Have we sold anything in the past 20+ years?"
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Privately, the phrase 'testing the waters' was the one repeatedly used whenever sources were talked to about the potential of an FSG sale and while the search for external capital goes on, Henry's words do at least rule out speculation linking them with an exit after 13 years.
Large swathes of the fanbase will roll their eyes about that but it is to be welcomed. FSG may not be the perfect owners but their mistakes have usually been followed by sharp, apologetic U-turns and there can be few grumbles about the trophy haul or style of football enjoyed during the Jurgen Klopp era.
At a time when Manchester United are becoming increasingly embroiled in murky discussions about state-ownership amid interest from opaque figures in Qatar, a country with one of the worst human rights' records on the planet, Liverpool, at the very least, have a clear indication of what their short to medium-term future holds under the Americans.
A brand new Anfield Road will help play host to the largest crowds of the Premier League era at Liverpool from August onwards as the club continues to hone and shape their talent at one of the finest training facilities in Europe at their Kirkby base.
But for all the virtues of FSG and the prudent, sensible and ultimately successful way they have run the club in recent years, there is a major drawback which is becoming increasingly easier to scrutinise and criticise with impunity.
Liverpool are fast approaching one of the most critical junctures of the Klopp era. Later this summer, a rebuild will be needed and regardless of where the Reds land in the Premier League shake-up at the end of May, it is one that must be significant.
Tuesday night's 5-2 humbling to Real Madrid was the clearest sign yet of how far this team have fallen since the dizzy heights of last season and while the restructuring has been quietly underway for some time given nine of the last 10 permanent signings have been aged 25 or under (Thiago Alcantara being the one exception), it is obvious that process needs to be accelerated.
That, though, will cost, and for an ownership group who can never be accused of being carefree spendthrifts with the funds - whatever your opinion on their stewardship - that is going to require a breaking of FSG's lifetime habit.
Klopp, a manager who admitted he would like to see more risks taken by those in charge of the purse-strings last August, revealed as much on Friday, saying: "So my job is to make it 100% clear what we need from a sports point of view and then other people are responsible for giving us the resources or whatever.
"I have nothing to do with that. So I think we've played five years in a row in the Champions League, which is massive and we went to the final three times in that time, which is massive from a money point of view.
"We built a stand and a training ground and the club is in a really good place, but around us, a few people are speeding up a little bit and you cannot ignore that. You cannot ignore that."
Even for FSG, who have become cautious to a fault in the transfer market, they, like Klopp says, cannot ignore the need for a tweaking of the model that has taken them as far as possible.
It should be a feather in the cap of everyone who believed in it how that self-sustainable way of operating enabled Klopp to reach the pinnacle of the sport at Anfield, yet now a new way of thinking is needed at the very top.
Henry's desire for investment is a signal that this view is shared by FSG. But Klopp needs backing like never before later this year, regardless of events in the Boston boardrooms.
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