The words from Liverpool chairman Tom Werner this week were not particularly earth-shattering in themselves, but still significant, nonetheless.
As the speculation continues to swirl around just what happens next over Fenway Sports Group's ownership of the Reds, it did feel instructive, at least, that Werner became the first high-profile member of the American conglomerate to confirm that a full-on sale is a very serious consideration.
”We’re exploring a sale, but there’s no urgency, no time frame for us, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s business as usual,” Werner told the Boston Globe. “One outcome could be our continued stewardship for quite a while.”
The phrase 'business as usual' may have been Werner's way of dampening down the wildfire of speculation that has raged since it became public that FSG had instructed two major US banks in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to act on their behalf, but it is anything but that just now.
How could it be when FSG president, Mike Gordon - the most hands-on of all the Boston-based group in the day-to-day running of Liverpool FC - has taken a step back from his 'usual' duties to focus on exploring just what is out there for an ownership circle keen to find an eventual exit strategy.
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Gordon is known to enjoy a strong relationship with Jurgen Klopp and the pair are in regular contact throughout any given week at the AXA Training Centre, but those typical obligations have seemingly been transferred, for now.
Billy Hogan, who has served as CEO since 2020 at Anfield, has since stepped up his responsibilities and widened his remit while Gordon is otherwise engaged in the search for external investment or, as is now common knowledge, finding a buyer outright.
That, as much as FSG might want to paint it, is anything but "business as usual", even if little will immediately change for Liverpool at their front of house.
What happens next will have long-lasting ramifications for the club, particularly in the second half of Klopp's stay on Merseyside; a period of time when he is tasked with building his second great Reds side.
A season outside of Europe's elite competition in the Champions League will be hugely damaging to a club who have always been made to operate within the FSG framework of being self-sustaining and sufficient. It's a policy that has on the whole, served Liverpool well these past five years, even if there has been much debate over just how tight the purse strings have been fastened at times in the transfer market.
But such a fine balancing act can leave more up to chance and Klopp's comments last month about an inability for most clubs to compete with the state-owned operations at Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle United and Manchester City may just have struck a chord in the Boston boardroom, even if it was entirely inadvertent on the Liverpool manager's part.
"You have the best team in the world and you put in the best striker on the market, no matter what it costs, you just do it," Klopp said in reference to City's purchase of Erling Haaland. "I know City will not like it, nobody will like it. You've asked the question but you know the answer.”
“What does Liverpool do? We cannot act like them. It is not possible. Not possible. It is just clear and again you know the answer. There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially. It's legal and everything, fine, but they can do what they want. They will say 'yeah but we have...' but it's exactly the fact."
"I heard now that at Newcastle somebody (sporting director Dan Ashworth) said 'there is no ceiling for this club'. Yes! He is right. He is absolutely right. There is no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations, but other clubs have ceilings."
The Reds are in an increasingly serious need of strengthening their midfield - at a time when one top-class performer can cost anywhere between £50-100m - and have too many players in their squad at either end of their careers without enough of a core set to enter their prime years.
Perhaps, then, FSG have realised they have taken Liverpool are far as they can under their current way of working?
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