For Liverpool, delivering a successful product on and off the pitch has them walking something of a tightrope.
Ever since Fenway Sports Group acquired the club in October 2010 to end the ruinous regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Anfield, a regime that had the Reds teetering on the brink of administration, there has been one constant theme.
While seeing football clubs as business can be somewhat unpalatable for fans, the reality is that without a successful business underpinning ambition and strategy, then there can't really be any kind of sustained success in the era of Financial Fair Play, regardless of whether sovereign states or oligarchs are at the helm. The rules have changed from what they were when new ownership groups arrived at the likes of Manchester City and were able to spend heavily to bridge the gap before FFP arrived.
