Dubai International Capital’s (DIC) takeover does not mean much in terms of Liverpool’s success, although there are undoubtedly infrastructural benefits, such as the new 60,000 stadium that Liverpool supporters can look forward to.
The club is already the most successful club in English football history having won 18 FA titles, five European championships, and 3 UEFA cups. No other English club comes close to that distinction in the international arena. Only Real Madrid and AC Milan have better records. In the world of sports, Liverpool FC is as hallowed a name, as it gets.
Liverpool is not a Chelsea, Portsmouth, or Aston Villa, that have seen extended periods of drought with league success. Roman Abramovich’s blank cheques led to Chelsea’s accelerated success after year’s of middling along. Even in the most dire periods of Liverpool’s history, in the early 90’s under Souness, when it lost ground to Man Utd; the Reds still managed to stick it out.
The reason that Liverpool never lost ground has much to do with investing in a strong youth development program. The careful nurturing of its young local talent has provided quality players for the Reds. Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Jamie Carragher are all part of the youth program. The investment in their youth players continues with the construction of the Liverpool Football Academy, a multimillion pound centre for training the youth teams, that is truly world class.
Liverpool’s mix of homegrown talent with careful investment in selected foreign players have proven a successful method to the madness that Chelsea has inflicted on the Premiership of buying players developed elsewhere with vast amounts of money. With the deep pockets of the DIC, the temptation is to be drawn into the feeding frenzy that occurs every transfer window. Liverpool already has a fine team that still has some way to go before unveiling its full potential. Adding a £30 m Adriano will not lead to more success.