Liverpool expert David Lynch has exclusively told Sports Mole that Fenway Sports Group are "comfortably the best owners in the Premier League" as they celebrate 14 years in charge of the club.
The American conglomerate spent £300m to buy the Merseyside outfit from Tom Hicks and George Gillett on this day in 2010, marking the start of a restorative era for the club which has seen them rise back to the top of English and European football, and regularly compete for trophies once again.
Their ownership has not been without criticism, with the disastrous attempt to be part of the European Super League and unhappiness regarding ticket price rises being the two major standout issues in recent years.
However, Lynch believes that FSG have taken the club to new heights on and off the pitch during their 14 years at the helm.
"I know this is a bone of contention with some supporters but I would lean towards overwhelmingly positive really with Liverpool and FSG," he told Sports Mole.
"I do understand some of the criticisms but I still think they're outweighed by all the positives, and there are so many of them."
From below Bolton to champions of England, Europe and the world
Ask Liverpool fans what the standout date from the club's recent history is, and you are likely to get a number of different answers.
Many might say the date they finally ended their 30-year wait for a top-flight title. Others could put forward winning their sixth Champions League crown. Plenty would no doubt earmark Jurgen Klopp's appointment, and maybe even the day he announced his departure.
However, October 15, 2010 can lay claim to being perhaps the most significant date in the last 35 years for Liverpool Football Club, as FSG completed their £300m takeover of the club from the deeply unpopular duo of Hicks and Gillett.
On that day exactly 14 years ago, Roy Hodgson's Liverpool sat 10th in the Premier League table behind the likes of Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and Stoke City, and level on points with Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion, having lost six of their opening 15 matches and conceded 19 goals in the process.
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Fast forward almost a decade-and-a-half, and the Reds have won every top-tier trophy there is to win, re-established themselves as a major force both domestically and abroad, and currently sit top of the Premier League table after seven games.
Matters also look far better off the pitch; the club is in a much firmer financial position now than it was under Hicks and Gillett, Anfield's capacity has grown by almost 50% to more than 61,000, and a new, state-of-the-art training facility has been built.
"If someone had said when when they took over that Liverpool would go on to win every trophy available, they would end that Premier League drought, they would win another Champions League and they would go so close to two more Champions Leagues - if they hadn't come up against Real Madrid, which it's Real Madrid - and they could have had a couple more Premier Leagues as well if they hadn't come up against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, arguably the greatest team in English football history, so very unlucky not to have a few more trophies in the cabinet," Lynch told Sports Mole.
"Then alongside the success they've had, everything they've developed off the pitch - two new stands at Anfield, it's 60,000 capacity now which is incredible, a brand new training ground, they brought the women's team back to Melwood as well... so many great decisions in terms of infrastructure that have been made there, and then you ally that to the sporting success."
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Some criticisms are "legitimate" - but trust FSG in the transfer market
Despite all of Liverpool's recent success, FSG still receive a lot of criticism from some sections of the support, and their role in the doomed attempt at a European Super League breakaway drew particularly vociferous fury from fans, to the extent that Liverpool - like many other clubs - quickly abandoned the controversial plans.
Supporters have also held protests against rising ticket prices, including in 2016 when, again, the club backtracked on plans to charge £77 for tickets in the newly-renovated Main Stand.
"The criticisms they do face... I think some of them are legitimate. The European Super League was an absolute disgrace and that should never be forgotten really, the attempts to do that, although they did of course eventually backtrack and apologise," Lynch told Sports Mole.
"Then of course the £77 tickets and the process that led to that. Those are legitimate criticisms but I think any criticism outside of that, I don't really buy into."
Perhaps the most common critique of FSG is that they are perceived as frustratingly frugal compared to some of the Premier League's other big-hitters when it comes to the transfer window.
While almost all supporters will always want their club to spend more and bring in bigger names, Liverpool's record in the transfer market under FSG has generally been good, and Lynch believes that their policy of only signing the right players is a major strength of the owners, rather than cause for criticism.
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Liverpool "exceptional" at identifying the right players - unlike Manchester United!
"One of the things that you see frequently on social media is the idea that FSG don't spend enough money on the team. I don't really buy into that. You spend Liverpool's money," Lynch told Sports Mole.
"It's not a case of you're relying on an owner to put their hand in their pockets. Liverpool spends the money that it makes, and you can see that all in the publicly available accounts. Nothing's being pulled out or anything like that. You can see that every every penny goes back into the team and making it better, and transfer fees.
"I think around the transfer stuff, which is again one of the big criticisms that we face, there's a really good example this summer of one of the best things that FSG have ever done at Liverpool - implementing a process, and this is because of the people they've trusted to make these decisions, whereby they don't just simply sign for the sake of it.
"It sounds terrible at the time because you think 'well we need to strengthen, we need to sign this player', but for example after missing out on Zubimendi this summer, which is unfortunate, I heard so many times over the summer that Liverpool should be in for Ugarte.
"Manchester United, as contrast to Liverpool, went into the summer saying we need a defensive midfielder - 'OK, we'll sign Ugarte, he's available' - and you've seen his first few games he's not good enough and I don't think he will prove to be. It would have been a terrible signing for Liverpool.
"He wouldn't have done the things that we needed him to do on the ball and [he's] not even really that good enough off it in terms of balancing that out either, so sometimes not making the signing is the best decision you can make."
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Gravenberch over Ugarte is proof Liverpool's transfer policy works
"Gravenberch coming through is the proof of that. Gravenberch is a far superior player in that position than Ugarte. Liverpool of course may necessarily need to sign in that position at some point, but getting the right one is the absolute key there, and that for me is a really good example of why I don't buy into the criticisms of them around transfers, because they generally tend to be very, very good at them.
""It might not work out for Arne Slot in terms of he might not be the ideal Jurgen Klopp successor, he might not have the same success. But you knew that they were going to get someone who would fit at least. He's a continuity candidate, and they understood that and they had ways of measuring that, because it's exactly how they go about signing players.
"Come back to the comparison to Manchester United, which I'm sure Liverpool supporters will enjoy me making because it doesn't reflect well on Manchester United... They had the window where they addressed all the positions, and I saw so many tweets at the end of that window saying 'Oh, United have had a great window'.
"They needed a defensive midfielder and they've signed one. They needed a striker and they've signed one. And then you just look at every signing they've made so far and the performances... central defender as well.
"You just already know that they were players that Liverpool would have gone absolutely nowhere near. And the reason is that the performances wouldn't match up to the price tags and they wouldn't make the team better. That's one thing that Liverpool are exceptional at on the sporting side.
"And that all comes back to FSG making the right appointments, getting the right people in who understand how the sport works, how recruitment works, and that's why they've just been so well run."
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FSG "comfortably the best owners in the Premier League over the last 15 years"
As is always the case amongst the spectrum of supporters at any club, you will find vastly different opinions in the Liverpool fanbase when it comes to the owners.
Some fans would vote to get rid of John W Henry and co tomorrow if they were given the choice, but Lynch believes that they deserve to be regarded as the very best owners in the Premier League over the past decade-and-a-half.
"Really, the only criticisms I buy into are around ticket prices and the Super League. Everything else when you throw it all together, the infrastructure stuff, what they've achieved on the pitch, which with a bit more luck could have been even more, I think you just have to say it is overwhelmingly positive," he told Sports Mole.
"They've been absolutely phenomenal owners, arguably the best in the entire league when you consider what City are facing with the charges at the moment, which could undermine everything they've achieved. I would say, particularly if City are found guilty, FSG have been comfortably the best owners in the Premier League over the last 15 years.
"It is a shame, because of Manchester City being around at this time, that Liverpool don't have more trophies to show for what we've done, but the processes... you just cannot argue with how good they are.
"And I'm sure that, whether City get punished or not, Pep Guardiola leaving will be a significant moment, so the hope is over the next few years that they do get a few more trophies to reflect just how well run a club this is."
During their 14 years under the ownership of FSG, Liverpool have won one Premier League title, one Champions League, one FA Cup, two League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Barney Corkhill
