Boston Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca could be one to keep an eye on as Liverpool look for new ownership.
That’s according to The Athletic journalist Matt Slater. Speaking to Off The Ball, Slater predicted that FSG’s successors at Liverpool would also be American. With similarities between the Celtics and the Reds, the journalist put forward Pagliuca as a potentially good fit for Liverpool.
“My hunch would be looking at the losers form the Chelsea process, and anyone else that was mentioned in that, because those are your rich American groups,” he explained.
“Guys who have said ‘yeah, I’d quite like an EPL team.’ Harris Blitzer, who already owns shares at Crystal Palace. Pagliuca, Steve Pagliuca, the guy who owns the Boston Celtics. I think there’s quite a lot of parallels there, [between] the Celtics, Liverpool, in terms of the franchises. He knows some guys in the FSG group.
“Ricketts, the guys that own the Chicago Cubs, Woody Johnson that own the New York Jets. There are these names that keep coming up, whether it’s Spurs, Chelsea, the next club that comes up in the Premier League, these are the guys you want to be phoning.”
Slater gives sensible take on Liverpool’s ownership battle
This seems like a sensible train of thought from Slater. Given the level of interest over Chelsea, it seems logical to assume that the same parties would take a look at Liverpool, too.
For Pagliuca personally, he also would appear to have an interest in football. Whilst throwing his hat in the ring for Chelsea in April, the businessman also reportedly suggested that he would sell his 55% share in Serie A side Atalanta (TalkSPORT).
Such a share could potentially cause issues surrounding the clubs facing each other in European competition.
As the world digests yesterday’s big news from FSG, we’ve already seen a number of candidates mooted. But listening to Slater, you would have to think someone like Pagliuca, or others like him, would be at the front of the queue.
Reds not looking to copy Northern rivals
Slater also touched on the prospect of Liverpool being taken over by a sovereign state. But given the Reds stance over clubs such as Newcastle United and Manchester City, the journalist thinks this is an unlikely scenario.
“Sovereign wealth funds? Well, Bahrain has been mooted. Perhaps another one in the UAE, so Dubai, who looked at Liverpool a few years ago,” he said.
“The thing about Liverpool [though] is the fan base, and how they would take to that sort of ownership. Particularly as they have become quite vocal and have almost set themselves against Newcastle and Man City, so that would take a handbrake turn on the part of the whole club really, culturally. It doesn’t seem a great fit to me. So, I think it’s American, unless there’s another very, very wealthy Asian buyer out there.
“Liverpool are very attractive. A bit like Man United, they have been very popular around the world for a long time. So that means billionaires, who tend to be around 60 or 70 years of age, like Liverpool.”
Of course, for now this is all speculation. But it’s interesting to hear the take of someone as well respected as Slater.
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