‘Redeveloping Anfield won’t stop squad strengthening’

LIVERPOOL FC principal owner John W Henry has told The Liverpool Daily Post that the planned £150 million redevelopment of Anfield will not affect Brendan Rodgers and his recruitment team from strengthening the first team squad.
When Fenway Sports Group confirmed last October that they planned to redevelop Anfield and increase capacity to 60,000 by overhauling the Main Stand and Anfield Road End there were concerns over how FSG planned to finance the redevelopment and over how it would affect the clubs ability in the transfer market.
Today, Henry has spoken about how they plan to move forward with the planned redevelopment and how this time will be nothing like former owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks’ attempt at redeveloping Anfield.
“When this [the redevelopment] happens, that won’t be the problem,” said Henry.
“They [Hicks and Gillett] were talking about going out and borrowing an enormous amount of money for an enormous facility. That’s not what we are doing here. One of their problems is they weren’t able to get financing.
“We are making good progress. We have a lot of different groups working very well together and that’s the key to a big project like this happening, when everybody is on the same page and pretty much everyone is on the same page.
“I think we were clear at one point that what made financial sense was going in this direction [the redevelopment]. This is the direction that makes financial sense for the club in the long term.”
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers will be pleased to hear that the planning does not include cutting back on player recruitment as he will already be planning for January’s transfer window and perhaps strengthening the team that sits top of the Premier League.