FSG is working with two US banks to see how much the club is worth – and City insiders believe it could be as high as $5bn (£4.4bn). A report on Monday showed the US-based owners had put together a sales deck and investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were helping the appraisal process. FSG admit they are open to new shareholders but have not gone so far as to say the club as a whole is on the market, although they have not ruled it out outright. Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, Carragher said: “I would imagine there’s something to it. How strong it is in terms of selling out completely or trying to bring money into the club, I’m not sure. I think FSG have done great job at the club and i don’t think they have ever stated they have the money of man united, chelsea or man city. “It was the owners who brought back the title, the owners who brought Jurgen Klopp, the stadium has been transformed, the training ground has been transformed. They have become almost a model for clubs like Arsenal. “I’m surprised. Will the club ever be valued as high as it is now? With Klopp as manager and the team being so successful in recent years? Maybe there’s something to it. Image: City insiders believe Liverpool could be worth up to £4.4bn “I just thought that with so many American owners coming into the league, I thought there was a power play in some ways where they could see something in the future given what we’ve seen in American sports, so I thought the owners would be here for a little bit. “Maybe they woke up on Monday morning and read about how much Manchester City have won commercially and thought, ‘You can’t stop it, can you?’” FSG, who bought the club in a deal worth around £300m in October 2010, are believed to be considering a sale although would prefer to attract new investors by selling a minority stake. Goldmann Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been asked to gauge buyer interest and the banks are expected to find out if any of the shortlisted bidders who missed out on the chance to buy Chelsea are interested in investing in Liverpool. Pressure is mounting on FSG, led by principal owner John W Henry, this season as indifferent results have left Liverpool well behind their Premier League rivals. Just last month Klopp spoke of the difficulties facing Manchester City, admitting the club could not compete with their financial strength and had to find other ways to stay in touch. FSG has not been averse to seeking additional resources and last April, to cushion losses due to Covid, sold 10% of its shares to RedBird, a private equity firm, for £533m. But this season the owners have been criticized for a lack of investment in the squad this summer. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player Liverpool assistant manager Pep Linders insists the club’s owners have made big decisions to push things forward and in light of the speculation, the squad is fully focused on their Carabao Cup clash with Derby. Earlier this year, Russian Roman Abramovich completed the sale of Chelsea to an investment group led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in a deal advised by Goldmann Sachs, putting the total takeover value at £4.25bn. Neville told The Overlap: “I said about Manchester United four or five months ago that they need to sell partly because they need the cash to do the things that Liverpool have done – like transforming the training ground and the stadium. “But also, this valuation of Chelsea will only last for 18 months to two years before people realize that Chelsea are not actually winning and therefore where these American investment funds are going to get the money from. “I think selling Liverpool makes sense – FSG don’t have the money to compete with the other top teams in the league, they’ve already developed the stadium, they have Jurgen Klopp and now it’s a question of how long he stays for two or three years ; Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player Football finance expert Kieran Maguire claims Fenway Sports Group could get a 14x return on its investment in Liverpool if it decides to sell the club. “If the sale of Chelsea at the moment determines the valuation, FSG think now is the time to leave, because if we drop the league, if people think Boehly has overpaid Chelsea, and it becomes little more than a match in the next couple of years, they may think now is the time. “I think the Glazer family will be in a similar situation. I suspect they’ll both be looking for outs or part-outs. With the Glazers, I think some of them will want to stay, but with FSG I think they’ve put a Rating 3 up to £4bn for Liverpool when they raised some Covid money. “They could probably get it right now, but they might not get it in two years. They certainly can’t compete financially with some of the other teams in the league, so I don’t think it’s that much of a surprise when you look at some of the figures. “The question always comes – as it did with the Glazer family at Manchester United – who buys it next? Either it’s going to be a more aggressive, wealthy American investment fund or it’s going to be a sovereign wealth fund or a nation-state.”
