Ayre: Good times ahead

Ian, Liverpool's accounts for the year ending July 2010 have been published today, but they don't paint a true picture of what life at Anfield is like these days, do they?

No, not particularly. They don't paint a picture of today. As you say, they are accounts for last season and obviously at that time it was a very different period and a different situation for Liverpool Football Club. I think we have all moved on since then. They very much represent a footnote in that era of the Club's history. It's an era that was very well documented and published for all sorts of reasons. But we remain very optimistic. Nobody, whether you're the Managing Director or anybody else connected with the Club, wants to see any report ever that talks about the sort of losses that report talks about, but I think we take comfort and optimism in the direction we've headed in since that period.

How much has changed at this Club since the acquisition by Fenway Sports Group?

Well a lot has changed in the sense of the financial reports that have just been issued. We've paid down a significant amount of what was acquisition debt from the previous owners and the Club finds itself in a much better position as a result of that. So we have less interest to pay - I think in the accounts that were issued, we were up to a level of paying about £17m per year of interest payments. That's gone away largely now, we have a very minimal debt and that allows us to reinvest that money into the team and the squad, which is what everybody connected with the Club wants to see. That's very positive, and I think also what we have is great owners who are very collaborative, work very closely with us and bring a lot to us as a business and as a team. We're starting to see great signs of improvement on and off the pitch and we have a great team of people with, as I said a few weeks ago, everybody working together and everybody rowing in the right direction with unity. I think all of those things combined - a greater level of access to funding and a greater level of unity and clarity - just sets us up for a great future.

Even during the reign of the previous ownership, commercial revenues were still very high. But now that we are free of this debt burden, how great is the opportunity to really drive the Club forward even further now?

Well on a commercial level, as you say, I think we were very fortunate and very grateful our partners, and some new partners, came to work with us. I think what everybody who is connected with, starts to be connected with, or becomes connected with this football club finds is that Liverpool is such an institution and such an important football club that has been around for many years and has foundations built on success. I think people recognise that we will always be there or thereabouts, and we will always be a great brand and a great football club recognised all over the world. So people partner with us because of that - because we're unique, historic and authentic. For that reason, we had fantastic support through the period and revenues grew significantly. The difference now, I guess, is that people are associating with us at a very positive time. There are a lot of good things going on at the football club and a lot of optimism both with our fans and certainly with us here at the Club, so people becoming commercial partners and being commercially involved with Liverpool now join us at a great time when everybody is on the up and everybody is feeling very good about things, and that bodes well. One of things when I arrived here that many people criticised Liverpool for was never having capitalised on previous success, whether that was many years ago or years like 2005 and 2006 when we won trophies, but one thing I can say absolutely is that as we get success in the future, we will be absolutely ready to capitalise on it commercially. That again works in that circle that brings revenue back to the Club, that puts more money into the pot to bring more players, and so it goes. We're very encouraged by where we are - but we're also very encouraged about where we can get to.

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Since the change of ownership, there have been several key appointments made, including on the football side. Already, how impressed and pleased are you with the positive strides being made across all levels, from Melwood to the Academy?

It's fantastic. Going from strength to strength would be the best way to describe it. As our fans, owners and everybody has seen, everybody is hugely encouraged by what we're seeing coming out of the Academy, the youth players and success in various different levels of our youth programme. Equally, the first team is starting to make progress - new signings and Kenny and Steve (Clarke) doing a fantastic job - so everybody is encouraged. It seems like you're kind of repeating yourself, but at the moment you always seem to come back to that thing that everybody is working together. We're a team - we're a football club, but we're a team. That's the most encouraging thing - there doesn't seem to be any political nature to any department or any area of the Club, and there doesn't seem to be any divide in any area of the Club. When you have a team of people who operate in that way, you almost always see it resulting in success.

Was the January transfer window a perfect example of people working closely together? Key people making big decisions to invest heavily in the future of this Club...

Yes, absolutely. There were a number of things that came out of that. Obviously the net result was Fernando (Torres) left for a significant amount of money and other players left, but that was immediately reinvested in the team we have today and, in particular, in Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. Everybody has seen the net result of that on the pitch and I think everybody is pleased with that piece of business. The things people don't see that are as equally as important are the way that was managed by people like Damien (Comolli), Kenny and others all working around that. That team of people working together, things like the information around it in the lead up to it not being in the media and not being over-speculated was very important. It is important to get the right deals, it is important to negotiate things behind closed doors and it is important to keep things private - and then when we have a great story to tell, to tell it. That great story was that we ended up with two great players and that's had a great effect. We were very encouraged by how the team who work around transfers came together in that particular period and we were equally encouraged by the results. There will be more of that to do in the summer and everyone is very excited about that.

We've spoken about the big-name players who cost a lot of money arriving in January. Recently, fans have also been excited by the emergence of Academy players such as Jack Robinson and John Flanagan into the team. Does that excite you? It's another good sign for the future, isn't it?

It's hugely exciting. I am always encouraged when you're out in the streets in Liverpool or on the internet, it seems to be one of the things our fans are very, very focused on. I think that's because it's kind of back to the old ways of Liverpool. We were a Club that always brought players through our own ranks, we've always had Scousers in the team with Steven and Jamie being the existing remnants of old currently, and it's great to see that coming through again because as an authentic, historic football club, having that conveyer belt bringing through new young, fresh talent is absolutely the way forward. There is a combination of that and finding young players that you bring in not necessarily from academies. People like Jonjo Shelvey have been inspirational as well, and Jay Spearing is another great example. It is encouraging not just to see what is happening in the first team, but also to see what is happening in the reserves and what is happening even below that level. What Frank McParland and his team are doing at the Academy with Rodolfo (Borrell) and Pep Segura is fantastic and we're just starting to see only the start of the rewards of that. They are very encouraged by lots of players down there and I know we're seeing a lot more attendance, viewing and people taking a genuine interest in that level of players.

We don't expect you to go into specifics obviously, but is it fair to say there is already a lot of work going on behind the scenes to plan for next season?

Yes, in lots of areas. Obviously in the transfer market, Damien and the people who work with him are extremely busy in that regard. But also things like our pre-season tour - making sure that's locked down and making sure that it is sufficiently set out such that it gives the players the right start for the season and gives them the right chance to prepare. People often think that's an easy task, but actually it's difficult and it is also important that you have to fix it and move it around things like other competitions. We've got the Copa America, which some of our players will play in, and we've got some U21 activity, so it's about getting all of those things right and making sure we use what seems to be a shorter and shorter break every year to prepare everybody, on and off the pitch, for the start of the new season.

As the Managing Director, as the head of the team here, do you see this now as the start of a new era and are you excited by what the future may hold?

Yes, I definitely see it as a new era. I think we started it four or five months ago. We're very fortunate we have a great ownership group that are very supportive and very committed to Liverpool, but we're also equally fortunate that over several years we have built up a great team within the football club. It's nice to see lots of people who worked very hard in very difficult times are now walking with a spring in their step at every level, whether it's players or right through to the staff here in our main offices. That's the most encouraging thing - that you know people have worked very hard through difficult times and we definitely see good times ahead.