Ayre: For LFC the 'sky's the limit' if success can be delivered on the pitch

The Reds supremo - who will step down at the end of the season - believes he will leave a club in a much better position than the one he joined 10 years ago and subsequently took the reins of as managing director in March 2011.

Growth, rising revenues and a new Main Stand which should pay for itself within five years all point to improvements to the Reds as a business but as someone who stood on the Kop with his pals as a boy, Ayre understands that the business of football is rather different.

So can they reconcile?

Ayre said: “I think in a club like Liverpool it is one of the hardest challenges for a chief executive.

“Because the core of Liverpool fans only want to think of this as a football club. And I get that. I have been that person. And to a degree I still am.

“You know, I wish that it could still be like it was in 1973 or 1974 when I was coming and standing in the queue to get in and then standing with my mates to watch the game and all of those things.

“But the problem is, if you want to stay in that place, in that way, in that style, you are going to fall behind. Because the big boys, the big competitors, the big teams, both home and away in Europe, are all moving at a pace.

“When I arrived here 10 years ago, there was a lot of criticism around the fact that people felt we hadn’t capitalised upon our success back in the seventies and eighties. And as such, we had a bit of catching up to do.

“You can’t do that catching up without changing things. And change brings a little bit of unrest and business challenges. You know the media attention, the change in digital media, changes in hospitality, retail and other things.

“They all bring change and a lot of people are fearsome of change, particularly when you are dealing with something so unique and special and with so much heritage as Liverpool.

“I always describe it to people that it’s like looking after a Faberge Egg. It’s worth a fortune and God help that you would ever break it or damage it. It’s like carrying it around in your pocket most days. And some days you might sit on it.

“But the important thing is that you are always conscious of it.

“You get criticism as a club and an individual and I understand that, because people care so much about the outcome. They care so much about the product.

“But if you are going to do this job you have to do it knowing that you are carrying that special thing around with you.

“And as long as you have got that in mind, as long as when you make decisions you genuinely believe you are taking them and doing them for the right reasons and for the good of the football club, then you can’t really go wrong.

“Yes, sometimes you’ll get things wrong. But that’s life isn’t it? I’d like to meet the people who don’t get something wrong.

“But no, I think as a business now, we have great facilities, we have great people, we have a world class team of people managing and running the business day to day.

“And we have a great offering. We have something for everyone both in terms of where you sit, what you eat, what you buy.

“If we can bring success now, on the football pitch, we are really ready for it.

“I would argue that when I first came here ten years ago, if we had won something at that point in time, we had won the league or whatever, we weren’t ready to capitalise upon that.

“We weren’t ready to deliver everything that everyone would want as a result of winning. We wouldn’t be able to grow as a result of winning at that time because we couldn’t take advantage of that.

“And we are now, we are really in great shape.

“If you look at the growth of the business and the growth of the revenue and everything at Liverpool, the stand, all of that, that’s been to a certain degree despite the football. We haven’t had success and yet we’ve achieved lots of goals and moved forward significantly.

“So if we can bring success, then the sky’s the limit.”

Source: Liverpool Echo

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