Whilst on Merseyside over the weekend I bought an interesting publication.

For some reading in the car on the way back i bought an independent fans magazine called Well Red, a fanzine in any other name except this one is published bi monthly and is distributed in all the newsagents, written before the sacking of Roy Hodgson it looks at what new owners NESV will bring to Liverpool and what the supporters want.

In some respects Liverpool can be compared to Saints in that four years ago a group of American businessmen arrived and promised to transform the club, building a new ground was a priority, they told the fans that ground would be broken withing sixty days, but there was always a good excuse as to why it wasnt happening and after a while Liverpool supporters realised that they were being repeatably fobbed off by fine words and no action, since Saints left the premier we have heard many fine words from many different people as well.

In the magazine several writers put forward their opinions but their is one current theme and that is that the supporters of Liverpool Football Club are Liverpool Football Club, without them the club would have been nothing, one theory espoused that the reason for this was Bill Shankly, when he joined the club he knew that if he was to make it succeed he had to be its biggest fan, the supporters responded to this, no excuses, they knew that if the manager was willing to walk that extra mile for the club then they as supporters had to do so as well, the fans knew that when Liverpool lost Shankly was hurting more than the supporters.

Over the years that spirit was lost, the supporters knew that times were changing, but they were willing to change with them, but that didnt mean they didnt want to remember the past.

So far John Henry and NESV are ticking all the boxes for the supporters in the way they are handling things, but then again they do have experience in running a sports club, in their case Boston Red Sox and although the games are totally different, running the business side of things isnt.

By their own admission Liverpool fans say that "While working through difficult decisions the owners will be working against a backdrop of suspicious fans, learning about football and its culture along the way"

So how are NESV building back the confidence of the fans, well firstly as we all know, they embraced the Clubs past by using the experience of Kenny Dalglish and not alienating him, they realised that the Club legends are revered and respected by the fans and that although they to a degree had to me controlled, they were a positive thing not a negative.

So what do the fans want.

Communication

The fans want to feel they are being listened to, to quote Well Red as i will often do in this article and with good reason

" Listen to the fans, but just as importantly communicat effectively with them. Many unreasonable expectations start off from a position of having to guess what the situation is. The media doesnt help when it plucks figures out of the air and plaster it as factual.

The owners need to be clear about what the supporters reasonable expectations should be, supporters dont want to hear that they are going to win the title next season if they have dont have a chance of doing so, most fans are pragmatic enough to know the resources the club are working with.

Integration

For too long football clubs have told the fans what they want, be it merchandise or how the club is run, involve the fans in certain process's have the lines of communication there

Be Different Be Bold.

The established way of doing things io the premier league only works for a handful of clubs, Liverpool like Saints have to look at doing things differently, they have to create different revenue streams from a happy fan base, Owners and senior managers have to recognise that supporters nowadays have far greater knowledge and if the club power that knowledge it will reap the benefits

So the message from Liverpool fans to the new owners is clear, they want to know whats going on, they want the owners to recognise the past and integrate with the fans and they want to know whats going on.

These things are fairly simple and to be honest not a lot to ask, sadly I would say that we do not have any of them at Saints.

All of these things were written around two months ago shortly after the owners arrived, so what have they done.

Well in those months the fans have been pleased, since they arrived NESV have picked their words carefully, they have not "Dug holes to fall into" they have not made bold statements in order to placate the fan base as their predecessors did,

But on the other hand they have not said a lot either, they have made it clear that they intend to under promise and over deliver  and that they respect the past and traditions of the club and intent to align them with their own.

So what is their way, well although the owners themselves like to attend as many games as they can, they have made sure they put in key personell to run each aspect of the club, Dalglish is an obvious case, they see the benefit of using him and not alienating him, but that is because they know he is useful, his experience is immense, theirs is at this moment in time minimal, why would they not want an experienced man to advise them.

But it doesnt stop there, they have put in other key men in areas that need it, be it commercial or playing side of things, all of which will have been done after consulting those who know as in Dalglish.

With regard to the fans they are embracing them, this weekend they anounced that they would be creating a fans forum to allow supporters groups to communicate directly with the club and vice versa, it will be made up of democratically elected supporters, the panel who have been tasked with putting this into being take in ex players, Supporters Direct, the Liverpool Chamber of commerce and even Bill Shankly's grandaughter who is a highly respected supporter, poignantly the aims of doing this are

1. A forum for supporters to communicate directly with the club in a structured manner.

2. To help the club understand the issues that concern supporters.

3. To give the club opportunity to explain the thinking behind key decisions.

4.To enable fans to play a key role in the clubs success.

5.To provide a greater degree of transparency to the supporters

The main point here is that Liverpool have realised that this needs to be structured, its no use taking random supporters who may not really understand the politics of football, it needs to be the people who represent the fans ie supporters clubs etc, the club want the fans to be united not divided.It has to be stressed though that its democratic and any Liverpool supporter can put their name forward to sit on the panel.

Of course there are still those who are sceptical, especially those who know that this sort of thing is a condition of UEFA membership as from 2012, but in the main its seen as a positive step.

Its heartening to see that not every owner of a premier football club is only concerened with throwing money at big transfers and milking the supporters, that some are determined to do things the right way, but NESV have a track record of what they have achieved at Boston Red Sox and they achieved that through the princibles they are now putting into force at Liverpool, they make gradual changes, they know that not everything thats gone before is bad and dont make change for changes sake, they leave the day to day decisions to those who know their jobs and how to do them.

Of course Im sure some of you reading this will slag off Liverpool and say we are Southampton etc, but that would be a little short sighted, football is changing drastically, and if clubs are to survive then they have to be built on solid foundations.

Am I wrong to feel envious of what NESV have achieved at Liverpool in such a short time, I genuinely want Nicola Cortese to succeed at St Mary's, but I want him to succeed in the right way, I want Saints to be considered a good football club, I want our fans to be respected for our loyalty and our passion, OK we arent Liverpool and perhaps never will be, but we can be Southampton even by adopting the "Liverpool Way" 

There used to be a Southampton way, OK we didnt win much but we had a reputation in the game for the way we carried ourselves both on and off the pitch, the Spirit Of Southampton was always much more than a poster or a slogan, it was when we felt proud and knew that actions spoke louder than words.                                

Photo: Action Images

eusebio added 12:42 - Jan 24 I'd be very suprised if NESV don't understand the importance of the fan owning "The Red Sox Nation" as they do. Although the Red Sox are and always will be second best.......can Liverpool fans handle that !!
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jonrog added 15:07 - Jan 25 Money and Sky now run the game. I fear the old Southampton way will never return to English football. I am ever hopeful that Sky will get a bloody nose and common sense will return to the game we supporters love.
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