Wednesday 9 March 2016 17:48, UK
Fenway Sports Group have admitted they underestimated 'how poor' the Liverpool squad was when they took over the club in 2010.
FSG said they attended just one 'less than thrilling' match before their £295m takeover and did not realise players such as Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina were 'probably beyond their primes'.
The comments emerged during a legal dispute involving former Liverpool owner George Gillett and Mill Financial - who were also making overtures to take over the five-time European champions before losing out to FSG.
"I think we underestimated how poor the playing quality of the squad was, and frankly, we underestimated how difficult it was going to be to stabilise the asset," FSG's former general counsel Edward Weiss said.
"We obviously did some due diligence on the playing squad during this process before we closed on the transaction in the middle of October of 2010. What we came to know was that the playing squad was poor.
"While we had a few top players like Steven Gerrard, other players like Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina were probably beyond their primes, and Javier Mascherano was not even on the team."
Weiss also revealed that the group attended just one match before going ahead with the takeover - and were less than impressed.
He added: "In due diligence, we attended one match. Most of us had never been to a Premier League match; so it was going to be hard to recommend to our investor group that we buy a football club without ever having been to one. The one we saw was less than thrilling. It was a near no-match."
