Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre says the club’s back-to-back title clinching women’s side have developed a winning habit and insists they have surpassed all expectations.
Liverpool Ladies finished bottom of the FA Women’s Super League in 2011 and 2012 but won a title decider against Bristol Academy in 2013, before pipping Chelsea to the league on the final day of last season.
And Ayre, who attended the Ladies’ end of season awards held in the Trophy Room at Anfield on Monday night, is delighted with the team’s progress in the last two years.
“It’s been fantastic and winning has become a bit of a habit really,” Ayre told Sky Sports.
“We’ve invested in the team properly over the last few years even though we’ve had a women’s team for a number of years.
“We just felt with the advent of the FA Women’s Super League and the commitment we saw from the people involved that it was time to put some real funding behind the team.
“Like any investment – whether it’s football or not – you want to see a return on it and we really couldn’t have asked for anything more. We’ve been at it just two years and won the title twice. “
Former Chelsea manager Matt Beard has masterminded Liverpool’s rise to the top of the women’s game – something which has not gone unnoticed by Liverpool’s chief executive.
‘They really have done fantastically well,” Ayre said. “Matt and the girls have given us so much. There is nothing more we could have asked for and it is very fitting to be here at Anfield tonight to celebrate with them.
“We saw very early in the first year the influence Matt had on this team. He had the foresight to bring in the right quality of players in such a short space of time.
“That’s the same challenge with every football team whether it amateur football, women’s football, or Premier League football. It’s all about getting the right squad and the right players in.
“Hats off to Matt for what he has done because he was really at the heart of that. We couldn’t want for a better result really."