Liverpool's FSG owners are stepping up plans that ultimately lured Michael Edwards back into the fold. Edwards stepped down as the Reds' sporting director back in 2021 and had worked as an advisor for sports management business Ludonautics.

But he linked back up with FSG last month as CEO of Football, with Liverpool falling under his remit. In the statement announcing his return, Edwards admitted plans to add a second football club to FSG's football portfolio was 'one of the biggest factors' in his return.

The multi-club model is a trend that has become increasingly more common across Europe and beyond in recent years. It involves ownership groups acquiring teams in different leagues and seeking synergies in recruitment, commercial operations, and other areas.

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Manchester City's owners, City Football Group, boast an impressive roster of 13 clubs worldwide, while Red Bull has pioneered the model with teams like RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg. It is unclear how Liverpool will utilize such a model and how it will compare with that of other clubs.

Jordan Gardner, an American football investor and consultant with Twenty First Group, told the Liverpool ECHO: "We don't know exactly what FSG's thought process is in terms of numbers of clubs and markets necessarily they're targeting, but I don't think there are any assumptions they're going to build a City Football Group tomorrow, if ever.

"My guess would be that they're much more targeted and much more structured, saying 'Look, we're going to buy a club in Portugal or buy a club in Belgium or Holland that's specifically a feeder for us to develop either both our young players that are coming through our academy and a pipeline for us to bring in foreign talent'.

"That is it. Ready for the first team. I think you see what Chelsea's owners have done with Strasbourg, which you could argue that it's been successful or not successful, but having another feeder club in either a top-five league or in a very highly competitive environment, I think it's much more beneficial to top Premier League clubs than sending your players on loan to the Championship or League One or Two in England.

"It doesn't surprise me. The margins are so slim. It's ultra-competitive and obviously, you see Newcastle, it's eventually probably going to build a structure for themselves. Manchester City's done what they're doing, Brighton has a multi-club model in a certain sense.

"So it doesn't surprise me that Fenway Sports Group would try to leverage the assets they have, which is obviously lots of expertise, certainly, human capital with folks like Michael Edwards to build out a structure that gives them a competitive advantage, or at least matches the competitive advantage that groups like City Football Group have, which is difficult because they've spent 10, 15, 20 years in building that infrastructure."

Gardner adds: "Liverpool is pretty much at the top of the food chain, so is not developing players to sell the developing players through to help them win the Premier League, to someone in the Champions League.

"If I'm Liverpool I don't see the downside here. In my mind, the model is entirely designed to strengthen your squad and make your squad better, to compete better on a global scale."

"I think that's certainly bringing in someone like Michael Edwards. That's the motivation. They can talk in other ways about building their brand and exploit expanding their footprint from a commercial and operational perspective, but it's really about developing players for their first team."

Liverpool.com says: It will be interesting to see how FSG is planning to use the multi-club model but Liverpool will undoubtedly benefit on and off the pitch Edwards was intent on such a plan when he returned and will oversee any strategy that is introduced, whenever that may be.

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can read the original story in the Liverpool ECHO by clicking here.