Liverpool needed Slot & Hughes to 'buy into' multi‑club plans before deal collapsed - expert
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Sun 29 March 2026 20:26, UK Liverpool would have needed manager Arne Slot, Richard Hughes and key figures behind the scenes to have bought into the idea of multi-club ownership for the plans to have worked.That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, after the club decided against setting up a multi-club model.Liverpool had been exploring the possibility of buying a second club, with Spanish side Getafe among those looked at.Rivals Manchester City have a successful multi-club model, whilst Chelsea’s ownership have a majority stake in French side Strasbourg.A second club could have boosted Liverpool’s finances, and helped with spreading costs to adhere to financial fair play rules. 💰 Liverpool Finance Update 💰 Inside the transfer budget, player wages, new kits, off-pitch deals and boardroom developments at Anfield. VISIT THE FINANCE HUB MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES ‘One big flaw’ exposed in multi-club systemEverton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes “serious strategic thought” has to go into developing a multi-club model.Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness states there are multiple factors that need to be considered before committing to the idea.Total Turnover (2024-25)£703mWage Bill£428mWages-To-Turnover Ratio61%Matchday Revenue£116mFigures based on official Liverpool FC 2024/25 annual financial accounts.He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “People have got to realise now, in my experience, even not going as far as a multi-club situation, but even into a relationship with another club, and I’ve had a few of those over the years, unless the senior people like the managers at each club buy into it, and they like each other, these relationships don’t work.
You can ask them to work together, but unless they like each other, it doesn’t seem to work and it’s very rare. “And that was one big flaw in the whole multi-club system, was that people thought they could just put people together, and they could tell them to work together.
“It can genuinely work if there is serious strategic thought behind which clubs fit with other clubs and there is a genuine reason between the age groups that they handle in terms of skills, of training or producing certain players and the way the progression will work. “But it needs real serious thought into which markets they’re in, the geographical situation, and also the personal fit and chemistry, as I say, of the people together.