John W Henry Says 19th Manchester United Title Would Motivate Club To Break 21-year 'Curse'

Liverpool owner John W Henry has claimed that the prospect of Manchester United winning a record 19th domestic league championship this season provides added motivation to break Liverpool's 21-year title "curse".

United and Liverpool currently share the distinction of winning 18 league titles - more than any other English club - but Old Trafford has now housed the Premier League trophy eleven times since Liverpool were last crowned league champions in 1990.

The return of Kenny Dalglish as manager at Anfield following the sacking of Roy Hodgson last month has revived Liverpool's fortunes on the pitch and the club climbed to sixth in the table following Sunday's 1-0 victory at Chelsea.

But with United sitting four points clear of the pack at the top of the table, a 19th league title appears more likely to head to Manchester before Merseyside.

And Henry, whose Fenway Sports Group oversaw the Boston Red Sox ending their 86-year wait for baseball World Series crown in 2004, admits that United's recent success has merely intensified the desire to bring glory to Liverpool.

Henry said: "We want to be the best in football. Manchester United have 18 (titles), we have 18. If nothing else, that should be enough to drive us forward.

"It is beginning to look like United could edge ahead this year, so we have our work cut out."

Liverpool can help scupper United's title bid by defeating Sir Alex Ferguson's team at Anfield on March 5, but Henry claims that ending Liverpool's title drought is the priority.

"Fenway Sports Group have a unique skill set for what we call in the US breaking curses," said Henry.

"We had an 86-year drought in Boston for winning a World Series and there has been a 21-year drought [at Liverpool] for winning the first division.

"We have no other agenda than that. That is why we are there [at Liverpool] and that is what everyone in the organization is working towards.

"Throughout the [takeover] process we looked at similarities with what we have accomplished at Boston and what we thought we could do at Liverpool.

"There was a strong feeling we were uniquely qualified, even though we did not know the sport, we knew the sports business."