Henry Fires Reds Warning

John W Henry believes Liverpool have a long way to go to make up for the mismanagement of the club by their previous owners.

Henry claims there is still much work to be done, both on and off the pitch, to get the Reds heading in the right direction following the buyout by The Fenway Sports Group (FSG) in October 2010.

Henry has revealed how he and business partner Tom Werner, had serious doubts about the acquisition while undertaking due diligence, before eventually buying the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett for £300m.

He is convinced that without their intervention, the Anfield giants were heading towards administration under the stewardship of unpopular American duo, while warning that it will a long time before they close the gap on arch rivals Manchester United.

Henry, who's FSG also own the Boston Red Sox, told the Liverpool Echo: "The best analogy is that you can't turn an ocean liner around like you can turn a speedboat.

"When you look at the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United, Liverpool isn't holding up its side of the rivalry.

"That is the way it was with the Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Yankees were just completely dominant when we arrived.

"Looking back at the day we bought Liverpool, I was trying to make a point then about how much of a challenge it was going to be because of the issues we inherited.

"We had a lack of depth in the squad and some really high payrolls. We also had issues with the age of the players and so forth. We knew it was going to be very difficult.

"Tom and I went for a long walk and we had to make the decision: Are we going to buy Liverpool? We had to decide whether we really wanted to take this on because we knew this was a huge challenge.

"A much larger challenge than any supporter could know. We had done due diligence and looked at how the situation was financially, with the player contracts and the youth system. The further we went into it, the more sobered we were."