Liverpool have claimed the principles of Bill Shankly are the club’s guiding light but their wage policy for non-playing staff would have outraged the legendary manager
Six months ago the Liverpool chief executive, Peter Moore, was asked what distinguished his club from other European football giants. “We had this amazing historical figure: Bill Shankly, a Scottish socialist who built the foundation,” he told El Pais. “Even today, when we talk about business, we ask ourselves: ‘What would Shankly do?’”
So what would Shankly do in a global pandemic that threatens to bring the economy and the health system to its knees? The answer, it’s safe to say, would not involve piggybacking on a government scheme to stop mass unemployment when you are the world’s seventh-richest club. Furloughing Liverpool’s non-playing staff – saving perhaps £1m – when you have an annual wage bill of £310m and paid £43m to agents last year is not a good look.
Written by Sean Ingle
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/apr/05/what-would-shankly-do-liverpool-furlough under the title “
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