"The project is simply dormant." That's how a source close to FSG's ownership describes what was supposed to be the centrepiece of Michael Edwards' return to football — and it tells you everything about where things stand at Liverpool right now.
When Edwards came back two years ago as FSG's CEO of football, he was explicit about why. The multi-club model was the carrot. He'd turned down roughly a dozen approaches — Manchester United and Chelsea among them — and finally said yes to FSG specifically because they committed to acquiring a second club. Now that commitment has effectively dissolved, with no deal done and no live pursuit on the table.
Sources close to Edwards say the impasse has frustrated him. That's not a throwaway line. This was the project.
Four near-misses, zero deals
It wasn't for lack of trying. Edwards, technical director Julian Ward and director of football development Pedro Marques spent months criss-crossing Europe, running deep analysis on around 25 clubs with a heavy focus on Spain, Portugal and France. Four separate situations got close enough that insiders felt a deal was possible.
Bordeaux came first in July 2024 — FSG had ten days for due diligence, liked the club's bones (the academy that produced Koundé and Tchouaméni is no small thing), but pulled out over a financial mess that ultimately sent Bordeaux into the fourth tier. Malaga followed, complicated by the club being under judicial control and the majority shareholder facing misappropriation charges. Getafe was the most advanced Spanish conversation, with president Ángel Torres dropping his asking price from around £160m to closer to £100m — but FSG still walked, citing limited revenue streams and the headache of Spain's strict player registration rules.
The fourth, previously unreported, was Monaco. FSG held talks in early 2025 about buying a minority stake alongside another ownership group, eyeing around 30 per cent of the Ligue 1 side while Dmitry Rybolovlev explored a sale. It collapsed when UEFA couldn't give them clarity on whether Liverpool and Monaco could both play in the Champions League under the same ownership. FSG weren't willing to take that risk — or to park their influence in a blind trust to get around it. They wanted full control or nothing.
Nothing is what they got.
Why it matters beyond the boardroom
The football logic behind multi-club ownership is straightforward and increasingly hard to argue with. Post-Brexit rules bar English clubs from signing players under 18 from overseas. A club inside the EU solves that problem. You develop young talent abroad under your own system, loan them through your own structure, and bring them in when they're ready. More than half of Premier League clubs already operate this way. Liverpool, for now, don't.
That gap is real. Edwards' new head of global talent, Matt Newberry, is actively identifying elite under-21 players — Liverpool spent £3.5m in January on teenage centre-backs Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe, both standouts at the Under-17 World Cup. The plan was always to park players like them at a second club abroad. Without one, that pathway doesn't exist.
The £450m spent on the first team last summer shows FSG aren't afraid of the chequebook when the case is made. But their conservative instincts — exhaustive due diligence, zero appetite for regulatory grey areas — kept killing deals that needed speed or nerve to close.
Edwards, Hughes and Slot all have one year left on their contracts after this summer. Hughes has Saudi interest. Slot is under pressure after four wins in twelve league games since January, with Liverpool fifth and scrambling for Champions League qualification. And Edwards joined for a project that no longer exists.
"Renewed vigour and energy" — his words from two years ago. The question now is how much of that survives a dormant project, a turbulent season, and a contract that runs out in twelve months.
