Two years ago, Michael Edwards came back to football with one condition that genuinely excited him: FSG would build a multi-club empire. They promised it. He built a team around it. Now it's dead on arrival.
According to sources close to the situation, the entire project is "simply dormant." No second club is being pursued. The analysis is sitting in a folder somewhere in Altrincham, and the Boston executives who ultimately hold the purse strings appear to have moved on entirely.
Edwards hasn't. That's the tension at the heart of this story.
Four near-misses, zero deals
The trail of almost-deals is longer than most people realise. Bordeaux came first in July 2024 — a genuine opportunity, with the sixth-largest metropolitan area in France and an academy that produced Jules Kounde and Aurelien Tchouameni. FSG had 10 days to do financial due diligence and publicly confirmed they were in "early stages of dialogue." Then they saw the debt pile, the stadium owned by the local municipality, the arrears on rent, and walked. Bordeaux subsequently dropped to the fourth tier. The caution was justified.
Malaga followed — a restoration project that genuinely appealed to Edwards and technical director Julian Ward. But the club was in administration, under judicial control, and the majority shareholder faced a misappropriation of funds trial. Too messy to touch.
Getafe was the most developed conversation. La Liga football, a price tag Torres trimmed from £160m down to roughly £100m, and real structural discussions. FSG still passed, citing limited revenue streams and Spain's strict squad registration rules — where spending is directly tied to club income. Pouring money into players you then can't register is a dead end.
The fourth, revealed here for the first time, was Monaco. In early 2025, FSG held talks with another ownership group about jointly acquiring a minority stake — around 30 per cent — in the Ligue 1 side. The stumbling block was UEFA. With Liverpool already in the Champions League, the governing body couldn't give clear assurances that both clubs could compete in the same competition. FSG didn't want to end up in the Crystal Palace situation — John Textor's ownership of Lyon cost Palace their Europa League spot this season — and they weren't willing to operate a blind trust arrangement either. They wanted full control or nothing.
That principle, admirable in its transparency, effectively killed every route.
What Edwards actually built — and what gets wasted
The frustrating part is how much infrastructure was created specifically for this project. Matt Newberry was promoted to a newly created role as head of global talent, meeting Edwards and Ward every few weeks to present the best under-21 players globally who have played fewer than 4,000 first-team minutes. It's a pipeline built for a destination that no longer exists.
Liverpool signed Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe in January — two highly rated centre-backs who impressed at the Under-17 World Cup — spending around £3.5m combined. These are exactly the kind of players designed to be developed at a second club abroad before being Premier League-ready. Without that second club, they're either fast-tracked too soon or loaned out with far less control over their development.
That's the competitive cost. Post-Brexit, English clubs can't sign players under 18 from overseas. A club in an EU country would circumvent that rule entirely. Half the Premier League operates within multi-club structures now. Liverpool, with all their resources and analytical firepower, are on the outside looking in.
The broader squad context matters too. Liverpool spent close to £450m last summer — the biggest spending spree in their history — and currently sit fifth in the Premier League with just four wins in 12 league games since January. That kind of form sharpens every question about structure and direction. Edwards, sporting director Richard Hughes, and Arne Slot all have one year left on their contracts after this summer. Hughes is already being courted by Al Hilal. Slot is under real pressure.
Edwards returned to FSG with a specific mandate and a specific promise. The promise is now off the table. Whether the mandate — or the man — stays much longer is the question nobody inside Anfield seems ready to answer publicly.
