Former Liverpool midfielder Didi Hamann does not expect the club's day-to-day operation to change following the completion of a 30% sale by owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) to a consortium that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
On Friday, it was confirmed that Amit Bhatia would become the club's new vice-chairman after an investment deal worth around £1.65billion was agreed with the 1892 Holdings consortium, which also features Bezos and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Bezos, estimated to be the third richest person on earth with a net worth of £204billion, will be represented on the new-look Liverpool board by Bryan Baum, managing partner of K5 Global, while Saverin's wife, Elaine, will represent him.
Hamann: FFP limits spending
Speculation has inevitably increased about transfer spending following the deal, but Hamann, who won eight trophies with the Reds including the 2005 Champions League, thinks the agreement will not alter the way the club is run by FSG. "With Financial Fair Play, I think it's very hard to spend the money you've got," Hamann said. "I think we see it with Newcastle now, I think some of the players they sold, they probably didn't want to sell, they probably had to sell them."
"If a big owner comes to a smaller club, I think it can make a big difference. Obviously, we've seen it with Wrexham, it transformed the whole area, what happened at Wrexham in the last four or five years. I'm not too sure it makes a big difference to Liverpool. Obviously, it's a very traditional club. I think FSG, even though they weren't the biggest spenders, the club still got the best out of the team and out of the players. I think they've been good owners up to now. They kept out of the daily business. With Bezos coming in, I'm not too sure it makes a big difference to Liverpool."
Challenge of following Klopp
On the appointment of Andoni Iraola as head coach and suggestions of a similar style of play to former boss Jurgen Klopp, the former Germany international added: "Liverpool fans will probably not expect to see the same way the club played under Jurgen Klopp, even though the fans liked it. But the success he's had. When he came to the club, nobody expected anything. He transformed the team, wins the league, goes really close in the league, getting 90-plus points, winning the Champions League, getting to another final. It was just a whirlwind. He came, expectations were low. He changed the mentality not only of the fans but of the whole city because we know all the saying after four or five games, being top of the league, this is our season."
"I think this is the challenge that managers will have following Klopp, because even Klopp sometimes changed his heavy metal football. I think even he changed towards the end because you know if you play full throttle all the time you run out of gas at some stage. We've got the Club World Cup now, you've got different competitions, there's an awful lot of games, an extended World Cup so the players got less rest. So I think you've got to be able to control games with the ball and I think a mixture of both is the way forward and hopefully Andoni Iraola can do that."
Iraola's first official match in charge of the Reds comes on Sunday when his side kick off their Premier League campaign away to Newcastle United (4.30pm kick-off).
