by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

ODGERS BERNDTSON. No, not our latest prospective left-back currently wallowing in the Norwegian Tippeligaen (Premier League to you and me).

Nor is it the latest ‘meat’ pie to find its way onto the menu of the Reds Bar in the Lower Centenary.

In fact, these are the firm of ‘head-hunters’ who have been appointed to find our new chief executive. Hopefully they will be able to find a better one than that currently sitting on Rick Parry’s shoulders.

But in case you’re thinking of surfing straight to their website and filling in the on-line application form a word of warning: unless you’ve recently engineered the trebling of Coca-Cola sales worldwide, or negotiated a lasting peace between North and South Korea, you won’t even understand the job description.

For here is the biggest indication yet as to what our co-owners see as the priorities of the new head honcho; and the size of the victory won by Rafael Benitez in his recent contract wrangling over responsibility for playing matters.

The Job Overview starts off well enough; describing our ‘iconic’ club and listing our venerable trophy haul. But the tone is set before the paragraph is out, claiming that the club is in a “unique position to leverage its brand”.

Uh-oh. With increasing trepidation we venture down into Responsibilities and Duties. Items 1-3 seem reasonable enough: working relations, leadership, that sort of stuff. But No. 4 comes steaming in like a Tommy Smith tackle.

Spelling out clear accountability for developing income streams from a wide range of commercial activities, the objective we’re told is “monetising an internationally disbursed fan base”. So that’s it: we’re to be monetised, in a dastardly plot worthy of Doctor Who. Dollar, Yen, Baht or Venusian Zargons, take your pick – but monetised you shall be Doctor.

No. 5 lays it on the line, just in case you’ve missed it: you’re to understand “growing, developing and leveraging the value of a global entertainment brand”.



And you thought we were a Football Club! If you fancied working closely with the Manager on transfer strategy, player negotiations etc, forget it; for Item No. 7 lays out your duties as “ensuring that he has the necessary resources and support to achieve outstanding results” – in other words keep your nose out, because Rafa is King.

Yes, this job description has the whiff of Tapas about it all right, and you can bet your last Zargon that Rafa will have scrutinised its contents like a DVD of South American left-wingers.

Press on, and you kind of get used to the repetitive language peppering the Responsibilities and Duties and the Candidate Profile. Leveraging this...globalising that... world-class S&M experience (that’s sales and marketing, so Max Mosley need not apply).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for maximising our commercial income; we’ve fallen behind our beloved neighbours from the other end of the East Lancs mainly because of our failure to capitalise on such opportunities.

But isn’t there something missing here? Hang on, what’s this? Buried at Item 8 in the Candidate Profile: “Empathy with the values and heritage of Liverpool Football Club and a love for the game and all that it stands for would be advantageous”. Advantageous? Surely you mean bleeding essential?

Now I’m not saying you have to be a raving Red to do this job; I’m not a Geordie after all.

But understanding our heritage and the special bond between club and fans is surely worth more than a throwaway line near the end of the job description don’t you think?

Fail to get that, and all the corporate sponsorship in the world won’t save you from becoming Odgers’ Bodge.