Liverpool’s owners have let down Jurgen Klopp, the players and the community with grubby furlough move

Liverpool’s decision to furlough non-playing staff on Saturday was greeted with shock across the game. As late as Thursday, sources close to the club were confident that the European champions would not follow Tottenham Hotspur and a handful of other Premier League clubs in seeking access to government funds.

There were knowing nods earlier in the week when Daniel Levy announced that Spurs were furloughing employees not directly involved in football during the Coronavirus emergency. The Tottenham chairman has a reputation for being nakedly acquisitive. Levy might be greedy and cynical but no one could accuse him of being a hypocrite. It is different on Merseyside.

Part of Anfield’s appeal is that the club’s values are rooted in the community, not capitalism. The hierarchy are proud of the marketing slogan “This Means More”. Peter Moore, the chief executive, articulated the reasoning behind the tagline in an interview last year. “We had this historical figure, Bill Shankly, a Scottish socialist, who built the foundations,” Moore explained. “Today too, when we speak about business questions, we ask ourselves: ‘What would Shankly have done? What would Bill have said in this situation?’

“He was a true socialist who believed that football consisted of working together. We sat down and said, let’s put it down in words and that was the conclusion.”

What would Shankly have said on Saturday? Those of us who met the man find it hard to believe he would have nodded in assent and said, “Yes, we made a pre-tax profit of £42 million in the last accounts, paid agents fees of £43 million and had a record turnover of more than half a billion. Let’s make the taxpayer pick up the tab for our lowest-paid employees.”