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The news that Liverpool FC had appointed Tony Barrett into a new role as Head of Club and Supporter Liaison was greeted with widespread approval at the end of May.

For supporters, Barrett essentially passes every "one of us" test going.

Born and raised in Fairfield, he was so young when his late father Eddie took him to his first game at Anfield that he has no memory of it.

As a club supporter he travelled around the country and across Europe as a fan before making football writing a career, becoming the ECHO's Liverpool FC reporter.

He made the switch to the nationals with the Times, a role he left last year prompted by the paper's decision not to put the results of the Hillsborough inquests on its front page.

That stand won further praise and he spent six months at Joe.co.uk before the Reds came calling. They had been talking to Barrett since December 2015 about what they should be doing better and this is not a role which has been created on the spur of the moment.

He's now 10 days into his new job and has this week been dealing with the fall-out from yet another ticketing shambles by LFC, with problems with both the disabled and members' sales.

Fans were left without tickets after queues on the internet which lasted several hours for some while some disabled supporters unsuccessfully stood outside Anfield for several hours.

The ECHO spoke to Barrett about his new role, the latest ticketing problems and just how many of the problems his new role could help to solve.

Head of club and supporter liaison, it's a fine title?

It's an exciting thing for me to be invited to work for Liverpool Football Club. As a kid your first instinct is to want to play for them but my highest level was the First Division of the Liverpool Sunday League so there was no chance of that!

I'm been lucky to cover the club as a journalist and this opportunity came about. There's conversations that take place about how this role will work and what my responsibilities will be and how I see the role.

There was always a sense in my part that I was never going to turn it down. It's a chance to work for Liverpool and the big thing isn't that I've taken it on but that the club think the role is necessary which I think is a step in the right direction.

Having been in the club for less than a couple of weeks I've already discovered there is the will all levels to make this work as well as it possibly can and it's down to me to do that.

That will came out of a lengthy period of research by the club with supporters through Populus which highlighted what LFC did well and not well. What do you think are the things LFC isn't doing well enough?

When we had the issues this week with ticket sales, one of the accusations on twitter was 'if you knew what it was like to buy tickets, you'd do something about it' That sort of frustrated me because I've bought tickets all my life, I've been a season ticket holder since 1988/89 when I paid £65. I haven't had to become a member so I appreciate that that is a learning curve for me.

From the outside the issues are ticket availability, ticket pricing - we had the walkout that I covered as a journalist. My role is about engagement and the most basic engagement for a supporter is the opportunity for them to see the team play. That desire to actually see Liverpool play football is the core of what the club's about.

What's happened this week haven't surprised me, the issue is supply and demand, that's what it comes down to.

It's about technology and systems but there aren't enough tickets and too many fans so that presents challenges that we've seen this week.

Ticket affordability and ticket availability will be two of the five fan forums we're setting up (the others are stadium, local supporter engagement and equality and diversity). That's how important they are.

Fans will want to know that those fan forums will be able to take a message back to the club hierarchy about doing this better, especially given the chaos with the members' sale this week

I don't think a football club should ever be afraid to say something hasn't been good enough. I think Liverpool FC, if it's about anything, should be about aiming for the highest possible standards on and off the pitch.

If you have those highest standards you have to look at the ticketing process over the last few days and say it hasn't been good enough.

That doesn't make it easier for the supporters who've been on the receiving end of whatever hasn't happened as well as it should have.

If I'm a supporter I'm not impressed. If I've having to wait a long time for tickets that don't materialise. I'm going to be disappointed so the club has to deal with that disappointment.

The problem is it won't change overnight. To change ticket processes - and there is a review of this which is part of the fan forums and fans will be fully engaged in - that can't happen overnight.

I'm been in nine days, there's nothing I could have done to change what's happened. Nothing that Peter Moore who's been in a couple of months could have done.

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

There a custom and practice, there's an established way of doing things, there's contracts.

The club was committed to the members' sale as it was done this week but that doesn't have to be the same going forward.

The club needs to look at what's happened this week, and what it's done well because there are things that were.

Tickets have sold out, that's a good thing. everyone who was absolutely entitled to a ticket has got one. The problem is there are people who had the chance to get tickets and may have missed out.

We can't correct all of that because there are too many fans and not enough tickets and that's the nature of being one of the biggest clubs in the world but we can look at making the system and processes as fair as possible. These forums are vital and I'll be relaying the strongest possible message to the club from the supporters.

I've been locked out myself. I was locked out against Genoa in 1992, against Oxford when Barnes scored the free-kick in his first home game in '87/78, Ian Rush's last derby in '87 when we won 3-1. That profound sense of disappointment when you queue up for the Kop and the gates get shut in your face. I identify with that fan disappointment and fan anger.

I can't sit here and say we can fix it overnight because it can't be done. This is a process and if we want to get it right that's how it has to be done.

What were your thoughts on taking this role as a sort of poacher turned gamekeeper?

I see what you're saying but I'm not sure it is that. I see myself and the club see me as sitting in the middle.

There was a lot of discussions about where I should be based and how I wasn't going to become institutionalised. A number of options were raised and we basically came up with three.

So if I need to be in Chapel Street where the club offices are, I'll be there, if I need to be at Anfield I'll be here and If I need to be at Melwood I'll be there. And everywhere else in between.

The idea is that I'm on the front foot, not waiting for problems to come to me but dealing with problems before they become an issue. That is what fan liaison is, being among people seeing what issues they have on a day to day basis and coming up with ways we can make it better and stronger. I have to be out and about and I have to be where the fans are.

How will you judge your success in this role?

I think if my Twitter feed dies down at the moment! I think supporters will tell me if they feel the work I'm doing is making any kind of positive difference. They will let me know, if it doesn't make a difference equally they will let me know.

My circle of friends and family, the circle beyond that of match-going Reds I know, I will have no shortage of constituency to let me know what is going well and what isn't. Plus a constituency beyond that which I'm going to start creating.

That is where my success and failure will be judged.

But I also know I can't please everybody.

It's about finding a way where Liverpool can be as successful as possible on the pitch while making sure the fans and everything about the club stays as authentic as it can do.

On a personal note, what have been your favourite players and games with the Reds?

It's a difficult one, the thing about being a Liverpool supporter, you're blessed on those options. Possibly Coventry in 1990 when we last won the league. My first away game outside the city on my own, I was 14. We'd already won the league and went 1-0 down but Liverpool were sensational that day. Chelsea 2005 semi-final on the Kop was special in terms of atmosphere.

But I don't think back to any particular game but what going to the match has meant and what has grown from it for me. I don't mean professionally but that sense of belonging I'm got and that circle of friends, lads and women you know who go the match.

That for me is bigger than anything. I'm not one of those who use the phrase 'the Liverpool family' but I understand why it works because it can bring people together.

When Liverpool brings people together as it can it's a special football club, it's a unique football club. I look at Liverpool and what its achieved, its history, the bad times we've been through as a club and how they still resonate today and how people have stood together when it's mattered.

I'd focus on that sense of belonging and sense of identity which I think is crucial in being a Liverpool fan and which will inform me in doing this role.

LFCTV and LFCTV GO will be bringing you all the action as the team prepares for the new season and a return to UEFA Champions League football. Go to www.liverpoolfc.com/watch to find out how to see every game and enjoy behind-the-scenes access every step of the way.