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Liverpool chairman Tom Werner knows a decent soap opera when he sees one.

When he was a television ­executive, he was behind one of the best programmes ever made.

As he sat in his private box at Fenway Park - home of baseball's Boston Red Sox - this week, Werner smiled about making the pilot episode of hit 1980s sitcom Taxi.

It launched the career of Danny DeVito, from behind a raised, caged office as a dispatcher in a fictional New York yellow-cab garage.

“Danny’s such a big personality that everyone thought he was a giant when he was ranting and raving in those early scenes,” Werner said.

“It was only when he came down into the garage midway through the show that everyone ­realised he was not actually a giant at all.”

A few hours after the Anfield giants moved to the top of the Premier League with their win over Crystal Palace, though, Werner’s mind was on a present-day soap opera.

This one’s name is Luis Suarez and Werner, like most people in football, is captivated by how it is turning out...

Werner on... Luis Suarez

Werner had watched the Palace game that morning at the home of his friend and Liverpool principal owner, John W Henry, in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

It has not been an easy three years, turning a great English institution away from the chaos into which it had been plunged by previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

But it is impossible to shake the feeling now that the club is moving steadily forward in the struggle to reclaim old glories.

Amid it all, of course, striker Suarez, not long returned from his 10-game ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic, was a central figure and Werner was hooked on the storyline.

As he sat in his Fenway suite, less than an hour before Boston’s play-off game against the Tampa Bay Rays, guests began to stream in.

None of them wanted to talk about baseball.

They were full of Liverpool and, in particular, Suarez, who had scored in the 3-1 win.

(Image: John Powell)

“I got a kick out of the fact that Luis came out on to the pitch before kick-off with his baby and his daughter,” Werner, 63, said.

“He shook hands with all the officials and the other players carrying his baby. That is the side of Luis I know, the loving parent.

“There was interest in him from other clubs throughout the summer but it was important for us to try to keep him.

“He is one of the great players of the world and we felt that we would be a stronger club with him than without him.

“That does not mean I don’t respect his intense desire to play in the Champions League. But it would be a very happy day next May if and when we get to the Champions League by finishing in the top four and he is part of it.

“It is our intention to keep him for a while.

“Our intention is to build a winning club and he is integral to that. The past is the past and I have great affection for him personally.

“I give Brendan Rodgers an enormous amount of credit for making sure Luis knew how needed he was at Liverpool.

“Brendan made it plain to him how much he was going to be embraced by the fans, and the supporters have been terrific.”

The day before this interview, Liverpool had announced that Kenny Dalglish would be joining the board in a non-executive role.

The move heightened the feeling that the club is becoming whole again after the period of turbulence under Hicks and Gillett.

Werner said he would not hesitate to ask Dalglish’s advice and “tap into his wisdom” and was, of course, full of praise for Rodgers, the Scot's successor in the dugout...

Werner on... Brendan Rodgers

"I think Brendan has made remarkable progress," Werner said. "He's a great strategist and has shown strong leadership. When we hired him, we were confident we were getting one of the brightest managerial talents in the game and he is proving his worth.

"He's dedicated to improving the club as a whole and shares our vision of developing a club that is built for sustained success.

"He has shown a willingness to use young players and at the same time, demonstrated the ability to get the best out of our established stars.

“Brendan is respected by the players. They feel he is a good strategist and a good leader and his philosophy has been embraced by everyone.

“We are all moving in the same direction and Brendan is very much the leader.

"We're pleased with the progress we're seeing on the pitch but our goal is to create sustainable, long-term success at Liverpool and to consistently compete for silverware, so we're not getting carried away with a few good months.

"The club is definitely moving in the right direction under Brendan and as owners we're very optimistic and excited about the future."

(Image: Alex Livesey)

Werner, who remains an understated man despite his showbiz connections – John Travolta was among his guests at Fenway on Saturday - tried to play down Liverpool’s superb start to the season.

“It is certainly promising,” he said. “We have a softer schedule at the start of this year than we did last year but all you can do is win the games you are supposed to win.

“The team has played brilliantly at times. It is not unfair to say that Suarez and Daniel Sturridge are as powerful a striking force as any in the league.

“They both scored brilliant goals today and I am excited about the future but I don’t want to be accused of wearing rose-coloured spectacles.”

For just a moment, though, he threw circumspection to one side and thought back to Liverpool’s win over Manchester United at the start of last month.

“There is nothing like a goal scored at Anfield,” he said. “You almost feel like the whole place is levitating.

“To have been there when we beat Man U this season, it was one of the great afternoons of my life.”

Werner on... Liverpool vs Red Sox

Even as Liverpool’s stock rises again in English football, there are a few who fear they are the poor relation to the Boston Red Sox in the priorities of their owners.

With Liverpool joint top of the Premier League and the Red Sox taking a run at the World Series, it is a notion that Tom Werner and others in the hierarchy at the Fenway Sports Group - such as chief commercial officer Billy Hogan - poured scorn upon.

“It’s a funny question,” Werner said, “because it’s like when somebody says, ‘Do you like a certain child more than you like another child?’

“We are very honoured and proud of our stewardship of Liverpool Football Club. It is one of the great iconic clubs in all of sport.

“I’m just trying to do my best, as is John Henry, to bring more silverware to that amazing trophy cabinet at Anfield.

“It’s funny because when we make an acquisition at the Red Sox, people say it means that maybe we don’t have enough money to make an acquisition at Liverpool.

“But I think we have proven that while we don’t have the resources that Chelsea and Manchester City have, we feel that we are growing the club and we feel there is great synergy between some of our properties.

“And I feel like the more we grow the club commercially, the more we can spend on improving our performance on the pitch. It’s important for Liverpool fans to feel that we are fighting very hard for Financial Fair Play because I think that is a healthy improvement, if it has some teeth in it.

“I was very involved in representing Liverpool in that discussion at club level and it is important because the club needs to be self-sustaining. One of the things about FFP is it means you don’t have to overspend to win.”

Like many others, Werner sees comparisons between the Red Sox and Liverpool, their fan bases and their histories.

“It starts when you walk on the pitch at Anfield – this is something that is similar to Fenway Park – because you do feel a little bit the ghosts of previous players,” he said.

“When I am at Anfield, I do feel a sense that we are on the right trajectory and there is a certain hopefulness that wasn’t there three years ago.”

Hogan, who splits his time between Fenway and Anfield, is equally optimistic.

“Each property stands on its own,” he said. “We are all involved in sport to win, so you want to see every property doing well.

“Hopefully now you are seeing the fruits of three years’ effort.”