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John W Henry emerged from the London offices of law firm Slaughter & May and declared: “We’re here to win and we’ll do whatever is necessary.”

It was October 2010 and Fenway Sports Group (then known as New England Sports Ventures) has just completed their £300million takeover of Liverpool Football Club.

The Reds were in a mess. The ruinous regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett had taken its toll.

The scale of the task facing principal owner Henry and chairman Tom Werner was underlined when their reign kicked off with a wretched 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby.

Liverpool were only off the bottom of the Premier League table on goal difference. Roy Hodgson was in the dugout and Paul Konchesky was playing left-back. The Reds were wallowing in mediocrity.

The journey from that shambles at Goodison to the ecstasy of Saturday night's Champions League final triumph proved to be far from straightforward.

(Image: (Erwin Spek/Soccrates/Getty Images))

It took the best part of nine years. There were plenty of bumps along the way and times when supporters doubted the direction was club was heading in.

Not any more. Liverpool's American owners have delivered on Henry's bold vow to give Kopites the success they crave. FSG have helped to restore Liverpool to the summit of European football.

No longer is their reign a tale of false dawns and agonising near misses.

There was Henry on the team plane flying back to Merseyside from Madrid on Sunday with Ol' Big Ears sat between him and his wife Linda.

The thrill of beating Tottenham in the Spanish capital was shared with Werner and FSG president Mike Gordon, who is responsible for the day to day running of the club.

These are shrewd operators who learned from the mistakes made in the early years of their ownership and put a structure in place which has enabled Liverpool to flourish both on and off the pitch.

With the Boston Red Sox the current holders of the World Series, they have now landed the biggest prize up for grabs on both sides of the Atlantic. That doesn't happen by chance.

FSG made it clear from the off that Liverpool would have to live within its means and it would be a case of building up the club slowly rather than simply throwing cash at it.

The Reds' total annual revenues have leapt from £184million in 2011 to £455million for the year up to the end of May 2018. Hefty losses have been turned into healthy profits.

They have taken giant strides commercially with a host of new sponsorship deals across the globe.

The problem initially was that the Reds simply weren't smart enough in terms of how they went about spending their money in the transfer market and it cost Damien Comolli his job as director of football.

During Brendan Rodgers' tenure as manager there was too great a focus on investing in untapped potential rather than buying proven talent. They made a hash of replacing Luis Suarez.

Part of the issue was that with Liverpool operating outside of the Champions League they didn't have the financial clout to compete at the top end of the transfer market or a manager who could attract the elite.

Foundations had been laid but the real trigger for what FSG have created was the appointment of Jurgen Klopp in October 2015.

Convincing him to cut short his sabbatical remains their finest achievement. Making Michael Edwards sporting director isn't far behind.

“Our philosophy is rooted in the belief that when there is an atmosphere where people are empowered to work together as a team, great things can happen,” Werner told the ECHO last week.

“Obviously, it starts with Jurgen and his outstanding leadership. That's critical to everything.”

(Image: Getty Images)

Shrewd recruitment – coupled with Klopp's coaching acumen and sheer force of personality – has sent Liverpool hurtling forward.

They have bought wisely and sold even better. When you consider the quality of the squad now to the one Klopp inherited, it's remarkable that his net spend is only £126million.

The £142million from the sale of Philippe Coutinho effectively paid for the world class duo of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.

FSG found a solution to the stadium issue they inherited by transforming Anfield with the impressive new £110million Main Stand. Now the hope is that they will push on with redeveloping the Anfield Road End because a 54,000-capacity simply isn't sufficient.

Renaming the Centenary Stand in honour of Kop icon Kenny Dalglish was a classy touch and they have invested in the club's long-term future with the new £50million state-of-the art first-team training facility which will open in Kirkby next summer.

What was missing until Saturday night was genuine glory. One League Cup in 2012 was scant reward for a club of Liverpool's stature.

Now that next step has finally been taken. FSG have proved beyond doubt that they are here to win.

And with this manager and this squad of players, there's good reason to believe that the good times will keep on rolling. Liverpool Football Club is in safe hands.