Liverpool's owners own up to another own goal: Richard Buxton

Question marks continue to hang over Liverpool's greatest triumph in the modern age.

The word on everyone's lips at Anfield is: When?

When will the Reds finally get their hands on this season's English Premier League title?

When will their owners stop getting things so embarrassingly wrong?

Brickbats may have been replaced by bouquets in Fenway Sports Group's (FSG) reversal of plans to furlough the club's non-playing staff using the UK government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, but the initial decision remains an affront to Bill Shankly's time-honoured principles.

CEO Peter Moore, who issued yesterday morning's (Singapore time) climbdown, previously claimed that the club's moral compass remained guided by Shankly's socialist outlook.

He said: "Even today, when we talk about business, we ask ourselves: 'What would Shankly do?'"

Shankly would not have allowed the team he transformed from a sleepy outfit in the old Second Division into a dominant force of world football to take advantage of government handouts.

Nor would he have approved of proposals to hike match-ticket prices to £77 (S$135) in 2016, or defend attempts to trademark the word "Liverpool" in a transparent commercial landgrab.

On each occasion, FSG made errors in judgment - they also apologised after deciding not to go ahead with the ticket price hike.

Three times in the past four years alone, Liverpool's American owners have now scored own goals more spectacular and humiliating than any of the 151 in their entire on-field history.

Supporters were forewarned about their flaws when John W. Henry confessed: "We don't know English football... we will make mistakes and it will be up to us to correct them."

Avoiding such blunders, however, still appears beyond them even after a decade at the helm.

Henry and Co. can no longer play the inexperience card.

Since 2010, they have successfully restored a club, which were nearly financially bankrupted by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to their rightful position of challenging at the forefront of domestic and European football.

Their finest accomplishment is still yet to come, with the impending arrival of a first top-flight title since 1990.

Off the field, too, they are preparing to usher in prosperity with Anfield's latest expansion belatedly delivering a standard befitting of both the stadium and the 21st century.

Yet the Covid-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in Liverpool as much as the wider society.

Juergen Klopp and Jordan Henderson led by shining example in supporting frontline healthcare workers during the ongoing crisis through their heartfelt words and actions.

In the space of 48 hours, their goodwill efforts were trampled by the men upstairs.

Alarm bells should have started ringing when John Barnes appeared to be the only member of the Anfield old guard willing to publicly defend his former employers' blatant opportunism.

Others, including Champions League-winning heroes Jamie Carragher and Dietmar Hammann, had already joined the swelled ranks of opponents incited by last weekend's announcement. Liverpool have made enough enemies already without creating ones within.

Sorry has never been the hardest word for the EPL leaders - even if it did take nine years to apologise to Patrice Evra for their misplaced support of Luis Suarez during the pair's racism row.

But "we got it wrong" now appears as prominently in Liverpool's modern-day lexicon as You'll Never Walk Alone.

FSG needs to finally learn to think thoroughly first instead of rushing into apologies.