Liverpool owners FSG take huge step towards buying La Liga club as part of longstanding ambition to expand into Europe

According to Daily Mail, FSG have been considering buying another team in addition to Liverpool for quite some time now, with the Premier League outfit assessing a takeover of Ligue 1 side Toulouse in 2024, which came to nothing.

In fact, FSG, which is headed by John W. Henry, have had a look at more than 20 clubs across Europe, including Malaga, but ultimately, they turned their attention elsewhere. Now, the group are understood to have completed their 'due diligence' on La Liga side Getafe, with CEO Michael Edwards, technical director Julian Ward, and director of football development Pedro Marques leading the charge.

The Azulones were reportedly made aware of the Reds' interest in them when they played Hull City in a pre-season friendly at the MKM Stadium on August 2, and within the week, a delegation from FSG flew to Spain to start the process of looking at their accounts and infrastructure. 

The report adds that Ward, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and Marques were 'central' to discussions between FSG and Getafe figureheads, with talks so far being 'positive'.

There is said to be no indication on how much it would cost to buy Getafe - who have been owned by local businessman Angel Torres since 2002 - but if the powerbrokers in Boston do wish to proceed, a deal is likely to be 'formality'.

Incidentally, FSG also owns Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox, and the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. This would be the latest step in FSG's plans to expand their sporting empire.

FSG agreed to buy Liverpool from former American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks in October 2010, something that was greeted with great joy and fanfare.

But while the Reds won the Carabao Cup in 2012, they had to wait until 2019 for their first major trophy success. Then-manager Jurgen Klopp led them to Champions League glory that year, before winning the Premier League the following season.

Now, they are the defending league champions once more, have spent around £450 million ($599.6m) on transfers this past summer, and are back to being one of the biggest and most successful teams in the world - all of which has happened on FSG's watch.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner opened up on why Arne Slot's side needed to spend big ahead this season to try and retain their Premier League crown.

"The fact of the matter is it's going to be very difficult," he recently told the It's Called Soccer podcast. "As much as all the pundits are saying we are going to win the league this year, you can see from our first four matches exactly how competitive the league is.

"We have been resilient, we have been fortunate. The one thing I have learned, and we are relatively humble and modest about this, is we were very enthusiastic about changing the squad because it's very difficult to repeat.

"There was a great intention to bring in new players, obviously to get better. As much as it has been talked about how much our spend was this summer, we have been able to spend to the degree that we did so because we also sold a lot of players.

"One of the most encouraging things about that is we haven't clicked yet and I don't expect us to click right now. I do think part of what we have learned is that you can't just bring the same squad back. You need to bring in a new energy and new ideas."

Amidst all this talk of takeovers, Liverpool face a tricky test against unbeaten Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday in a battle between first and fifth in the division. Slot's side then travel to Turkey to take on Galatasaray in their next Champions League fixture a few days later on Tuesday.