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John W Henry has helped the Boston Red Sox win two World Series and his motor-racing team win the Daytona 500

Liverpool fans may be wary of another American owner, but if John W Henry’s takeover of their club is successful they will find the new owner a very different breed to Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

The quiet, reserved 61-year-old made his fortune in hedge funds, but has used it to indulge his sporting interests, most famously with the Boston Red Sox baseball team, but also in the Nascar motorsport series.

The self-made multi-millionaire does not have the vast fortunes of the Premier League’s wealthiest, however Market Folly noted that Henry still made it into the Forbes’ billionaire list in 2009, with an estimated fortune of £1.1bn.

While his value dropped during the credit crunch, he does have a strong track record of success with his sports teams. After owning a number of minor league teams, and briefly controlling the Florida Marlins, Henry and his partners in New England Sports Ventures (NESV), Tom Werner and the New York Times Company, bought the Red Sox in 2002.

They had acquired a famous name but a team that could not translate their wealth and prominence into championships thanks to one of baseball’s most endearing tales – ‘the curse of the Bambino’.

The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918, but immediately afterwards sold the emerging star Babe Ruth to their arch rivals, the New York Yankees. Ruth went on to smash baseball recordsand establish the Yankees as the pre-eminent franchise in the game. The Red Sox suffered calamity after calamity as they attempted to end their curse and win another title.

As entire generations of Red Sox fans passed through Fenway Park without ever seeing their team win a title, many wondered if the curse was here to stay. But within two years of Henry’s acquisition – according to the Boston Herald, NESV paid $660m for the team – the drought came to an end as they won their first World Series title in 86 years. Three years later, they won it again.

Henry’s reign has also endeared him to fans, according to Boston Globe reporter Peter Abraham. “He [Henry] is a very interesting guy. He made all his money in hedge funds,” Abraham told the Liverpool Echo. “He purchased the Florida team, the Marlins, but he swapped it for the Red Sox. He has been very popular in Boston.

“The Sox have the second oldest stadium in baseball and he has fixed it up better than people thought he would. He spent more than people thought he would, I would imagine probably $50m (£31m), if not more.”

Henry resisted any temptation to move out of the historic but restrictive Fenway Park – baseball’s oldest ground. Instead, the club has found inventive ways to maximise revenues to remain competitive with the Yankees.

The fortunes of Roush Fenway Racing have similarly risen since Henry bought into the Nascar team in 2007. They won their first Daytona 500 in 2009, with Matt Kenseth crossing the line first.

Sports Business Journal reported that the deal took more than three years to put together – presumably longer than NESV’s bid for Liverpool took to prepare – but said that “once struck, the partnership quickly paid big dividends”.

A year after NESV bought Roush Fenway Racing for $60m, it was named Nascar’s most valuable team, with an estimated worth of $316m.

While Henry’s sporting investments have thus far proved to be successful, perhaps optimism should be tempered by the fortunes of his asset management company John W Henry Inc.

Goal.com reported that both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal wrote about financial difficulties in JWH Inc in 2007, adding: “In the previous December, Boston Magazine reported losses of $300m (£188m) for that month alone.”

“Currently, the investment firm is believed to handle $270m (£169m) worth of assets,” Goal.com added.

Optimism should perhaps be further tempered by the following statement on the website of John W Hall Inc: “An investment with JWH is speculative, volatile, involves a high degree of risk, and is designed only for sophisticated investors who are able to bear the loss of more than their entire investment.” the about JWH section states.

Fans will be hoping Henry doesn’t view his investment in Liverpool FC with the same cavalier attitude.

LiverpoolJohn W HenryBoston Red SoxUS sportAdam Gabbattguardian.co.uk

Anfield’s prospective owner understands baseball and its traditions – but will he get football?

“In every transaction you must attempt to lower your risk and increase your potential to succeed. Every deal, every decision at this level has risk. You cannot shield yourself from risk. You cannot win with a long-term, conservative tone.”

So said John Henry; not about the soya bean futures market, in which as a 25-year-old he successfully invested his family’s money, and not about the losing bet on various commodities which cost his investment company many millions five years ago, but about a baseball club he and his business partners bought in 2002 for $700m (about £480m at the time).

The club were the Boston Red Sox, and Henry’s words – unsentimental and detached, cold even – served only to heighten the suspicion that one of the most beloved “franchises” in all of American sport had fallen into the hands of a Wall Street vulture interested only in making a buck and making it fast.

Two years later, the suspicions were gone, washed away in the euphoria that greeted the Red Sox’s victory in the 2004 World Series – the club’s first since 1918. Since then, another World Series has been won and if this year’s failure to reach baseball’s play-offs has been a disappointment it has done little to diminish Henry’s popularity among the club’s vast fan base.

“There is a general acceptance that he [Henry] has been an extraordinarily successful owner of the Sox, not least because he has invested money – in player personnel and in the club’s structure – at a scale that has been untypical of most other owners,” says Professor Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College, Massachusetts, who has written extensively about the finances of baseball. “But that is the way he is; he believes that the best way to achieve success at a sports franchise is to put a winning team on the field.”

Zimbalist’s assessment of Liverpool’s putative owner and his financial methods might go down well on Merseyside but, even more encouraging, perhaps, will be news of his low-key personality. While

Today’s jive no longer wishes to be considered for international selection as it finds the role of No3,986,479 very frustrating

Golly. This is an unsettling time, readers. The Mill has always prided itself on being intimately familiar with its environment. The Mill understands it, readers, knows how it works and what its inhabitants are and are not capable of. Or so we thought. But this morning the Mill finds itself having to contemplate the possibility that Arsène Wenger moonlights as a freelance aquarium cleaner in Hertfordshire or spends his Sundays clad in a pink rubber leotard as he pursues a lifelong interest in funambulism. Yes, readers, nothing can be ruled out – not now that the Sun has revealed that Wenger is preparing to smash his transfer record and deeply-ingrained practice by splurging no less than £23m on a goalkeeper. And which goalkeeper? Only Pepe Reina of Liverpool!

It seems barely credible, readers, and if it were in any other organ than the good ol’ Sun the Mill would counsel you to dismiss it as pungent bilge. Speaking of which, the Daily Mirror is a little whiffy this morning, as it claims that the keeper for whom Wenger will fork out an unprecedented fortune is not Reina but Manchester City’s Shay Given. One thing on which all outlets agree, readers, is that Wenger’s spending is not going to end with a goalkeeper: he’s tracking another centre-back, too. Montpellier’s Emir Spahić knows this to be true.

Meanwhile at White Hart Lane, Harry Redknapp risks coming to blows with his former assistant, Tony Pulis. The pair are both trying to lure Nice striker Loïc Rémy, who has given a strong hint as to which he finds more attractive by admitting: “I visited [Stoke] with my agent but it must be said it’s not a club in keeping with what I wanted. They have a beautiful stadium all the same and the training facilities aren’t bad. Tottenham? I haven’t been there but it’s a good club with aspirations of getting even bigger. So they are obviously interesting.” Pulis will console himself over Rémy’s rejection by attempting to convince Sevilla’s Luís Fabiano, formerly a target of Spurs, to turn down Marseille and come to the beautiful Britannia instead. And if that doesn’t work, Pulis will swallow his pride and just ask Redknapp to give him Peter Crouch.

You’ve heard the one about James Milner going to Manchester, right?

Wrong! Because you thought he was heading to City, but the word on the street now is that it’s United who will nab him in the end. And when that sale goes through for a preposterous amount of money, Martin O’Neill will have a few million more ways to persuade Steven Pienaar to swap Everton for Aston Villa. Serie A side Palermo, meanwhile, want to prise Leon Osman away from Goodison Park.

Queens Park Rangers are to give the skills of their PR people a stringent examination by signing popular striker Marlon King.

Newcastle, meanwhile, are going to give their fans something to get topless and excited about by juicing up their team with a bit of flair: Kevin-Prince Boateng and Hatem Ben Arfa are both incoming.

Finally, Roy Hodgson is getting busy at Liverpool. Not only does he fancy bringing veteran Italian striker Alberto Gilardino to Anfield but he’s also plotting a bid for former Arsenal waif Alexander Hleb and is preparing to do battle with Avram Grant and Martin O’Neill for the services of well-known DJ Micah Richards.

Transfer windowArsenalLiverpoolManchester CityStoke CityPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk