The transatlantic SOS call that spawned Liverpool's new 'Fab Four'

The line to John W Henry was a little shaky to be delivering the once-in-a-lifetime sales pitch. Henry had the phone on speaker mode, distorting the sound, and he was watching Boston Red Sox at the Blue Jays in Toronto.

The background din of a baseball contest made it hard for Joe Januszewski, sat in his front room in Boston and giving his three-month-old son his milk bottle, to focus on the job in hand.

An executive at the Red Sox, Januszewski was known as the ‘soccer guy’ in the office, the eccentric football nut who would fly out over weekends just to watch his failing English club, Liverpool. That night he was home attending to paternal duties when he noticed a missed call from Larry…