Henry admits Fergie is a genius

Published Oct. 14, 2011 9:15 a.m. ET

foxsports

The two sides go head-to-head at Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime with Henry admitting it could take the Reds years to catch their rivals. Under Ferguson, United have won the league 12 times since Liverpool's last success and have now overtaken the Merseysiders' haul of 18 championships - something Henry is keen to redress. "We are still a long way behind them," said the American. "They were well set up going into this year and were then able to insert great, young players. "Mr Ferguson is a genius." Henry also revealed, in an interview with The Guardian, that he was unsure whether current Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was the right man for the job as he favoured a younger long-term successor to Roy Hodgson. "Kenny is certainly charismatic and beloved by the fans," Henry said. "I wasn't convinced when we arrived that Kenny should be back managing and I wanted things to work with the manager we inherited. But the fans knew much more than I did. It took me a while to get up to speed. "Then Ian Ayre was a catalyst. Damien (Comolli) was a gamble. Kenny was a gamble. But they were both calculated gambles. "They both have the advantage of being passionate about their work and are both very clever. We didn't feel we had a lot of time to wait, and we hope things turned around." Henry also admitted that both Liverpool and his other main sporting interest, the Boston Red Sox, may have paid too much for a few of their players. "There was a lot of criticism in Boston that we weren't going to spend money on the Red Sox after we did the Liverpool transaction," Henry said. "Then there was the fear we wouldn't spend in Liverpool. Hopefully the fans of both clubs will eventually see what we see clearly - that there is nothing to fear from the existence of the other club... "Choosing players in any sport is an imperfect science. We certainly have been guilty of overspending on some players and that can be tied to an analytical approach that hasn't worked well enough."