Liverpool face Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday, representing incredible progress since John Henry's Fenway Sports Group invested in the club.Originally on the brink of administration, Liverpool have been through seven and a half years of stop-start progress to finally reclaim their place among Europe's elite.They've hired three different managers and tried an awful lot of players in that time - no one has made more in players sales since they took over the club.Liverpool have generated a big profit in the players they've sold - by far the biggest criticism of the board - with two sales to Barcelona topping the pile.Luis Suarez's transfer to Barca in 2014 was a club record sale of £65 million, although that was shattered in January of this year when Philippe Coutinho moved for a potential £142 million.Both transfers had something in common beyond the fees and club, however, with both examples of players forcing through a move despite Liverpool not wanting to sell.Speaking to Associated Press ahead of the final, Henry was asked about the deals.“You don’t want to be in the position where players want to go somewhere else, even if it is a great club like Barcelona,” he said.But it was his next comments that really grabbed the focus of fans.“It’s hard to understand why players would want to go to a league where the competition is so weak," Henry said. "They must play 30 or so meaningless matches per year waiting for Champions League matches.”Not the smartest comments in the world, considering the status of La Liga as one of the absolute best leagues in the world, and with Spanish teams being so dominant on the continental stage - Suarez has lifted the Champions League trophy with Barca, after all.Needless to say, the words got people talking - some agreed, some didn't. Check out the reaction below:

This has certainly got people talking, and Henry did have some final comments for the two ex-Liverpool players.

“They’ll be watching this weekend and could have been playing,” he said.

“But Mike Gordon, Michael Edwards and everyone in our scouting department have done a terrific job in making the best of those two difficult situations.”