Today Versus Tomorrow
Weighing up Richard Hughes.
So I thought about writing about the World Cup in this piece. That’s how dry the current landscape seems to be regarding Liverpool, the transfer market and the club scene as a whole.
But fear not. I won’t be stooping that low just yet. Your piece on Ingerlund will have to wait for another week. This post is on the suits. The guys who must deliver for Liverpool to stand any chance of improving next term. Even though they probably won’t be here.
So there’s lots of noise surrounding these guys right now. The optics look terrible. Before Richard Hughes started building a new house, Liverpool won the Premier League, and Arne Slot had arguably the deepest squad in England. Life was good.
But now, the landscape looks very different. Liverpool have an extremely light squad. They’ve just finished fifth in the Premier League, qualifying for the Champions League by the skin of their teeth. And Andoni Iraola — who hasn’t yet won anything of note as a coach — has just replaced Slot in the dugout.
Oh, and as for the cherry on top of the cake, news emerged last week that Hughes has a job waiting for him in Saudi Arabia. He’s essentially already got one foot out of the door. Won’t somebody think of the optics?
Now, I don’t want to get carried away here. I’m inclined to think Hughes knowing his next destination won’t have much of an impact on his current performance as Liverpool’s sporting director.
Just because he can’t technically be held accountable in six months, doesn’t mean he’ll go and spend his entire budget on Michael Keane for a laugh. He isn’t 14 years old. And it’s also worth noting that he’s part of a unit. A brain trust, if you want.
The guys upstairs almost seem to come as part of a package. Hughes, Michael Edwards, Julian Ward, David Woodfine. The suits. The so-called smartest men in the room.
I mean, right now, they don’t look it. Their decisions so far have made Liverpool worse, there’s no doubt about it. The difficulty from our end is not knowing all of the details behind the scenes. The ins and outs that often prove to be so important.
You establish such a hierarchy to optimise your decisions. The thinking is clear. A group of sensible people who aren’t emotionally involved at ground level. They’re removed from sentiment, they know the books, and they’re tasked with prioritising the medium-to-long term health of the club.
The manager is generally compromised, whether he realises it or not. He’s inclined to favour leaders who will take care of the dressing room for him. He isn’t an international scout, so tends to lean towards players who he knows, either from his nation or within the Premier League. And he wants to keep ageing players because of his personal bond with them.
Erik ten Hag bought Tyrell Malacia to play for Manchester United. Roy Hodgson signed Paul Konchesky for Liverpool because he was one of his lieutenants at Fulham. Harry Redknapp had tons of favourites, you know all of their names.
And the best managers fall for the exact same traps. Jürgen Klopp’s contract opinion on Jordan Henderson, his overestimation of what Darwin Núñez would become based largely on his two showings for Benfica against Liverpool, just months before his arrival.
I can absolutely understand Fenway Sports Group wanting to remove those pitfalls ahead of the post-Klopp era by installing a committee of detached androids who nobody ever hears from.
Liverpool are fuelled by data, sure. But there’s more to it. The numbers don’t do the work for you. They simply point you in a certain direction providing you know what you’re looking at. Indeed, I’d argue data is generally more helpful when it comes to determining what not to do.
I’ve attended a few football conferences over the years. Now, I can’t quite remember who said it, but I distinctly remember a pretty funny talk in which the speaker suggested that every Premier League club should pay him £1m per year to stand in the corner of recruitment meetings and say “don’t do that” whenever someone advised something stupid.
The weird thing about how Liverpool have moved over the past 12 months is they’ve conducted a lot of surgery. More than you’d expect, and probably more than any nerd would recommend.
The question is whether such turnover has been necessary. Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson were ageing. Trent Alexander-Arnold had made up his mind. Tyler Morton, Ben Doak and Caoimhín Kelleher were all fine, but never seemed destined to become starters at Anfield. Núñez fetched £50m.
You could argue Slot essentially broke Jarell Quansah. And letting Luis Díaz depart — while it looked reasonable at the time — is looking worse with every passing window upon inspection of the market.
Getting Alexander Isak out of Newcastle United was impressive. Landing Florian Wirtz ahead of Manchester City and Bayern Munich was equally cool. That sort of thing in particular is why it’s important to have a capable front office.
Snatching Víctor Muñoz from Newcastle, and Díaz ahead of Tottenham Hotspur just a few years ago. Tons of what it means to be a sporting director stems from getting things over the line. Stealing a march on your rivals. Being ahead of the curve.
But the recent Yan Diomandé news combined with Ibrahima Konaté leaving the negotiating table at the eleventh hour — and Denzel Dumfries joining Real Madrid — really doesn’t reflect well on Liverpool and what the suits are supposed to be good at.
Right now, I’m really not sure what direction we’re going in. I think Hughes will be replaced by Ward or Woodfine before Christmas, and Edwards will probably depart, too.
The latter returned to explore multi-club ownership for FSG, but they’ve since pulled the plug on that idea, which I’m not that bothered about considering there’s very little evidence out there to suggest multi-club models actually work.
There’s a lot going on here. This topic is deserving of a long read, the kind that I tend to avoid. But not yet. I know, it’s a boring stance. But it’s just really hard to judge these guys on the spot in the here and now.
We’ll know more about Hughes once he’s gone. When Rio Ngumoha develops into a worldie, maybe we’ll give him credit for keeping that pathway open. When the man on the street realises Jérémy Jacquet is boss. When Isak and Wirtz start to deliver as they promised. When Giovanni Leoni surpasses Fabio Cannavaro.
Your sporting director has to see the future. The art is striking the balance between winning today and tomorrow. Being aggressive in the market while avoiding traps and hypetrains at the same time.
The jury is still very much out on Hughes. Let’s see where we land in September.
Good piece, Josh. I suspect it was Ted Knutsen who said clubs should pay him £1m to say “don’t do that”. He’s used that line on his podcast.
The trouble is no matter how great the brains trust they can't just generate a market of players that will elevate Liverpool FC on the pitch - the right wing being a classic case in point. Yes we will have back up options to Diomende and losing out to PSG is fine. We're not going to be held hostage so with Konate walking we have a chance to have a look at what we've already got before deciding if the market actually brings us anything better. Same with RB, we're not really going to be interested in an ageing player with very little sell on.
Add in the distortion of the world cup and arrival of a new manager who will cast his eye over what we're have already got - with a reputation for developing players - and maybe the gaps decrease or priorities change.