Richard Hughes has not come quietly through the door at Liverpool after his appointment in June as the new sporting director of the club that knew they would have to do without Champion Klopp after the 2023/24 season. Ruben Amorim stood as one of the top candidates for the “impossible” task of replacing Jürgen Klopp after Xabi Alonso declined. Hughes had a completely different plan. The plan that turned out to be brilliant. This became especially evident after Ruben Amorim was also brought to the Premier League by arch-rivals Manchester United.
We let Sky Sports tell the story of Hughes and the hiring of Arne Slot: “After Michael Edwards agreed to return to Liverpool under a new, expanded task as CEO of football at Fenway Sports Group [FSG] in March 2024, the very first thing he did was call Hughes, who at the time was on ‘gardening leave’ after deciding to quit as technical director at Bournemouth.”
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“The duo’s close relationship goes back about 20 years, when Hughes was a hard-working midfielder and captain of Harry Redknapp’s exciting Portsmouth team, and Edwards a performance analyst on the south coast. The two, both deep thinkers, formed an immediate bond around the analysis of the game. After reviewing the data given to him by the club’s research director, Will Spearman, Hughes knew there was only one candidate he wanted to talk to, and in April he flew to the Netherlands to meet Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot at his home in Zwolle.
“The Dutchman had scored high both in terms of improving players and keeping them fit, while, most importantly, unlike Amorim, he played the same formation and style of football as Klopp.”
“Slot has told how Hughes came to the first meeting armed with huge folders with detailed information about himself and his team, joking that the Scot knew things about him even though he didn’t. To the outside world, Slot’s appointment was seen as a risk given that he had relatively little Champions League experience and only won two major trophies in the Netherlands. However, Hughes supported his assessment, just as he did when he made the unpopular decision not to stick with his friend Gary O’Neil as Bournemouth manager in the summer of 2023, but to go with the relatively unknown Basque Andoni Iraola.”
Read on Radiosporten: New United goalkeeper has been given his role at Amorim – without this reassuring legend Gary Neville
It was not Ruben Amorim, with his principle of “doing it his way, no matter what”. Liverpool fans can thank sporting director Richard Hughes.
Now the same Hughes has manoeuvred Liverpool to sign both Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak in the same transfer window. This smells like a back-to-back title for Liverpool!
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