What Michael Edwards is doing to ease Liverpool’s anxiety after Jurgen Klopp

For someone whose last act as a Liverpool employee was playing guitar in the front row of a Lighting Seeds set, it’s only fitting that Michael Edwards reunites the band.

Edwards publicly appointed himself as sporting director two years ago when he was present at the Liverpool supporters’ park in the Cour de Vincennes, Paris, just hours before the Champions League final at the Stade de France.

Had the Reds gone on to lift a seventh European Cup later that evening, it would have been the perfect send-off for such an integral wheel in the success enjoyed by Jurgen Klopp, his players and staff. It wasn’t meant to be, of course, but Edwards is now back in the saddle at Anfield, only this time with more responsibility and scope.

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His reshuffle at the top of the club continued apace on Friday with news that former sporting director Julian Ward is set to return alongside Benfica’s Pedro Marques in the respective roles of technical director and director of football development at new owner Fenway Sports Group . established.

Edwards, as FSG’s first ‘CEO of Football’ – a position tailor-made for him – has wasted little time putting the wheels in motion since being officially confirmed in March.

Richard Hughes will be appointed Ward’s first permanent sporting director when he officially arrives from Bournemouth on June 1 and will bring with him Mark Burchill, who will work alongside Liverpool’s chief scout Barry Hunter and their head of recruitment, Dave Fallows, two hugely influential figures behind the scenes.

David Woodfine will rejoin as Hughes’ assistant less than a year after leaving Anfield. The former head of loan routes will work with the new sporting director in a role that was originally created to help Ward develop at the end of 2020.

For those of the fanbase who know – or care – little about what these roles entail and how important they are to the organization of a modern elite football club, the best indicator may be the wealth of knowledge that Liverpool will now accumulate it in different parts of the world when it comes to recruiting and scouting.

Simply put, the Reds’ extensive network of contacts will be significantly strengthened by the appointment of each going forward, which could open up a number of new avenues at Anfield.

For Edwards, the opportunity to work with Hughes has always appealed since their paths crossed at Portsmouth 20 years ago, and the Bournemouth boss brings with him a rich contact book in Spanish and Italian football, which it will only increase Liverpool’s knowledge of those regions. .

It was Hughes who lured Andoni Iraola to Bournemouth last summer and the Scot is on good terms with the Cherries manager’s representative Inaki Martinez, who is also the agent of Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso. Hughes also wanted Roberto De Zerbi at Vitality to be thwarted by a delay in the change of ownership, which allowed Brighton to lose out.

Under Edwards, with Ward as his assistant, Liverpool’s relationship with the Red Bull stable has been a strong one and has helped the club attract the likes of Sadio Mane, Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konate and Takumi Minamino.

Indeed, Edwards’ discovery of a relatively modest £7m release clause allowed the Reds to land Japan international Minamino from Red Bull Salzburg at the end of 2019. Mane was already a Southampton player when he moved in 2016, but did a Salzburg background check. where the Senegalese star spent two years between 2012 and 2014, helped to intensify interest.

This working partnership also allowed Liverpool to complete the unusual deal at the end of August 2017 that brought Keita to Anfield the following year from RB Leipzig. Friendly terms have since continued with respective deals taking Fabio Carvalho on loan to Germany and Dominik Szoboszlai in the opposite direction for £60m.

Ward’s contacts in Portugal were also key when the Reds were moving for the likes of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez. After being primed for a soft launch into the sporting director post that was vacated by Edwards that summer, FSG’s new technical director took charge for the first time in the move for Diaz in January 2022 and was also vital to help achieve a new understanding. for Mohamed Salah he signed and sealed later that year, while also leading the deal for PSV Eindhoven’s Cody Gakpo.

Ward was integral to the signing of Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton & Hove Albion, helping seal a £35m deal early last summer, as his final act in the role before Jorg Schmadtke took over the reins on a temporary basis. It was said that the relationship with agent Juan Gemili allowed Liverpool to discover the release clause in Mac Allister’s contract, which had been signed around six months earlier.

Having spent two years with the Portuguese national organization before working as a South American scout strategist at Manchester City, Liverpool’s knowledge of both regions through Ward’s experience will now be enhanced by the addition of Marques to the FSG roster, who also served as a City Clerk before moving to Benfica.

Ward is good friends with Marques and contacted him ahead of the 2019 Champions League final to ask if a friendly could be arranged between Liverpool and Benfica B, who were asked to line up in the same way as Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham before that match in Madrid. Like the final itself at the Wanda Metropolitano, the Reds won 2-0 with Mane on the scoresheet in the warm-up in Marbella.

The Portuguese is seen as an influential operative in the technical department and will be tasked with tracking player development and analyzing performance, among other duties, as FSG look to further explore the multi-club model in the coming weeks and months.

And having once been unofficially nicknamed the ‘transfer committee’ – a phrase that was rarely complimentary before the success rate improved and the derogatory references fell silent – Liverpool’s apparently new recruitment department took, apparently, a new nickname online.

Affectionately described as the ‘nerd avengers’ in some corners of social media, the label might be a bit off-putting to a point, but there’s no doubt now that Edwards, as the ‘new’ Mike Gordon – or Nick Fury – of the operation . at Liverpool, they form a formidable team behind the scenes, post-Klopp.

And if there is an understandable fear from supporters at the thought of an Anfield world without Klopp, it is at least countered by the executive expertise arriving at the club from later this month.