Hughes named new Liverpool sporting director

Richard Hughes has been appointed as the new sporting director of Premier League side Liverpool and will start his new role at the end of this season.

Hughes, 44, spent a decade as Bournemouth’s technical director, before recently resigning from his role and is Michael Edwards’s first appointment since being named Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG) CEO of Football.

Hughes replaces Jorg Schmadtke, who took on the role last May, but only in a short-term basis before leaving after the January transfer window.

Edwards has had a long-standing desire to work with Hughes and they have a professional and personal relationship spanning over 20 years having previously worked together during Hughes’s playing career at Portsmouth, when Edwards was the south coast club’s head analyst under then manager Harry Redknapp.

Hughes arrives at Liverpool with a proven track record of signing young players – he brought the likes of Nathan Ake, Dominic Solanke, Callum Wilson, and Aaron Ramsdale to Bournemouth – while he also speaks three languages and has good contacts in both France and Italy, where he grew up.

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Intriguingly, Hughes knows the agent of reported Liverpool managerial target Xabi Alonso having brought another of his clients, Andoni Iraola, to the Vitality last summer.

He was also reportedly keen for Roberto De Zerbi – another man understood to be on the shortlist to replace Jurgen Klopp – to manage Bournemouth last summer.

It is understood when Julian Ward left his role as Liverpool’s sporting director last summer, Edwards was surprised Hughes was not one of the candidates to be interviewed by club owners FSG.

Hughes told the club’s website: “I am incredibly proud to be offered this opportunity. Liverpool FC is a unique club and I’m grateful to be given a chance to serve it in this capacity.

“People rightly talk about the rich history this organisation can boast, but it is the present and future which really excites me.

“Jurgen Klopp is leading an outstanding team and squad and alongside that the commitment to young players and their pathway to the first team is also outstanding.

“I am fully aware of the expectations and responsibilities that come with taking this position. It will be my job, working with Michael (Edwards) and leading the football operations team already in place, plus the wider staff at the AXA Training Centre, to make good decisions.

“That’s really what the job entails: you have to make the kind of good decisions which enhance the prospects of having a team that wins and excites the supporters. It is what Liverpool have done well for a very long time and the benefits are there for everyone to see.”

The Star