Liverpool confirm Richard Hughes as new sporting director
A big move for the club.
Transcript
00:00 Well, let's start with Liverpool and big news coming out, obviously.
00:05 Richard Hughes joining as the Sports Director from Bournemouth.
00:09 What's the latest you can tell us?
00:10 And, you know, how is this sort of spiralled up to this point?
00:14 Because there's a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes in, you know,
00:17 the back room at Liverpool at the moment.
00:20 Yes, obviously Liverpool have brought Richard Hughes in now from Bournemouth and Liverpool need a little bit of stability in that back room
00:28 because Michael Edwards left and then Julian Ward spent a year in the role
00:32 and then Jörg Schmadker held the reins from the summer until January.
00:37 And obviously Michael Edwards coming back was a big shock
00:40 and it may be a position that the fans didn't expect.
00:43 So I have the obviously newer Sports Director will come back in
00:47 and I think FSG tried to get Michael Edwards back in his old role and it didn't really say to him.
00:54 He wanted something that he could get his teeth into a little bit more.
00:57 So they've given him this role as CEO of football for FSG,
01:01 which means helping expand their portfolio in football because they have been doing so much so in other sports.
01:09 And Richard Hughes comes in now with a good reputation at Bournemouth.
01:13 Signing the likes of Nathan Ake when he was there,
01:16 Calum Wilson and Lloyd Kelly among others.
01:20 And he's got a good reputation, Hughes.
01:22 It's interesting that he's worked with Michael Edwards.
01:25 He's known Michael Edwards for 20 years plus when Michael Edwards was part of the Pro Zones,
01:29 a port of when Portsmouth were close to the Premier League.
01:32 So quite clearly there's a rapport there.
01:37 And you know, Richard Hughes has got a good reputation in the game.
01:40 It seems that he's got a lot of contacts
01:43 and ultimately I think that's what has been so successful for Liverpool
01:49 and Michael Edwards in the past is having contacts and having agents really.
01:53 It's maybe not necessarily being able to spot a player,
01:56 for example, because there's so much technology now and so many ways to watch games that you don't really get players.
02:03 You think, wow, who is that or whatever, you know, maybe towards fan sites and like Guitaro Endo when he came in,
02:10 but usually scouts, recruitment teams know quite a majority of players,
02:17 but it's being able to get those deals and fares, for example,
02:19 when Liverpool got winds of Lewis Dias, who was going to be on the move to Tottenham
02:25 and Liverpool, because of the relationship, managed to move ahead there and get in.
02:31 So I think that would be Richard Hughes' challenge.
02:34 But obviously, you know, it lays a lot of fears that Yank Cloppe's leading the club now
02:38 and there's a good structure in place with Richard Hughes and with Michael Edwards
02:43 and now Liverpool can very much so start looking for who will be, who will replace Yank Cloppe.
02:49 I mean, Sheffield are obviously the front runner and I think Liverpool,
02:53 they have to be respectful, don't they, with any manager who's still in a job,
02:57 never mind a manager who's trying to guide the club for first Bundesliga title.
03:03 But I'm sure things will start to be ramped up now.