Why Liverpool’s Next Sporting Director Is Probably Already At The Club

Richard Hughes is on his way out of Anfield, and Liverpool are already working out who comes next. The sporting director is set to take up a senior post at Al-Hilal, a move that has been talked about for months and finally looks done. There is no great twist to uncover here, just a club that now has to fill one of its most important boardroom seats for the second time in three years.

A Revolving Door At The Top

That is the real story underneath this one. Liverpool have not kept a sporting director in place for long this decade. Michael Edwards moved on in 2022. Julian Ward picked up the role and left again by 2023. Jorg Schmadtke had a short spell that ended in 2024. Now Hughes is off after roughly two years in the job. Four changes at the top of recruitment in four years is not stability, whatever way the club wants to frame it. That matters because sporting directors set the direction for transfer business, and constant turnover at that level makes it harder to plan five years ahead rather than five months.

What Hughes Actually Leaves Behind

Judging Hughes fairly means looking at the numbers. Liverpool have spent close to £700m across two transfer windows under his watch, with fees above £100m each for Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola. Those are the kind of deals that define a regime, for better or worse. He also got contract extensions done for Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, which is not a small achievement given how those situations can drag on.

The messier chapter is Mohamed Salah, who eventually left Liverpool by mutual consent this summer after months of speculation over his future. Put the whole picture together and Hughes’ time in the job looks like a mixed bag rather than a clean success or failure. Big deals landed, big names re-signed, but obvious gaps at right-back and in defensive midfield were still sitting there when the transfer window shut. Supporters are entitled to ask why.

Internal Names Lead The Race

According to Gregg Evans of The Athletic, Liverpool’s first instinct is to promote from within rather than go hunting externally, though the club is not shutting the door on an outside appointment altogether. Three names are said to be under consideration. Julian Ward, now FSG’s technical director after his earlier stint as sporting director, is one option who already knows how the ownership group operates. David Woodfine, currently assistant sporting director, is another with day to day knowledge of the department. Pedro Marques, FSG’s director of football development, rounds out the shortlist.

Going internal would be the low drama option, and right now that is probably what this club needs most. A fresh face from outside would mean another adjustment period, another set of relationships to build with the manager and recruitment staff, and another few months of uncertainty. None of the three internal candidates would need that runway.

Our View

From where we sit, the timing is what makes this uncomfortable rather than the departure itself. Liverpool already changed manager once this year, with Andoni Iraola now settled into the role, and now the structure above him shifts too. That is a lot of change to absorb in one calendar year, even if Hughes leaving has felt inevitable for weeks.

Fans will split on how his tenure is remembered, and fairly so. Wirtz, Isak and Barcola are the kind of signings that can define an era if they deliver, and the contract business he pushed through protected the spine of the squad. Set against that, the holes left at right-back and in midfield cost points, and no amount of glamour in attack fully cancels that out.

Promoting from within feels like the sensible route, and Ward, Woodfine or Marques would each offer continuity that this club badly needs after another summer of upheaval. What Liverpool cannot afford is a repeat of the last four years, another appointment that lasts twelve months before the search starts all over again. FSG need to get this one right and then leave it alone.