Snak

At man har tre af verdens allerbedste spillere på hver sin position til at have kontraktudløb om få måneder er ganske enkelt dårligt arbejde af klubben. Det kan (bør) der ikke være to meninger om, og der er også en god årsag til, at vi i nyere tid ikke har set det i andre topklubber.

Nogen vil forsvare den nuværende ledelse med, at vi ikke havde nogen langsigtet sportsdirektør fra sommeren 2022 til sidste sommer, og de har derfor ikke været problemet, men hvorfor i alverden endte en klub som Liverpool overhovedet i den situation? Gav man Klopp for meget indflydelse? Var det derfor, at den sportslige ledelse med Michael Edwards, Julian Ward og Ian Graham alle forlod klubben med 12 måneders mellemrum fra sommeren 2022 til sommeren 2023?

Noget tyder på, at der måske kunne være noget i de rygter, for det er nok ikke helt tilfældigt, at Michael Edwards og Julian Ward begge er tilbage, så snart Klopp har forladt klubben, og at førstnævnte kun ville tilbage til klubben, hvis han fik en større rolle med et større ansvar og mere indflydelse, og at han sammen med Richard Hughes har sørget for, at den nye mand i spidsen for Liverpools trup skulle være head coach og ikke manager.

Jeg vil mere end gerne se forlængelser med alle tre spillere, hvis det økonomisk giver mening, men jeg stoler også nok på vores nye (gamle) ledelse til, at jeg ved, de nok skal træffe den rigtige beslutning - jeg havde derimod panikket som fan, hvis vi stod i denne situation i sidste sæson med Klopp og Jörg Schmadtke i spidsen.

Nej Ian Graham har skudt ned, at Edwards og ham forlod klubben pga Klopp. Ward ved jeg ikke hvad årsagen var.

Ja okay, men selv hvis det skulle være sådan at de havde forladt klubben pga Klopp/ejerne, tænker jeg ikke, at han alligevel går ud og siger den slags. Vi finder nok ikke 100% ud af det.

Dengang var der en del tweets omkring hele situationen, hvor Neil Jones skrev:

As reported by Neil Jones - Director of Research Ian Graham is also likely about to resign

Klopp has taken a more hands on approach to the recruitment over the last 12 months and will be integral in the new recruitment process

Liverpool will be reconsidering their sporting model, Changes to structure + the sale made him quit per Neil Jones.

Per Jones - the internal belief amongst Liverpool officials is that the FSG model has reached its absolute limit.

Indirekte står der i hvert fald en del, alt efter hvordan man forstår det.. men det er nok også ligegyldigt nu to år senere, og konflikter samt interne magtkampe er der jo nok i alle storklubber på et eller andet tidspunkt.

Der ligger en del interviews med Graham på YouTube efter hans bog udkom her for ikke længe siden. Der skyder han ned det var pga Klopp. Edwards forlod klubben fordi han ikke ville sidde fast i en stilling i for mange år og han havde nok været i klubben længere end hvad han egentligt havde planlagt.

At man har tre af verdens allerbedste spillere på hver sin position til at have kontraktudløb om få måneder er ganske enkelt dårligt arbejde af klubben. Det kan (bør) der ikke være to meninger om.

Modsiger du alligevel ikke lidt dig selv her med ovenstående citat og dernæst nedenstående:

Jeg vil mere end gerne se forlængelser med alle tre spillere, hvis det økonomisk giver mening, men jeg stoler også nok på vores nye (gamle) ledelse til, at jeg ved, de nok skal træffe den rigtige beslutning.

Nej Ian Graham har skudt ned, at Edwards og ham forlod klubben pga Klopp. Ward ved jeg ikke hvad årsagen var.

Desværre et fortærsket narrativ, der sværter Klopp unødvendigt til. Det kommer dog aldrig til at dø.

Ward havde brug for en pause fra fodbold udtalte han dengang og takkede også nej til et tilbud fra Ajax for at dedikere sig familielivet, nøjagtig som Edwards tog et sabbatår, inden han startede en konsulentvirksomhed med Ian Graham og hvis jeg ikke husker forkert, nåede de vist også at ansætte Ward.

Modsiger du alligevel ikke lidt dig selv her med ovenstående citat og dernæst nedenstående:

Jeg vil mere end gerne se forlængelser med alle tre spillere, hvis det økonomisk giver mening, men jeg stoler også nok på vores nye (gamle) ledelse til, at jeg ved, de nok skal træffe den rigtige beslutning.

Det er måske mere en kritik af ejerne/deres rådgivere og den daværende ledelse i sidste sæson, end det er en kritik af den nuværende ledelse med Michael Edwards, Julian Ward og Richard Hughes.

De tre sidstnævnte kom ind til en umulig situation, hvor spillerne sad med alle kortene, og derfor er det heller ikke den nye sportslige ledelse, der skal kritiseres.

Som sagt, så tror jeg på, at Edwards, Ward og Hughes nok skal få os godt igennem, uanset om spillerne forlænger eller ikke, og jeg stoler på, at den nye ledelse sørger for en konkurrencedygtig trup til næste sæson.

Plejer ikke at læse Facebook og lign “nyheder” / “artikler”, men faldt over denne lille historie fra Anfield Insider:

"Richard Hughes: The Man Who Landed Arne Slot and is Shaping Liverpool’s Future"⤵️

Last spring, in his old, characterful mansion house in the centre of Zwolle, Arne Slot sat down with Richard Hughes. Daniel Levy had attempted the same mission the previous year but was unable to persuade Slot to leave Feyenoord.

A colleague believes Hughes “should be getting f***ing knighted” for what happened next. It was the Scotsman’s first major task as Liverpool’s sporting director, and he nailed it that afternoon in Slot’s family home. Two retired midfielders, multilingual, analytical, and from middle-class backgrounds, bonded over common ground, not least their addiction to the game.

“I had a very good relationship from the start with Richard, which is one of the reasons I loved to join the club,” Slot said on why he chose Liverpool.

In that meeting, his big question was “why me?” Glad you asked, Hughes replied, laying down a 60-page dossier Liverpool compiled on him. When Slot opined that one of his strengths was improving players, Hughes said “we agree” and directed him to the section packed with stats and personal testimonies which supported that view. Slot was blown away.

The previous summer, Hughes led another head coach hire. Then, as Bournemouth’s technical director, he made a bold proposal to the owner Bill Foley that he should replace Gary O’Neil with Andoni Iraola. O’Neil is Hughes’s friend but business is business. Iraola was simply further along in his career trajectory, and Hughes had the contacts and relationships in Spain to believe he could get him.

Any sane observer would conclude that someone able to sign the Premier League’s two hottest coaches, one after another, was quite good at their job. A glance at Liverpool’s league position and the riches in the Bournemouth squad Hughes assembled might strengthen that belief.

But there is madness in the football debate caused by a modern need for gratification through transfers. Hughes is called “useless” and “missing” by a section of Liverpool fans on social media for (in their minds) not doing enough of them. Forget results, forget Slot’s caviar football: where are our deals?

However, Michael Edwards, chief executive of football at Liverpool´s owners FSG, has a different view. He was considered one of the best sporting directors in the Premier League when he did Hughes´s job from 2016 to 2022, having joined in 2011. Edwards is known for his foresight in deals and believes appointing Hughes last March was a good decision. If Hughes were still at Bournemouth, big clubs would be fighting to hire him due to his project´s success.

Bournemouth was Liverpool’s main competitor when they signed Joe Gomez, Andrew Robertson, and Harvey Elliott. When Liverpool pursued Lloyd Kelly from Bristol City, Hughes managed to sign him first, which still causes some frustration.

David Brooks and Ryan Christie were other players Edwards considered before Bournemouth got ahead of them.

Before moving to Liverpool, Hughes almost secured an exceptional deal for Sadio Mané by taking advantage of Southampton’s doubts about the player.

The note states that Edwards realized he and Hughes often targeted the same players, such as Elliott.

Back when Virgil van Dijk was at Celtic, Hughes told Edwards to sign him. He was a sounding board when Edwards was plotting the recruitment of Mohamed Salah and Alisson from Roma. Raised in Italy (where his father Kevin worked in publishing) Hughes was a youth player at Atalanta, and later a Serie A pundit for BT Sport, and he was raving to Edwards about Roberto De Zerbi long before De Zerbi´s breakthrough job at Sassuolo.

De Zerbi had committed to joining Bournemouth, only for a delay with Foley´s takeover to allow Brighton the opportunity to hire him first.

Knowing all this, and remembering how Hughes stood out among their peers at Premier League sporting director meetings, Edwards could not understand why he was not prime target when Liverpool began headhunting a new sporting director last season. Candidates being interviewed, such as Paul Mitchell and Markus Krösche, would not fit the club and its culture nearly so well, Edwards believed. And so when FSG brought Edwards back last March, recruiting Hughes was his key decision.

A sparky and forthright character, Edwards acknowledges Hughes has soft skills superior to his own and when the pair - plus Will Spearman´s data department - agreed Slot was the outstanding candidate to replace Jürgen Klopp, Edwards saw Hughes as best equipped to sell Slot Liverpool´s project face-to-face.

Liverpool have a checklist of about 20 different elements they seek in a head coach. Interestingly in one category, player availability, another candidate - Ruben Amorim - rated best in Europe. But Slot still scored very highly there and topped nearly all the others, especially impressing in Liverpool´s model measuring over-performance and improvement of players.

Hughes needed no convincing about the latter. At Bournemouth, he got to know Slot´s work only too well, signing two talents Slot developed at Feyenoord Marcos Senesi and (via Leeds) Luis Sinisterra - and pursuing others such as Marcus Pedersen and Quilindschy Hartman. He ended up telling Bournemouth´s scouts to stop recommending Feyenoord players "because it´s the coach there who makes them look good".

Criticism of Hughes began after he was part of a two-man delegation who flew to San Sebastian in late July to try to sign Martín Zubimendi but returned empty handed, after Zubimendi decided he could not bring himself to put in the transfer request necessary to trigger a €60million buyout clause at his boyhood club, Real Sociedad.

It intensified when Liverpool signalled they would not be pursuing secondary targets. Hughes assessed the market and decided options such as Manuel Ugarte were not appropriate for Slot´s dynamic, ball-progressing, possession-based style and Liverpool already had a player with the very profile of the type of No6 Slot needed.

That was Ryan Gravenberch. He was late returning for pre-season so Slot needed a little time to work with him to be convinced - but very soon was. That ability to improve footballers has allowed Slot to nurture Gravenberch into arguably Europe´s best holding player, in the injury absence of Manchester City´s Rodri. "It was clear [improving players] was one of Arne´s superpowers so why would you stop him using it by just buying?" a source said, regarding Hughes´s measured approach to transfers at Liverpool.

They point to the deals Hughes has done. To meet Slot´s demand for six top attackers he signed the best Italian talent of his generation, Federico Chiesa, for a knockdown £10million. It was factored in that, after a couple of injury-hit seasons, Chiesa would arrive lacking fitness. The target was always for him to be properly ready by January, and against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday he played his first 90 minutes for Liverpool.

Kerkez is one Bournemouth player signed by Hughes who is now coveted by some of Europe´s biggest clubs.

Hughes also signed Giorgi Mamardashvili, assessed by Liverpool´s scouting and data to have been best young goalkeeper in the world over the previous 12 months. It was for the "mad" price of £25million - exploiting financial problems at Valencia, where Mamardashvili remained on loan for 2024-25. The Georgian represents good forward planning given Alisson, now 32, will soon enter the final two years of his contract.

At Liverpool´s AXA Training Centre, where his office on the first floor is next door to Slot´s, Hughes has reorganised departments and revamped staff, installing David Woodfine as assistant sporting director and recruiting Mark Burchill and Craig McKee as senior scouts. Both helped him assemble a Bournemouth squad stocked with talents, such as Antoine Semenyo and Milos Kerkez, coveted by big clubs.

And then there is sales, the underestimated part of a sporting director´s job. Bringing in €47million for Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho seems business almost Edwards-esque. Again, you look back to Hughes´s work at Bournemouth: "flipping" Tyrone Mings (signed for £8million, sold for £25million), Aaron Ramsdale (signed for £800,000, sold for £18.5million) and others.

Asked to describe himself Edwards might say, albeit with a smile, "ruthless". If you know him, you know friendship would be bottom of his reasons for making business decisions. It was not why Hughes was hired. But their close relationship might help Liverpool´s ownership and football department navigate, with a united front, the treacherous waters around Salah, Van Dijk and Trent Alexander- Arnold. That all three ended last season with only 12 months on their contracts was not a problem of Hughes and Edwards´s making. Like being "thrown a shit sandwich" is one well-placed view.

Liverpool want the trio to stay and Hughes is leading negotiations to try to make that happen but players have got to want to stay. Alexander-Arnold is considering interest from Real Madrid and the first time Salah clarified his desire to remain at Liverpool was on the pitch at Old Trafford, in a TV interview after Liverpool won there in September.

At Liverpool, where there is no state or oligarch funding, they know "you can´t spend the money twice" and as much as, for example, Salah, is valued, no player can be handed a contract that risks the club´s financial health and long-term stability. An example borne in mind is the mess Arsenal got into after handing mega-deals to Mesut Özil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Liverpool don´t envisage being active before the end of this window - only something completely out of the blue would change things. They believe in their squad, its quality, its depth, and see no sense in major changes until the futures of the big three are resolved.

However, their long-term work involves succession-planning for every position and if any of the trio leave, the list of options to replace them will be at the ready. But the view is that the surest way to retain stars is by creating football conditions that make them want to be there, and appointing the right head coach is the start.

The man who landed Slot has much to do but "useless?" His doings so far don´t suggest that.

Vi må se. Jeg tror nu nok sagtens de kan vinde resten

Jeg tror du skal ind og smide seriøse penge på en ACCA så! Odds må være latterligt høje på 14 sejre i streg, mon ikke du kan blive noget ala millionær hvis du bare smider 1000 på det? Og det kan jo SAGTENS ske.... Af sted med dig!

Vi skal selvfølgelig have forlænget med Van Dijk og Mo, men især førstnævnte føler jeg mig ret sikker på, at vi forlænger med. Det skal naturligvis maksimalt være på 2-årige kontrakter, når de er så gamle og samtidigt så løntunge, ellers må de også gerne hoppe afsted, hvis de forventer 3- eller 4-årige kontrakter.

Det er egentlig interessant, hvordan flere går op i pengene, når det handler om kontraktlængder for en, i høj grad, proven spiller, men så snart det drejer sig om en ny transfer, så skal pungen bare åbnes på fuld gab🤷🏼‍♂️