With just over a week left in the transfer window, Richard Hughes has already demonstrated his enormous expertise as a sporting director at Liverpool, but there is still a significant concern.
At least a portion of Richard Hughes’ ambitious plan for Liverpool is beginning to take shape, if it hasn’t already become apparent during the transfer window. Between 2016 and 2022, Michael Edwards served as the team’s first sporting director. His reputation grew significantly as a result of his ability to secure large payments for players whose prospects were no longer at Anfield.
The Reds felt that talented young players like Brad Smith (£6 million), Rhian Brewster (£23 million), and Jordan Ibe (£15 million) might pursue their careers elsewhere.
Additionally, Edwards was successful in obtaining money from Crystal Palace for Christian Benteke and Mamadou Sakho, bringing in a total of £54 million.
The greatest achievement in this specific area for Edwards, though, is the £142 million he received from Barcelona in exchange for Philippe Coutinho, who relocated to Spain in January 2018 after many bids for the player were rejected the summer before.
With that amount, the team was able to sign two of Merseyside’s greatest signings of the twenty-first century, Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, who will go down as club legends when their time at Anfield ends. Edwards also displayed inspiration by including a clause that barred Barcelona from signing any Liverpool players for two years following the Coutinho transfer.
Under Hughes, who was earlier this year headhunted by Edwards to become the CEO of football at Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool are once again driving hard bargains for their wantaway players who are, at worst, marginal members of Arne Slot’s first team roster.
Among them was Fabio Carvalho, who Slot still considered disposable even after a great preseason campaign.
The Portugal Under-21 international felt that a No. 10 was his best position, so it was telling that he was used on the left side of the attack in the summer games against Manchester United, Arsenal, and Real Betis instead of the role he saw for himself. In the first of those games, in particular, Slot made up for a lack of a No. 9 by playing two attacking midfielders who were creative, neither of whom was Carvalho.
The move to Brentford for £22.5 million, with the possibility of that amount rising to £27.5 million, seemed to be the best deal for all three sides, and it was a significant markup for a team that only paid about £5 million for him two years prior and gave him as few as eight starts.
With his best years ahead of him, Brentford get an exciting and adaptable forward, while the Reds get a decent deal for a player who would have had difficulty playing if he had stayed.
Both the clubs and Carvalho, who has expressed his excitement about joining an ambitious and upwardly mobile team that is hoping to establish itself as a Premier League mainstay for the upcoming years, see it as the perfect situation.
Bobby Clark is set to join Red Bull Salzburg for £10 million, which is a respectable amount for such a young player. This summer, the club was hoping to add another midfield player to their roster, and that player was £51 million Martin Zubimendi.
Many teams were vying for Clark to leave Merseyside, but the deal was facilitated by Salzburg manager Pep Lijnders, a former assistant manager of the Reds, who had great faith in Clark’s skills and potential.
Liverpool, like Carvalho, has included a 17.5% sell-on provision in the agreement, so should both players end up being successful at their respective new teams, they might also profit monetarily in the future.
While not immediately advantageous, the concept of a sell-on option has the potential to increase funds in the future, much like Dominic Solanke’s summer transfer from Bournemouth to Tottenham Hotspur had.
Under Edwards’ direction as sporting director, Solanke, like Ibe and Smith, traded Liverpool for Bournemouth; the Reds received what appeared to be a substantial sum of almost £19 million five years prior.
Now a £55 million Tottenham striker, Liverpool has discreetly amassed more funds for their 2019 contract negotiations with the Cherries. Although Anfield sources are never willing to discuss such transactions, the sum is said to be in the region of £9 million.
Sepp van den Berg is expected to fetch £25 million from the Reds this summer, a big increase from the £20 million they were offered for the Dutch defender at the conclusion of his loan with Mainz last season. It has been reported that van den Berg must now decide between a move to Brentford or Bayer Leverkusen.
This summer, Liverpool has received a lot of enquiries regarding Van den Berg. Last month, they turned down an offer from Eredivisie winners PSV Eindhoven that was reportedly in the neighbourhood of £10 million. Even if the player thought he was being priced out of a move, they have consistently maintained by their assessment of Van den Berg throughout the process.
After four senior appearances and five years after the Reds paid roughly £1.3 million for him, Van den Berg’s sale will be a huge success for the model. Taken together, the departures of Carvalho, Clark, and now the 22-year-old all make sense for a team that is committed to the self-sustainable strategy imposed by its owners, Fenway Sports Group.
Liverpool will make almost £65 million from player sales this summer if Van den Berg is sold for £25 million. In that regard, Hughes has proven to be a very skilled sports director in his brief tenure at the team.
But the second half of the transfer window plan is still unfulfilled, as the Reds remain the only Premier League team without a new addition this summer. This is true despite talks about Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United, interest in Leny Yoro from Manchester United, and an unsuccessful attempt to sign Zubimendi from Real Sociedad.
Furthermore, although individuals within won’t be compelled to act by outside noise or criticism, whether justified or not, the longer the apparent immobility persists, the more attention will be paid to the dearth of new hires.
Some of those worries have been allayed by a strong roster that includes a number of players who are totally healthy.
However, there will be issues raised given the optics of finishing the window with a far larger bank balance and a poorer team.
