Sky reporter shares Liverpool sporting director update as FSG consider raid on high-flying PL club
Liverpool could opt for a mixture of new and familiar faces when it comes to the appointment of their next sporting director, according to one Sky Sports reporter.
That crucial role at Anfield has been left vacant by Richard Hughes’ departure for Al-Hilal, with the Scot leaving after two eventful years in the job.
Earlier this month, The Athletic’s Gregg Evans claimed that FSG are ‘expected to look at internal candidates’ for the job, with the firm’s technical director Julian Ward, director of football development Pedro Marques and assistant sporting director David Woodfine all namechecked.
Liverpool could make multiple appointments
On Monday, Lyall Thomas reported for Sky Sports that Liverpool are continuing work behind the scenes on a sporting director appointment and are ‘seriously considering’ Ward for the role.
FSG are also ‘investigating whether to bring someone new in to work alongside him’, potentially in a co-sporting director or technical director capacity. To that effect, Anfield chiefs are discussing several prospective appointments, with the list of names reportedly including Brentford technical director Lee Dykes.
Thomas added that ‘serious conversations are currently ongoing at multiple levels’ as to who should be appointed for the role and whether or not to make more than one addition.
A Ward/Dykes combination at Liverpool would be compelling
Ward previously worked as sporting director between June 2022 and May 2023, with Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo among his standout signings. He also worked on the additions of Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz, the latter when working as assistant to Michael Edwards.
He would serve as a continuity appointment within the Liverpool framework, given his role as FSG technical director.
Potentially adding Dykes alongside him would be a compelling scenario, with the 42-year-old securing a number of astute signings for Brentford in his four years in his current job.
He has overseen the additions of Kevin Schade, Mikkel Damsgaard, Keane Lewis-Potter, Mark Flekken, Nathan Collins, Igor Thiago, Michael Kayode, Caoimhin Kelleher and Mamadou Sangare, with those deals amounting to just over £180m (Transfermarkt).
That’s only slightly more whan they recouped from the sales of David Raya, Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, with the Bees successfully replacing such big names to currently sit inside the top four of the Premier League table.
The prospect of Ward and Dykes working in tandem at Liverpool is an intriguing one, and we eagerly await to see what FSG decide when it comes to appointing Hughes’ successor (or maybe succesors?).
