Julian Ward’s decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season is a real ‘worry’ for the club according to Jamie Carragher and he believes the Merseysiders now have a ‘pivotal’ decision to make to protect the club’s future.
The 41-year-old replaced Michael Edwards as sporting director back in July and after overseeing the arrival of Darwin Nunez to Merseyside as well as the departure of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich, he’s decided that he won’t continue in the role after the current campaign.
The former Reds defender has now reacted to the surprising news and believes the Anfield outfit will want to line up a replacement quickly.
“It feels like a shock and it is a worry for Liverpool right now,” the pundit told Sky Sports (via Rousing The Kop). “There seems to be a lot of upheaval behind the scenes in terms of the ownership, Michael Edwards has moved on, Julian Ward came in to replace him and now he’s gone as well.
“I don’t think it’ll be easy to get someone straight away and if it is unexpected for Liverpool, they’re not prepared for that right now.
“In terms of having a sporting director at a club, I think there’s a huge recruitment team, so I don’t think it’s just one man. Julian Ward will have been the head of a team, so there’s a lot of people in the background doing a great job, speaking to players, speaking to agents, speaking to the manager.
“But it does need that figurehead at the top of the organisation. I think they’ll want to do that as quickly as possible. But it’s important to get the right man, not to get someone in and rush a decision that is vitally important and pivotal to the future of Liverpool Football Club.”
It certainly feels like the next few months are going to be a period of transition for the club.
Current owners FSG recently released a statement that suggested they’re willing to listen to investment offers (or a full sale potentially) while Ian Graham, the director of research at Liverpool, is also set to follow Ward in leaving at the end of the current campaign.
The next two transfer windows are expected to be busy ones for the FA Cup champions with the signing of a new midfielder believed to be a priority.
Promoting from within has usually been the procedure at Liverpool but reports are suggesting that the club are not ruling out candidates from the outside for the sporting director role.
Our performances on the pitch have been remarkable in recent seasons and Jurgen Klopp has brought the glory days back to Anfield, but it does certainly feel like a rather uncertain period for the club.
When Ward does depart, it’s expected that the German tactician will have a greater say on the transfer front and it will be interesting to see how active we are during the next few transfer windows.
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