Jorg Schmadtke has given his first interview in public since being announced as Liverpool’s new sporting director on Tuesday morning.
The 59-year-old was speaking with German media outlet SPORT1 later in the day, and he shared some insight into how the decision-making process will work regarding the club’s transfer activity.
He explained: “The influence of the coach on transfers is greater in England than in Germany, where a sports director or sports director holds everything in one hand.
“Jürgen Klopp sets the priorities. We set him up with a team of data analysts, scouts and so on, so he can then choose from a list of players who he wants to work with.
“Then I’ll deal with the transfers with the responsible departments in the club. And in the end, the owners have to be satisfied with the investments.”
As Schmadtke has said, and as was also highlighted by Raphael Honigstein for The Athletic, the job particulars of a sporting director differ between England and Germany.
While those in the Bundesliga have a significant public profile and hold the final say on all football affairs, their Premier League counterparts are much more inconspicuous and often defer to managers.
That’ll be the case with the 59-year-old and Klopp, with the man on the touchline calling the shots on the players he wants to bring in while those in the boardroom are guided by his wishes.
It’s a variance which’ll take some acclimatisation for Schmadtke, but that he’s aware of how things are done differently here would suggest that he’s happy to work with the manager rather than considering him to be beneath him, so the two should be able to forge a positive working relationship.
Liverpool fans will be hoping that the duo can hit off quickly in order to get a rapid start on what’s going to be a pivotal summer for the club as the Reds strive to banish the disappointment of 2022/23 and get back to competing for the biggest prizes in England and Europe.