Preparing for Jurgen Klopp’s exit at the end of the season seems something of an impossible task.
How does one go about replacing a figurehead who has rightly earned comparisons to another legendary figure in Bill Shankly?
Neil Jones’ conversations with one Liverpool contact suggest that limiting the degree of adjustment is one solution. Step forward former sporting director Michael Edwards.
“I spoke to a few people at the club last week and they were in agreement that there was the propensity for so much change to mean that a) you need a lot of time to readjust to new ways, people and processes, but also b) the possibility that some of those changes just don’t work and they’re not the right people or fit,” the Covering Liverpool reporter wrote in his EOTK Insider column.
“I think with Michael Edwards at the helm, FSG have got someone they know they can trust. They know they can trust his judgement, his processes and his contacts.
“When Edwards says Richard Hughes is the best sporting director for the job – there’s also the story that emerged about Pedro Marques – when he says these are the guys Liverpool need, they can trust that. I think that’s important.
“The next step will be to trust his judgement and contacts with regards to a new manager. I think it makes it a lot easier to do it than having Mike Gordon take care of the task or having a new sporting director or new head of football coming from outside and having to learn the ropes of English football. I think it’s a lot easier to trust Liverpool’s position now with Michael Edwards at the helm.“
The ex-Portsmouth employee has returned to FSG, with Bournemouth’s Richard Hughes expected to follow suit shortly.
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Mitigating change
There are very few guarantees on offer in football, regardless of when it comes to players, managers or those operating behind the scenes.
Edwards, it has to be said, is the closest thing we can get to a guarantee that all will be well even after Klopp’s departure.
It promises some much-needed stability; a familiar face, not to mention familiar processes, at a time when many will have questions over what the future will look like without our affable German on the bench.
Likewise, if Hughes is deemed the right man for his old job at Liverpool, we’re 100% on board.