Liverpool enjoyed a reasonably successful season last time out, finishing fourth in the Premier League and reaching the final of the Champions League, but many are already tipping them to perform even better this season after an impressive summer of spending.
Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Alisson have joined the Merseyside club at a total cost of upwards of £160m. A statement on intent if ever there was one. The days of the fabled transfer committee under Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers are now a distant memory and although the club finished second under Rodgers, they are now in a far better place with an infinitely better squad.
Clearly, Jurgen Klopp was a massive appointment for the Reds and his side have blown teams as good as Manchester City last season away with the German’s high-tempo gegenpressing style of play. However, there is one man who received a promotion at the club shortly after Klopp was appointed who has changed the whole fabric of the way business is conducted behind the scenes and has had just as big an effect on Liverpool than their current manager.
Michael Edwards’ title on Merseyside is sporting director and his ability to identify players to sign as well as getting the maximum amount in for unwanted players has helped Klopp develop the squad to finally have the strength in depth that it deserves.
Edwards began his career in football playing for Peterborough United while the club were in the Championship. After being released though, he undertook a degree in business management and informatics at the University of Sheffield, before taking a job as an analyst at Portsmouth.
It seems that many of the games’ big names have been keen to take Edwards on their journey with them. When Pompey boss Harry Redknapp moved to Tottenham, Edwards followed, and when Damian Comolli moved from North London to become director of football at Liverpool he brought Edwards along too.
Initially, he worked in analysis again at Liverpool, before being promoted twice to eventually become technical director in August 2015, where he was on that transfer committee that made too many errors of judgement to list.
His relationship with Brendan Rodgers was also set to be a rocky one, as the Northern Irishman objected to working with one technical director, preferring to think of the manager as the director who then worked with a team of people.
But Liverpool’s owners FSG had long wanted a director of football and with Klopp at the helm in 2016, Edwards was promoted to the new role, as the new boss was used to the system having had the same in place at Borussia Dortmund.
Since then, Edwards has personally taken over the ins and outs at Anfield and controls the way the scouting system works. And it clearly is working. Mohammed Salah was signed last summer for £34m and took the Premier League by storm, scoring an incredible 32 league goals in 36 appearances to secure the golden boot ahead of Harry Kane.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”280645″ player=”12034″ title=”Rafa’s Pub Facts Dodgy De Gea & Arsenal’s MiniRevolution”]
The way deals are done has also improved in the Edwards era. When former CEO Ian Ayre was in charge of player recruitment, negotiations were often very public and protracted, but recently deals such as Fabinho have been concluded and announced before there’s even been a murmur on Twitter.
It’s not just thanks to the incoming signings that Liverpool fans love him either, Edwards was able to secure £142m for Phillipe Coutinho when the whole world was aware that Barcelona wanted him and that he wanted the move. Just this season too he was able to offload keeper Danny Ward, who had made just three first team appearances in six years at the club for £12.5m.
Danny Ings also left on a loan deal to Southampton this summer, but that deal has an option to buy the man who has spent almost two years out with knee ligament damage for £18m plus £2m in add ons.
Things have clearly come a long way for Liverpool fans on the pitch in recent years but they should never forget the role that Edwards has played in transforming the whole club off the field.
His hard bargains when selling have allowed him to spend big on players that Klopp has identified such as Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk, leaving the Reds in a far better state than many could have imagined as Rodgers’ reign came crashing down.
[ad_pod ]
