Michael Edwards Is Back! Liverpool in the Best Hands, To Move Forwards

In more senior role, Edwards can positively shape the next few years

I was fortunate enough to get to know Michael Edwards a little during his first decade at Liverpool, most of which he spent as the Director of Football after an early promotion.

He’d done ten years in a high-pressured environment, and needed a break. I never saw him returning to Liverpool, but the day the news broke of Jürgen Klopp standing down, one of the first things I wrote on this site was that I expected FSG to immediately contact Edwards, if they hadn’t already.

It became clear that he didn’t want the old role, for any club, with Chelsea and others trying.

But in losing Klopp, as well as Julian Ward and Ian Graham, the club can now look to focus on the original approach that – as happens when the best manager in the world proves yet again that he’s the best manager in the world – got diluted as the say of the manager and his loyal lieutenants increases, and you no longer ‘need’ the old model DOF.

Edwards’ respect for Klopp, to the very end, was unwavering. But the job had changed, and ten years is a long time in any position in football.

Back in October 2015, I heard from both Edwards and Mike Gordon independently, to tell me about how Klopp was even better than they expected. Even at the end, Edwards was still full of praise for Klopp, and was understanding of the way a manager that successful naturally gains more control.

But as things stood in 2024, institutional knowledge was disappearing; the recent ‘Liverpool way’ in danger of slipping, and might not be continued by some random but talented Italian or French DOF linked, who would know so little about the club and maybe even the league. That’s less of an issue if everything else is constant.

As soon as Edwards’ protégé Richard Hughes announced he would be leaving Bournemouth, I started to sense something might be happening; immediately noting it in a comment on this site.

Hughes on his own wouldn’t fill me with optimism, in that while talented, intelligent, football savvy and multilingual, he would lack big club experience and be coming into a totally different environment, where he knew no one. Working for Edwards, with whom he has an excellent relationship, would help solve that issue.

A major concern I had back in January was the ‘brain drain’ at Anfield, with Edwards, Ward and Graham gone, and Klopp and his staff going too, along with his part-time DOF Jörg Schmadtke (who, in fairness, played a blinder, either side of the chaos of the midfielders who ended up at Chelsea).

That basically left the super-smart Will Spearman, and the superb recruitment staff, and Alex Inglethorpe at the Academy, plus a few lesser-known backroom staff.

But no DOF, no manager, no coaching staff.

However, Edwards overseeing Hughes (or anyone similar) would bring back all the institutional knowledge; especially as he only left in 2022, so it’s not like he has to learn about all the players, or get to know Inglethorpe, or Dave Fallows (head of recruitment) and Barry Hunter (chief scout), with whom he seemed to be on the same page.

All those relationships already exist, and Edwards hasn’t been away from football; just away from the coalface.

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