Liverpool to appoint sporting director who's wowed Jurgen Klopp - but he's bought some duds
Liverpool are expected to appoint technical director Julian Ward as their new sporting director following the departure of Richard Hughes.
The 45-year-old will succeed the former Bournemouth technical director, who has joined Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League.
Hughes had become unpopular at Anfield, making several unsuccessful signings during his time in charge and leaving many issues for the next director to take care of.
Ward has been involved at Liverpool since 2012, originally arriving as a scout from Manchester City before he was named technical director in 2020.
The Reds also reportedly spoke to external candidates, including Dougie Freedman and Brentford technical director Lee Dykes.
But Ward was always likely to get the job, having served as Liverpool's sporting director between 2022 and 2023 before the arrival of Jorg Schmadtke.
Julian Ward's red flags
Ward enjoyed one full summer as Liverpool sporting director, and it was one that can be looked back on several ways.
One way is to look at the signing of Cody Gakpo. The Reds spent around £37million to bring in the winger, and could have sold him for £80m this summer.
The Netherlands international has not always been at his best for Liverpool, but he has scored plenty of big goals and has started this season exceptionally well.
On the other end of the spectrum sit Darwin Nunez and Arthur Melo. The former cost up to £85m and arrived with huge expectations, but failed to meet many of them.
The Uruguay international did enjoy one superb season under Jurgen Klopp, but endured a Liverpool career littered with high-profile misses.
He was sold to Al Hilal last summer and has been subsequently loaned out to Al Diriyah.
The less said about Arthur, the better. Brought in on loan by Ward as midfield depth, he spent essentially the entire season injured or out of the squad, making a solitary appearance off the bench in the Champions League.
What Jurgen Klopp has said about 'absolute expert' Ward
Ward worked with Klopp throughout his time as Liverpool manager, and was involved in signing plenty of his key players.
Speaking in 2021, the German said: "I’ve known Jools for a long time. Jools is in the club longer than I am, so I met him on my first or second day probably.
"Since I’ve known him, he is an absolute expert in all the things around player scouting, transfers and all these kind of things.
"He worked very closely together with Michael Edwards in the past, so I don’t think there will be any kind of rusty things to overcome. It’s just a normal thing in life and business that people leave the position they were in for a few years and then somebody else has to take over.
"In this specific case, the person who takes over did parts of the job already in the past, that’s how it is when you get promoted to assistant sporting director to sporting director, so I think it will be a very smooth takeover."