The Liverpool issues waiting for Michael Edwards after timely return

The secrets of Liverpool’s success used to reside in the mystical, mythical power of the Boot Room. But times change. Their 21st-century golden age was planned by the man once described and dismissed – when it felt a modern, pejorative term – as a “laptop guru”. If Jurgen Klopp was the charismatic face of a renaissance, Michael Edwards could pass unnoticed for much of that time. At a point when Liverpool will lose their owners’ perfect manager, they will be reunited with their perfect sporting director, albeit in a bigger role as CEO of Fenway Sports Group football.

Rewind to 2021, when Edwards announced his departure and, in a comment that has itself stood the test of time, FSG president Mike Gordon said: “Michael’s contribution and achievements will stand the test of time.” That feels undeniable: Edwards seems to have spent the past two-and-a-half years, when not setting up his own company Ludonautics, rebuffing offers from many of the game’s biggest and most ambitious clubs. Including not just Manchester United and Chelsea but, initially, Liverpool themselves, when they first invited Edwards back. FSG’s subsequent proposal, hammered out in Boston last week, was to give Edwards the keys to the castle; perhaps two castles, as it could entail running a second club if they add one to their portfolio.

Yet while Richard Hughes is likely to take up Edwards’ old position as sporting director, FSG have secured their preferred candidate for one of the two most pivotal positions in the post-Klopp rebuild. The other, of course, is the German’s and if the assumption is that Xabi Alonso represents the top target and the next sporting director will be officially charged with identifying and hiring Klopp’s replacement, Edwards’ influence will be vital. As he helped determine in 2015 that Klopp was a better candidate for Liverpool than Carlo Ancelotti, he knows that the profile of the manager matters more than their medal collection.

And while Klopp spent the last few weeks insisting that Liverpool will not fall apart with his departure, Edwards’ appointment provides grounds for optimism. It offers a greater chance of continuity, and more hope that they have the right strategy. His presence should mean Liverpool will not stand or fall purely on the basis of the manager: perhaps Edwards would not have come back if Klopp remained and certainly the German had more power when Julian Ward came and went as sporting director, when his ally Jorg Schmadtke took a short-term role and when the German had a bigger power base than FSG would probably want to give any other coach.

For years, though, Klopp and Edwards felt their dream team. Klopp has been open enough to admit that when Liverpool wanted a winger in 2017, Edwards’ recruitment team advanced the case of Mohamed Salah when the manager’s initial preference was for Julian Brandt. Between 2016 and 2019, Liverpool had an absurdly high strike rate – Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Andy Robertson, Joel Matip and Fabinho were also stunning successes – and constructed a Champions League-winning team from the distinctly mid-table group Klopp had inherited.

It highlights several issues. The first is that, while Edwards will have wider responsibilities, his expertise in recruitment still forms the greatest part of his attraction. Yet a capacity to use data, to unearth players the rest of the elite were not targeting, to see how they can fit into a side requires a receptive manager. Go back a few years and, in part because of Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool’s “transfer committee” acquired an infamy they soon shed when they seemed the best-run superclub. Rewind to 2015 and Roberto Firmino was a club signing who was lost until the right manager was appointed.

The other aspect is that Edwards’ brilliance was not just apparent in incomings. Liverpool’s success was largely self-funded: at a time when rival clubs had billionaire backers or ownership from nation-states or, like Barcelona, threatened to bankrupt themselves with their bad business, Liverpool were the role models.

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His most famous sale was Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142m but Edwards also excelled in turning fringe players into profits that could pay for first-team signings. And if he was aided by his old friend Hughes, who took Dominic Solanke, Brad Smith and Jordon Ibe to Bournemouth, with decidedly mixed returns, Liverpool can look to some of the other fees he brought in – for Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Mamadou Sakho, Danny Ward and Joe Allen – and see where they were reinvested.

Part of Klopp’s legacy now will be a host of young players, some of whom could yield potential profits. If Edwards was the Prozone pioneer who showed he could use the numbers intelligently, part of the challenge for Liverpool’s future is determining if and how this group fit into any other manager’s blueprint and style of play.

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Under Klopp and Edwards, Liverpool tended to buy players on the up and take them to heights they had scarcely threatened to reach elsewhere. Under Edwards, they were also the kings of net spend: the numbers he mastered were not just the footballing statistics he fed into recruitment. And yet, for much of his time at Anfield, he did it with such a low profile that he almost felt like an apocryphal figure. Minus Klopp, there will be more of a focus on Edwards. But the chances are that FSG think there is no one better to oversee Liverpool’s new era.