HITC understands that Michael Edwards has finalised his agreement to return to Liverpool that will see him takeover football operations at Anfield.
Sources also confirm that Michael Edwards already has his first senior appointment in place with Bournemouth’s technical director Richard Hughes arriving as sporting director.
The deal for Edwards ends a long chase for Liverpool who approached him last summer to return to the club, but he turned them down to concentrate on his role as an advisor for Ludonautics – a statistical analytics based company – founded by Ian Graham, himself a former Anfield employee, where he was director of research.
Michael Edwards return
Edwards originally left Liverpool in 2022 and was replaced by his assistant Julian Ward, but he last less than a year which saw the club draft in Jorg Schmadtke to work with Jurgen Klopp last summer – although was only ever a temporary solution, despite the fact he oversaw a difficult window for the club.
The club’s owners FSG, through their president Mike Gordon, had been assessing their options but they kept on coming back to Edwards.
HITC revealed in January that they made a renewed attempt for Edwards, in the same week that Jurgen Klopp announced his would be leaving in the summer. This accelerated FSG’s needs to bring stability back to the top of the club.
Despite Edwards initial rejections at the start of the year, FSG and Gordon believed that he was open to the idea and after continuing talks, confidence grew and agreement has now been finalised.
Edwards will be part of FSG and will be given full control over the entire footballing operation at Anfield – although given he is responsible for much of the structure, there will be no need for any sort of overhaul.
Key appointments
Edwards, though, will be making some key appointments in the coming months – a sporting director and a new head coach. The identity of the sporting director is already known with Richard Hughes already set to take up his place alongside Edwards.
HITC understands that Hughes has an agreement with Edwards to come in and his appointment will soon be confirmed.
The head coach identity will not be confirmed as quickly, but HITC is told that Edwards is in full agreement with FSG that the best fit for the club is Xabi Alonso.
Sources confirm that Edwards and Hughes do have other options in mind, should they be required – including Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi and Germany’s Julian Nagelsmann – but their is confidence at Liverpool that Edwards will get his man.
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