Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards will be departing the Anfield club in a huge blow to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Edwards will leave Anfield at the end of the season and he, along with Klopp of course, has been responsible for turning Liverpool into the winning machine they have become over the past five years.
Edwards spearheaded Liverpool’s transfer strategy and secured moves for Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil Van Dijk, Fabinho and many more that have delivered a Premier League title and a Champions League crown to Anfield.
He also excelled in selling as well as he was the man who got £120million from Barcelona for Phillipe Coutinho, £28million from Crystal Palace for Christian Benteke and £24million from Bournemouth for Dominic Solanke.
His contract in the north west was due to expire at the end of this season and after reports emerged that he was considering walking away, it has now been confirmed in an open letter by Edwards.
He said: “I had always planned to cap my time at the club to a maximum of 10 years. I’ve loved working here, but I am a big believer in change. I think it’s good for the individual and, in a work setting, good for the employer too.
“Over my time here we have changed so many things (hopefully for the better) but someone new brings a different perspective, new ideas and can hopefully build on (or change) the things that have been put in place beforehand.
“That’s how I believe businesses/football clubs stay ahead; you need to evolve and at the heart of this kind of process is always people. That evolution has always been central to Liverpool’s history and I hope that this is one thing that doesn’t change.”
There have been reports in the north east that Edwards could team up with new manager Eddie Howe at Newcastle as a director of football, the pair having worked together at Portsmouth in the early 2000s.
It’s a position that all of the elite clubs in England have at their disposal. It was Edwards at Liverpool, Txiki Bergiristain and Ferran Soriano at Man City while at Chelsea, there is Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech.
Make no bones about it, losing Edwards is a massive blow to Liverpool and to Klopp and he will leave big boots to fill for his successor, Julian Ward, at Anfield.
Are Liverpool at a disadvantage now in the transfer market without Edwards at the helm? Arguably, yes they are. The Reds are not backed by the wealth of say a Man City, a Paris St Germain or, for that matter, a Chelsea.
They had to work differently in the transfer market and that is where Edwards excelled, the perfect example being the £120million move to Barcelona for Coutinho that has been absolutely catastrophic for the Catalan side in terms of their finances.
Chelsea have shown signs of that shrewd Edwards-style of working in the past summer. Romelu Lukaku was signed for £97.5million from Inter Milan but the Blues offloaded Tammy Abraham (£40million), Marc Guehi (£25million), Fikayo Tomori (£25million), Tino Livramento (£5million) and a number of other academy graduates to effectively cover that cost.
The pandemic will have hit all finances of all clubs relatively hard. Chelsea’s accounts for 2020/21 won’t be released until early 2022 and only then will we really see how well the Blues coped with behind closed doors football.
Chelsea, Granovskaia and Cech won’t give much to the news either way of Edwards moving on from Liverpool though it will be of big interest to see where he ends up next.
Chelsea have their own, somewhat chaotic, way of doing things in west London but you cannot argue that it hasn’t delivered results in the Roman Abramovich era.
Is it a boost in the transfer market? Yes, because Liverpool have lost their incredibly smart and astute sporting director and the new man in charge has a long way to go to replicate his success. Will Chelsea be concerned? Probably not.