Joyce:
Michael Edwards would seek total control of football operations at Liverpool in order to consider coming back to Anfield less than two years after his departure.
Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, is set to make one final attempt to persuade their former sporting director to return to the club as part of the post-Jürgen Klopp era.
Edwards, who quit in 2022 after a decade at the club in order to take a break from football, has already turned down one approach from FSG since Klopp told them he was standing down at the end of the season.
There has been no sense that Edwards has been ready to return to football’s coalface, having rejected a number of approaches from other clubs including Chelsea.
Indeed, it would take something significant to turn the head of Edwards, who is a consultant in Ludonautics, the sports advisory business launched last year by Ian Graham, who was Liverpool’s director of research between 2012 and 2023.
FSG’s search for a permanent sporting director has been ongoing since Julian Ward, Edwards’ replacement, stood down in the summer of 2023, with Jörg Schmadtke only a stop-gap. Schmadtke left at the end of January.
There is a realisation at FSG that the profile of the sporting director they were looking for and what they now need has changed. Previously, they were seeking someone to facilitate the needs of Klopp, but now that he is leaving there is a demand for someone to take charge of the whole club during what will be a period of transition. FSG will hope that would appeal to Edwards.
Edwards was viewed by FSG as one of the architects of Liverpool’s renaissance under Klopp with his canny dealings in the transfer market — both in terms of signings and sales — crucial to success at home and abroad.
The fact that FSG, who are holding a partners summit this week in the United States, keep on returning to him also highlights they are unconvinced by other candidates.
It is unusual for FSG’s plans to leak at a time when they are trying to reshape Liverpool with the appointment of a sporting director and Klopp’s successor.
The Bayer Leverkusen head coach Xabi Alonso is the frontrunner although FSG are also likely to interview Rúben Amorim, the Sporting Lisbon coach.
In addition, no meaningful contract talks with players such as Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, who will all have one year remaining on their deals in the summer, are likely to take place until the appointment of a sporting director.
