Chelsea are trying very hard to get Edwards from what I’ve heard.
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Wouldn’t he have some kind of non-compete clause that means he couldn’t go straight to a direct rival without a window of time passing? You’d have thought that kind of thing was pretty standard for people in these types of roles on the non-playing/coaching side?
I’d be very disappointed with him if he did go to a direct rival but it would take him time to surround himself with a team as extensive as ours and get those systems in place. The other factor is how much everyone else buys into it. It worked so well for us because the owners, the manager, the coaches, the scouts all aligned with this approach and put faith in the analysis. They’ve built a pretty similar team over at Barcelona but no one listens to them and that’s why they’ve ended up in such a mess.
He had a great environment here, the question is would he get that elsewhere? Also, we should probably make sure we’ve changed the passwords to all our online systems and tools, don’t want to learn that lesson the hard way like City did 
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Yes, but he’s spent a lot of his notice period on garden leave which has eaten into most of his non-compete period.
Afaik, the biggest obstacle to going to Chelsea is that he’s already committed elsewhere (I don’t know where) and Chelsea would need to buy him out of that.
I don’t expect him to work for a club in his next move but don’t have any information on that, it’s just my feeling.
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100% agree (and hope so!) Rab. Key point for me:
Klopp is highly unusual in that he is an elite manager that is prepared to do this right from the outset as he has always been about working with players to build a team rather than just having a shopping list ala Pep. If this is the system Chelsea implement then many managers with decent track records - Conte for eg - just won’t be interested and they may have to go with someone without much of a track record. As Rab says, it’s going to be hard to replicate what we have here.
I’d also add that as a consortium looking to make a return the Chelsea group will be further hamstrung (cf to FSG) by the much higher price and current relative success of the team. They have more at risk by making changes and have to move further toward the top of the ladder to make any return. All told it seems far from a laydown misere that they will be in any way successful.
Very interesting.
I would be surprised if clubs like Chelsea would not be interested in him after the achievements with us. But I would be surprised if he sees Chelsea’s challenge as any better than ours. I still think he will either move to another country or actually I think he would move totally out of football.
I wonder if the FA could use his skillset to support the national team.
Chelsea in talks with Edwards according to the Times:
Michael noooooo
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Why didn’t we have a non compete clause where he couldn’t work for a competitor for say 3 years? That really surprises me. Hope we ensure all staff get something similar now, can’t count on just their word. Sure we’d have to keep paying him but doubt that would be more than a couple of mil and would ensure that he wouldn’t be able to offer any current Liverpool insight to another club. Disappointing all round.
Edit:. I know this can be done in Australia, @Kopstar (or others with knowledge) is their some Trade Practices type restriction upon this in the UK?
ive heard of that when you buy someone out of a business, but how can you do that with an existing employee? surely that wouldnt sit right with workplace law?
regardless, maybe we didnt think it was worth it even if we could, more like he was a cog in the machine than the machine itsel.
maybe we do offer loyalty bonus’ after employment type thing, but i cant imagine itd be worth it, if we aid him what he could get at a rival to ‘not go there’ he might as well keep actively working for us.
Fairly common for C suite execs and usually defined based upon ‘competitors in industry’. Perhaps the argument could be made that this sort of football skillset is not transferable and so would be too much a restraint on trade. However I would have thought this could be mitigated by restricting the gardening leave to the PL and perhaps reducing down the period to 2 years.
Or perhaps the ‘loner with a laptop’ really is just that and he won’t leave with anything damaging and his (apparently stellar skills) are less rare than touted.
Or maybe Chelsea aren’t seen as competitors?
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Edwards would have post termination restrictive covenants preventing him from working for a domestic competitor for at least 6 months after the end of his employment with Liverpool. However, any time spent on garden leave normally counts towards that period.
Anyway, I’m very sceptical of this story. No doubt Chelsea would want him, just not sure Edwards wants it. They’d probably have to make him the highest paid Sporting Director in world football.
Thought so. Just surprised it would only be 6 months
It would probably be 12, but I don’t know for certain.
Or given him an even bigger job. Chelsea have a massive operational void at the club and you could see him being interested in a Granovskaia type role rather than focusing simply on the squad building aspect.
Interestingly, Henry has been through this before. Their first world series with the Red Sox was won with an Edwards like figure playing a similar role as he plays for us. He eventually left to take a bigger role (upgraded from General Manager, to President of Baseball Operations) with the Cubs. In the eyes of the fans he just switched clubs, but it was a move that allowed him to sit higher up the org chart and oversaw an actual GM that he installed.
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Basically become Mike Gordon over there… You could see why it would be attractive… But Chelsea? Fuck me, such a plastic club. Their transfer dealings this window does scream for someone with some sense though.