Doesn’t his team also do analytics on players already at the club?
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Fine. From now on whenever i’m making a joke, i’ll make sure I specifically mention it.
Klopp has always said he would take an extended break. I just hope the squad doesn’t go stale.
I would guess he has valid reasons for not signing. It looks like the club by giving him an assistant last year were preparing for his departure (if any of this true).
One thing that does surprise me - sporting directors with fixed term contracts…never heard that before.
What strikes me is the suggestion or narrative (on social media) that without Edwards nothing is achievable and FSG would be making a massive mistake. Reality of the situation is Edwards (the computer nerd that was doing analytics) was brought in and has been promoted to this role by the club. Therefore FSG deserve the credit for putting the right man in the post in the first place.
The idea they will fail to find the right man is over critical of FSG in my opinion.
That said, when you have good people in posts you don’t want to lose them, as any change when things are good can be a change in the tide so the worries are understandable. Just need to trust FSG to put the right person in place.
Don’t know anything about Juliam Ward so can’t really give a view on his abilities, but if FSG put him in post hopefully he’s the right man and had learnt from Edwards over the last few years.
As for the stories themselves, feels like bullshit to me at this stage.
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Maybe this is Edwards’ way of negotiating his own contract. Threatening to leave via the media. Bit like Hendo.
Got to say I’m not too arsed about this. Klopp is the most important person at the club by a million miles and that even applies to recruitment. First he’s got a clear idea of the type of player he wants so the guy doing the buying has a very clear brief, second if the players that come in aren’t that great Klopp is the best manager in the world at getting an extra 10% out of them. Finally when it comes to transformational signings like VVD and Allison he is the crucial factor in getting those transfers across the line. I don’t doubt Edwards did a good job in negotiating but would they really have come to Liverpool if Klopp was not manager? I doubt it.
Edwards has done a really good job on sales. That’s an area that the manager plays less of a role in, but even then last two years we’ve started to get a bit greedy on valuations.
If he leaves then the guy replacing him has to be able to work with Klopp. Edwards obviously could work with him and that’s why it’s worked so well to date. As long as the replacement dovetails with the manager then this won’t be the disaster that some are already predicting. This is assuming of course that whoever replaces Edwards is going to be given some actual money to spend.
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Can’t remember who tweeted it last week but someone claimed that Edwards would be going to Real Madrid. I wonder if that led to Ornstein writing this?
I believe that this is partly true.
Yes, Edwards will be going to Real Madrid, but I believe it will only be a 2 day trip to finalise a deal for Mbappe when he realises in 12 months time how shite the club has become and wants to move to Anfield
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Double his wage FSG. Surely he stays then
After 10 years, a lot of people will want a new challenge. If Edwards were to really leave, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised and I also wouldn’t believe that it was due to compensation. The club tends to award performance quite lucratively (not crazily but quite well all the same) and unlike players there won’t be a decline in performance with age.
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Crap news this IMO. But like your building losing part of its foundation.
I hope we have a good succession plan in place. I’m far from convinced by what I’m hearing about Ward. Sounds a bit like that goal keeper coach we have to me.
Ready to be proven wrong though.
Actually Edwards is signing himself as the replacement for Gini just to please you guys.
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Is he going to sign sideways and backward?
Honestly, I don’t think it’s a case of Edwards leaves and takes his laptop with him and we start from nothing.
He’s come in, improved everything and if he leaves, does so with thanks and a stable and productive team left to continue what we’ve been doing.
"The football club will appreciate people that have been here and had a go for the club but it won’t dwell on the past.
"We’ll look forward and look upwards hopefully.
“There is no one anywhere in the world at any stage who is any bigger or any better than this football club,”
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Not sure, but I do know this is just a platform for him to go to PSG eventually.
Skills will be wasted with money abundance, serving the likes of Messi and Neymar.
Except the one silver lining I’ve been clinging onto with Klopp’s leaving date starting to loom large, was ‘well, at least we’ll still have Edwards’.
I’ll definitely be worrying if (but more likely when) we lose both within a couple of years of each other.
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Wonder if clubs will go in for Edward’s in a bid to try and lure Klopp in the future?
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Maybe Klopp brings in someone he’s worked with in the past. That’s our only hope.
I cannot imagine they promote Ward. That could be disastrous. I don’t at all pretend to be in the know, but like Kopstar has said, Ward is not a very impressive sort. I’ve heard he’s a yes man and ass kisser, but has the attention of the correct ear(s) internally.
if it is true that Ward is an arse kisser, would he not then have the attention of the correct rears, not ears?
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