Near disaster: Richard Hughes stopped from causing Liverpool catastrophe

Near disaster: Richard Hughes stopped from causing Liverpool catastrophe Richard Hughes was prevented from causing a catastrophe at Liverpool. A near miss and we couldn't be more grateful. Richard Hughes is out as Liverpool sporting director. He joined the club in 2024 in the wake of Jurgen Klopp's exit, overseeing the Reds' direction ever since. He's been the one hiring and firing the coaches. He's decided who left, he's decided who arrived. And to say the jury is out on the work he's done would be putting it mildly. Liverpool are a lot less stable than they were in 2024. They're on their second head coach and have gone through repeated transitional seasons - though, they somehow won the league in one of those. Virtually all of the squad players and homegrown talent has been sold off. Liverpool used the money to sign three nine-figure players, despite having never signed any before that. £30 FREE JOIN NOW
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The result is a squad that's wildly imbalanced and up against the foreign player quota. There isn't much room for manoeuvring and the squad needs plenty of it before it fits together properly. And things could have been even worse. Hughes was prevented from another couple of deals at the deadline that would have undeniably left Liverpool in a worse position. He was willing to sell Cody Gakpo ahead of the deadline. Not just to anyone, either, but to Manchester City - a presumed title rival. The Reds would have received around £80m as a fee. But per the BBC , they wouldn't sign off on it because Isamaila Sarr wouldn't arrive from Crystal Palace. Now, just think about that for a minute there. Liverpool were ready to give a title rival what they wanted in order to sign a player who is not only older than Gakpo, but has never shown the same quality. The Reds have the better player here. Swapping one out for the other was a shocking idea and one that would have had repercussions beyond simply reducing the quality in the squad. This was, after all, one of the view transfers that Virgil van Dijk spoke out against . He openly said he wanted his teammate to stay. Thankfully, he got his wish and we've seen the benefits already. Gakpo has run the show for Liverpool, scoring one and assisting three of their six goals thus far. He's been the star man and the idea that he would have been off doing it at City while the Reds tried to integrate a player with a much weaker record is insane. Thankfully, Palace stopped Hughes from making it happen. What a send-off that would have been.