Reds can do without stability being ROCKED

EASTERN INTEREST IN SPORTING DIRECTOR HUGHES WILL NOT BE WELCOMED

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Richard Hughes with Reds coach Arne Slot and (below) Michael Edwards, Jurgen Klopp and Mike Gordon

(PETER BYRNE)

ONE of the many things Fenway Sports Group was indebted to Jurgen Klopp for when he departed Liverpool was the timing of his revelation to Mike Gordon.

Klopp always got on famously with FSG president Gordon and when he reiterated his intention to walk away after a tongue-in-cheek offer to name his price to stay on was made, the decision afforded the Boston-based owners time and space.

Told to them in November of 2023 before the bombshell was made public in late January the following year, FSG had the opportunity to absorb the news before outlining a strategy that would see them move away from a golden period that had come to be defined by the legendary German.

Stepping out from under the silhouette of such an iconic figure was never going to be straightforward but by mid-March of 2024, the owners had rolled out the directives, with a return to the Fenway fold for former sporting directors Michael Edwards and Julian Ward before a new man to occupy that role was headhunted in Bournemouth’s Richard Hughes.