Liverpool left without a sporting director: Richard Hughes departs, Al-Hilal awaits him
Liverpool confirmed on 5 September 2026 that Richard Hughes had stepped down as sporting director after just over two years in one of the club's most important operational roles. According to reports by The Guardian and The Times, the 47-year-old Scot is expected to join Saudi club Al-Hilal, where he is set to take on a similar role. His departure does not come suddenly: according to The Guardian, Hughes informed Liverpool's owners at the beginning of 2026 that he wanted a new professional challenge, and an agreement was reached with the club for him to remain until the end of the summer transfer window. Anfield has therefore entered a new phase of reorganisation in its sporting department only a few months after Michael Edwards left the top of Fenway Sports Group's football operations. Liverpool must now begin the search for yet another sporting director, the fourth in a four-year period following a series of changes affecting the same position.
Hughes's departure comes after a summer in which Liverpool were once again among the most active clubs in the market. The Guardian states that the deal to sign Bradley Barcola was worth £123 million, while The Times estimates that the club spent a total of around £670 million on transfers during Hughes's tenure. Such figures increase the importance of the question of who will take over the club's sporting strategy and a squad that has undergone major personnel changes in a short period. Under Hughes, Liverpool won the English league title, but then endured a weaker season, changed their head coach and entered a new cycle under Andoni Iraola. Hughes is therefore leaving at a moment when his work can simultaneously be viewed through the prism of a trophy won, very large investments and an unfinished squad rebuild.
Hughes arrived at Liverpool as one of the key figures of the post-Klopp era
Liverpool announced Hughes's appointment in March 2024, and he officially took up the role on 1 June of the same year. He arrived from AFC Bournemouth, where he had worked as technical director for a decade and built a reputation as an operator with strong connections in the European market. His recruitment was one of Michael Edwards's first major decisions after taking over as chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group. Liverpool were entering an exceptionally sensitive period at the time because Jürgen Klopp was ending an almost nine-year tenure, meaning the sporting department had to ensure continuity while simultaneously preparing an entirely new decision-making structure.
Hughes was given broad responsibility for football operations at the club, including player recruitment, squad planning and cooperation with the coaching staff. When he arrived, Liverpool emphasised that one of his most important tasks would be to make decisions that would increase the first team's chances of winning trophies in the long term. His relationship with Edwards was particularly important in this regard because they had known each other since Portsmouth, where Hughes played while Edwards worked in the analytics department. It was precisely this combination of trust and previous experience that was intended to form the foundation of the new system following Klopp's departure.
One of the first and most important decisions made by that new structure was the choice of Arne Slot as Klopp's successor. Liverpool's official data confirm that Slot led the club to its 20th English league title in his very first season, 2024/25, securing the championship with four matches remaining. At that point, the transition appeared almost ideal: Liverpool had replaced a long-serving coach without suffering a multi-year decline in results, while Hughes and the sporting department received confirmation that their choice of new coaching leadership had been successful. However, the following season produced a considerably more complex picture and demonstrated how quickly stability in elite football can be disrupted.
From the league title to another change of coach
The 2025/26 season did not end with Liverpool retaining their title. According to the club's own data, Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League and secured qualification for the Champions League, but after the end of the season, on 30 May 2026, the club announced that Slot would leave his position as head coach. In its official statement, the management highlighted his contribution to winning the title and the fact that he had kept the club among Europe's elite over two seasons, yet his departure nevertheless opened another major process to select a new coach. Hughes again played an important role in that transition, and only a few days later, on 4 June, Liverpool appointed Andoni Iraola.
Iraola's arrival further connected Hughes's Liverpool career with his previous work at Bournemouth. The Spanish coach spent three seasons on the south coast of England and, in his final one, guided Bournemouth to sixth place in the Premier League and the club's first qualification for European competition. In the official announcement of his appointment, Liverpool highlighted that achievement, as well as Iraola's experience in developing teams with a clear, intense style of play. Because Hughes knew Iraola well from their shared period at Bournemouth, their cooperation was regarded as one of the elements of continuity at a time when the club was changing its head coach for the second time in two years.
Precisely for that reason, Hughes's departure immediately after the summer transfer window has broader significance than an ordinary personnel change. The new sporting director will not merely negotiate future transfers, but will have to take over a squad and coaching project already shaped around the ideas of the current coach. That requires balancing short-term needs with a long-term plan, particularly after a period of record or near-record spending on individual players. The successor will be expected to assess where the squad has sufficient depth, where structural deficiencies exist and how much more can be invested without losing financial and sporting balance.
Departure agreed before the end of the transfer window
According to The Guardian, Hughes informed Liverpool at the beginning of 2026 that he intended to leave after Michael Edwards departed his role as FSG's chief executive of football. Because preparations for the summer transfer window were already under way at that point, the club and Hughes agreed that he would remain in the position until the end of the market period. Such an arrangement allowed Liverpool to complete deals that had already been initiated and avoid changing their chief negotiator in the middle of the most intense part of the transfer cycle. The Guardian also reports that Liverpool received no official approach from Al-Hilal requesting that Hughes begin working for the Saudi club during the summer and that Liverpool are convinced Hughes worked exclusively for the English club until his departure.
That circumstance is important because information about his possible move to Saudi Arabia had already been circulating publicly for months. Liverpool have now confirmed the departure itself, while Al-Hilal's appointment had still not been officially presented on the Saudi club's channels at the time of the announcement. For that reason, it is most accurate to speak of an expected move rather than a formally completed appointment. The Guardian and The Times nevertheless report that Al-Hilal is his next destination and that Hughes is expected to take up a role in Riyadh similar to the one he held at Anfield.
In his farewell message, according to a statement carried by the British media, Hughes thanked the owners, employees, players and supporters and said he would continue to follow and support Liverpool. FSG chairman Mike Gordon highlighted his contribution during a period of major change, particularly in leading football operations, recruitment and supporting the coaching staffs. The club's message was conciliatory and focused on continuity, but the fact that the sporting leadership is changing again remains significant for the long-term management of one of the most expensive and ambitious squads in European football.
Spending of around £670 million defined Hughes's tenure
Hughes's impact is difficult to separate from the enormous investment in the squad. The Times reports that Liverpool spent around £670 million during his two years in the role, placing his tenure among the most financially aggressive periods in the club's recent history. The amount covers several transfer windows and a series of major deals, during which Liverpool sought to rejuvenate the squad and replace important players from the Klopp era. The scale of the investment itself, however, means that the final assessment of Hughes's work will also depend on how those players develop over the coming seasons, rather than solely on the results achieved while he was at the club.
The summer of 2026 continued that trend. The Guardian specifically highlights the transfer of Bradley Barcola, which it values at £123 million. The deal was completed when Hughes already knew that he would leave Liverpool, but he remained involved until the end of the window in order to complete the previously established plan. Such a situation demonstrates continuity of the process, but it also divides responsibility for the future structure of the squad between the departing director and the people remaining at the club. The new sporting director will inherit a large number of expensive long-term contracts as well as a squad already designed for Iraola's style of play.
In modern European football, a sporting director is not merely the person who negotiates the price of a transfer. The role includes long-term squad planning, contracts for existing players, market strategy, management of scouting and analytics networks, coordination with the coach, and decisions concerning the development of young players. Frequent changes in that position can therefore make it more difficult to implement a multi-year plan even when the rest of the specialist structure remains stable. Liverpool are precisely for that reason seeking to emphasise that Hughes's departure does not mean a complete reorganisation of the football department.
Mike Gordon leads the search, while the existing structure remains in place
The Guardian reports that the search for a new sporting director is being led by Mike Gordon, chairman of Fenway Sports Group, who once again assumed greater day-to-day responsibility for Liverpool after Edwards's departure. The club is not starting from scratch. Julian Ward remains FSG's technical director, Pedro Marques director of football development, David Woodfine assistant sporting director, and Barry Hunter chief scout. They are joined by the wider senior team at the training centre, which should allow day-to-day processes to continue functioning while Hughes's successor is being selected.
Nevertheless, the frequency of changes at the top is difficult to ignore. Since the end of Edwards's first spell as sporting director in 2022, the role has successively been held by Julian Ward, Jörg Schmadtke and Richard Hughes. Ward stepped down after one season in the position, Schmadtke had a shorter tenure from the outset and left after the winter transfer window in 2024, while Hughes is now ending just over two years in the role. If Liverpool appoint a new person soon, it will be the fourth different sporting director in four years since Edwards left that position.
For a club that relies on structured decision-making, such dynamics represent an organisational challenge. Continuity in scouting and analytics can soften a change at the top, but the sporting director sets priorities, leads key negotiations and maintains relationships with the coach, owners and players. Liverpool will therefore need to look for more than a successful negotiator when choosing Hughes's successor. They need a director who can manage the reconstruction already under way, work with Iraola and at the same time maintain the standards of a club expected to compete for the biggest domestic and European trophies.
Al-Hilal offers a different but equally ambitious project
If his move is formalised, Hughes will enter one of the most ambitious sporting projects in Saudi football at Al-Hilal. The Riyadh club officially states that it has won a record 21 Saudi league titles. In the 2025/26 season, Al-Hilal finished second in the league, two points behind Al-Nassr, but won the King's Cup by defeating Al-Kholood 2-1 in the final in Jeddah. Al-Hilal thereby claimed its tenth trophy in that competition, while the club stated in its own announcement that it was the 91st trophy in its history.
Such an environment brings high expectations, strong financial power and a need for international recruitment. The Times reports that Al-Hilal has already brought Simon Francis, Hughes's long-time associate from Bournemouth, into the club's technical structure, which could make Hughes's transition to the new environment easier. Saudi clubs have invested significant funds in players, coaches and sporting executives from Europe in recent years, and the arrival of a director with Premier League experience fits into that broader pattern of professionalising sporting departments.
For Hughes, a job in Riyadh would mean moving from a club operating in the exceptionally competitive and financially regulated environment of the Premier League to an organisation with different market opportunities and different sporting priorities. His work at Liverpool demonstrated a willingness to oversee major transfers and manage a transition following the departure of a long-serving coach. Those are precisely the experiences that could be important to Al-Hilal as it continues to build a structure capable of dominating in Saudi Arabia and competing in Asian and international competitions.
Liverpool's next choice will be important for the entire Iraola project
For Liverpool, it is now crucial that the change does not slow down the sporting season or create a vacuum in decision-making. Iraola has only just begun his tenure, a large part of the squad was assembled during the previous two summer transfer windows, and the club is back in the Champions League after finishing fifth. The new director will have to assess contractual priorities quickly, plan the winter and following summer transfer windows and determine how compatible the current squad is with Iraola's long-term requirements. At the same time, the director will be expected to bring greater stability to a position that has become one of the most frequently changed in the club's hierarchy in recent years.
Hughes's tenure will remain associated with major contrasts. He arrived as Jürgen Klopp was departing, took part in selecting a coach who immediately won the Premier League, then went through a difficult second season, another coaching change and a record-expensive squad rebuild. He is leaving before it can be definitively assessed how valuable the team he helped build will prove to be, meaning that part of his legacy will depend on the results Liverpool achieve after his departure. For the club, choosing his successor is therefore more than an administrative replacement: it is a decision that will determine the direction of the sporting project at a time when both investment and expectations are once again at a very high level.
Sources:
- Liverpool FC - appointment of Richard Hughes and description of his role (link)
- The Guardian - Hughes's departure, Al-Hilal and the search for a successor (link)
- The Times - spending during Hughes's tenure and expected move to Al-Hilal (link)
- Liverpool FC - Arne Slot's tenure and the 2024/25 league title (link)
- Liverpool FC - appointment of Andoni Iraola as head coach (link)
- Al-Hilal FC - 2025/26 King's Cup and club trophies (link)
- Saudi Pro League - end of the 2025/26 season and Al-Hilal's position (link)