Jurgen Klopp Sets The Priorities - Jorg Schmadtke Opens Up On New Liverpool Role

The Reds confirmed the 59-year-old's appointment on Tuesday, having spent more than four years in the same role with Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, which he left earlier this year.

The German will begin his new role on Thursday, June 1 for an initial short-term period and will oversee the forthcoming summer transfer window.

"The influence of the coach on transfers is greater in England than in Germany, where a sports director holds everything in one hand," Schmadtke told Sport1 in Germany.

"Jurgen Klopp sets the priorities. We set him up with a team of data analysts, scouts, and so on, so he can then choose from a list of players who he wants to work with. 

"Then I'll deal with the transfers with the responsible departments in the club. And, in the end, the owners have to be satisfied with the investments.

"If we like each other, we can work together beyond the transfer window. Let's see. Then we continue or not."

He added: "I don't have a budget yet!" Seriously, transfers are always complicated. When a player moves from A to B, it's mostly about small things that are difficult to influence and unrelated to making money."

"For example, how the player integrates with his family in the city, what his place in the team should be, how he can show his maximum performance. You have to take that into account. The sums involved in these transfers are almost irrelevant."

On his relationship with Jurgen Klopp, Schmadtke said: "We're not that close to each other. We were in the Bundesliga at the same time. He as a coach, I as a sports director, you know each other."

"I know his advisor Marc Kosicke better. He maintains a good exchange with the owners of Liverpool FC. When the current sporting director announced that he wanted to leave for personal reasons, Marc told them: 'If you are looking for an older and experienced manager for the transfer period, you might want to look into Jorg Schmadtke from Germany'."

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