Liverpool are reportedly looking within the Premier League for prospective replacements for Jorg Schmadtke as the club’s sporting director.
It was confirmed on Friday that the 59-year-old will step down from the role at the end of the January transfer window later this week, necessitating a third new appointment in that position since the summer of 2022.
On Monday morning, HITC reported that Anfield chiefs have already begun the search for a replacement and have three men in mind from fellow English top-flight clubs.
Richard Hughes (Bournemouth), Lee Dykes (Brentford) and Sam Jewell (Brighton) are all reportedly admired by Liverpool, with ‘homework’ done on those prospective candidates.
Former Arsenal and Portsmouth midfielder Hughes has worked behind the scenes at the Vitality Stadium for the past decade, being involved in their initial promotion to the Premier League in 2015 and the entirety of their time in the top flight ever since.
The Cherries have pulled off several eye-catching young signings under his watch, including Illya Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez, Tyler Adams, Dango Ouattara, Max Aarons and Alex Scott, with the latter having been linked with Liverpool in recent months.
Dykes has been Brentford’s technical director since 2022, stepping up three years after becoming the club’s head of scouting, identifying numerous players who’ve formed the backbone of their impressive performances in the top flight since their promotion from the Championship in 2021.
Jewell is the son of former Premier League manager Paul, who kept Bradford up in 2000 and took Wigan to unprecedented heights later that decade.
Brighton’s head of scouting is only 34 and has been involved in many of the Seagulls’ most notable transfers both in and out of the Amex Stadium, including the loan addition of Ansu Fati and the hugely profitable sales of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister last summer (The Athletic).
He also spotted the likes of Leo Ostigard and Viktor Gyokeres before they joined the south coast club, with both players since going on to make a telling impact at a high level in Europe with Napoli and Sporting Lisbon respectively.
All three candidates appear to have good CVs, and whoever Liverpool ultimately appoint as Schmadtke’s successor, hopefully they’ll be in the job for the long haul after a two-year period which has seen Michael Edwards, Julian Ward and now the German all step aside from the sporting director role at Anfield.
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