Liverpool hires Richard Hughes as sporting director, his main task will be to find Klopp's successor

Liverpool's restructuring of its technical staff continued Wednesday when the club hired Richard Hughes as sporting di‐ rector starting June 1.

Hughes is leaving his role as technical director at Bournemouth to take up the post at Liverpool after previ‐ ously working with Michael Ed‐ wards, who was hired last week as chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group — the U.S.‐based conglomerate whose portfolio of sports teams in‐ cludes Liverpool.

Hughes' main task will be iden‐ tifying a replacement for Liver‐ pool manager Jurgen Klopp, who said in January that he will be stepping down after nearly nine years as manager.

"It is clear to everyone that Ju‐ rgen will leave a legacy to build upon," Edwards said, "and in Richard we have the right per‐ son to make the key decisions and offer the leadership to take us forward into a bright future.

"As one very successful chapter will come to a close for Liverpool in the summer, the objective of everyone here is for another one to begin — and with Richard I am confident we have the right person in position for us to achieve this aim."

The 44‐year‐old Hughes is a former Scotland midfielder who played his club soccer for Bournemouth and Portsmouth, where Edwards worked as an analyst. He has led Bournemouth's soccer opera‐ tions for the past decade.

Hughes described Liverpool as a "unique club" and said his role would be to make "good deci‐ sions which enhance the prospects of having a team that wins and excites the support‐ ers."

Among those linked with re‐ placing Klopp is Xabi Alonso, who currently coaches German league leader Bayer Leverkusen and used to play for Liverpool.