Incredible genius will become Liverpool's next sporting director

Liverpool 's next sporting director could be an absolute genius.

The Richard Hughes era is over at Anfield. He has left the club after a whirlwind two years. During his time at Liverpool, Hughes attracted some of the biggest names in world football to the club.

He broke Liverpool's transfer record multiple times.

Ultimately, he signed exciting players. However, he also left the current squad quite imbalanced. When you look at Andoni Iraola 's options at right-back, it's scarce.

On the right-wing, he has to play players who prefer to play on the left because right now the Reds do not have a recognised right-winger.

All of these details and the results on the pitch juxtaposed by the mass spending have tarnished Hughes' reputation.

The success of his time will not be judged now but many years into the future. Hughes' signings could still become incredible players at the club.

But Liverpool are now planning for a future without Hughes.

This, combined with the fact that there are new minority stakeholders at the club in 1892 Holdings led by Amit Bhatia, means Liverpool's search is going to look a little different this time around.

A lot of the conversations has been around potential internal hires. Julian Ward, who has been sporting director in the past has been identified as a potential candidate. David Woodfine and Pedro Marques are another.

But the obvious choice is an external candidate.

Why Lee Dykes is destined to be Liverpool's next sporting director

The BBC has already reported that Liverpool have held talks with Brentford 's Head of Recruitment Lee Dykes.

He is someone who has been on Liverpool's radar for a while, even when the Reds were looking for a new sporting director back in 2024, Dykes was already being looked at.

At the time Michael Edwards opted with Richard Hughes. But this time around, Dykes feels like the perfect candidate and the natural solution to Liverpool's problems.

Dykes has done brilliant work at Brentford. He is recognised as a genius within the game and he's built a team consistently year after year that has been able to challenge at the upper end of the table - all while losing some of the club's best players every summer.

The Brentford man just feels like someone who is ready to make the step-up to a higher level and Liverpool is a very obvious next destination in his career as well.