02 April 2024 , 12:00
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Liverpool may not have made much public progress in finding Jurgen Klopp’s successor – but their other appointments show the direction of travel.
There has been much speculation since Klopp stunned the football world on January 26 by announcing his decision to step down as manager at the end of the season. Much of it involved Xabi Alonso, but his announcement on Friday that he will be staying put at Bayer Leverkusen cut the rope in the brewing tug-of-war between Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Alonso’s withdrawal left Sporting boss Ruben Amorim and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi as the two most obvious candidates for the Reds. And while there has been complete silence from Fenway Sports Group and the freshly-returned Michael Edwards on the manager search, there has been progress elsewhere.
March brought the news that Edwards had agreed to join FSG as their chief executive of football, bringing back a man who had spent 11 years establishing Liverpool as the club they are today. Then came the appointment of Richard Hughes as the new sporting director from June – a decision which carried the fingerprints of Edwards.
Now The Athletic reports that another piece of the jigsaw is close to falling into place, with Benfica technical director Pedro Marques set to join FSG. Marques has a few ties to Liverpool, having worked on the deal which sent Darwin Nunez to the Reds in 2022 and having worked alongside the club’s former sporting director Julian Ward at Manchester City.
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He is being hired for his expertise in player recruitment and scouting – but it is another part of his CV which could prove instructive. Marques is Portuguese and, while he is currently at Benfica, he previously spent six years working at Sporting Lisbon before joining City in 2010.
Sporting are currently of interest to Liverpool due to their interest in hiring Amorim this summer. Like Marques, Amorim has crossed the divide in Portugal, having spent nine years playing for Sporting’s rivals Benfica.
Ruben Amorim has been extremely successful with Sporting Lisbon (Getty Images)