Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes has spoken at length about the club's future transfer plans
Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes
Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes(Image: LFC TV)
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The timing undoubtedly wasn't an accident. Less than 24 hours after the transfer window closed, a video dropped from Liverpool on Tuesday morning showing head coach Arne Slot, sporting director Richard Hughes and chief executive Billy Hogan in conversation during the latest episode of the 'The Reds Roundtable' show.
As an official club broadcast, it will always face accusations of being nothing more than an exercise in self-promotion. Few would have expected it to delve too deeply into the issues the Reds have faced since being crowned Premier League champions, although events of the last eight months were impossible to completely ignore for the trio.
The main take, though, was glaringly obvious. If Liverpool are considering jettisoning Slot as head coach in the immediate future, this video did a sterling job at hiding the fact.
Recorded earlier in January, the admission from Hughes that Slot isn't being judged on a daily basis was tantamount to confirming matters will only be properly assessed at the end of what has proven a hugely testing season for the Dutchman.
Certainly, the 'Slot out' brigade that hastily assembled during the troubled autumn is unlikely to be appeased any time soon.
Instead, the main intrigue came from discussions over transfers, with Hughes admitting Slot hasn't always been given the players he's wanted. That, of course, is nothing new. Managers and head coaches almost always would like more than their club is able to deliver in the transfer window.
But it was particularly resonant given the failed late attempt to bolster Slot's defensive options for this campaign with Lutsharel Geertruida instead remaining on loan at Sunderland from RB Leipzig.
Liverpool, though, still had time to complete one deal with the £60million capture of centre-back Jeremy Jacquet from Rennes, the 20-year-old moving to Anfield in the summer.
The Reds are not averse to such 'delayed' transfers, with Giorigi Mamardashvili, Naby Keita and Divock Origi previous examples. And those are just the agreements that were made public.
And it perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise given the rationale from Hughes behind the minimal spend in Slot's first window and the record-breaking £450m worth of incomings that followed 12 months later. What happens this summer will have been a long time in the making.
"It was obvious the first thing to do when he came here was to evaluate a very talented squad and how they are going to transition into a new regime," said Hughes. "Clearly 'very well' was the answer last year.
"But in a squad game there are so many players whose game time perhaps isn't what they wanted it to be, so we had to look at other opportunities for them.
"We knew the first summer together wasn't going to be a particularly active one. Alongside the ownership with their long-term vision, they like to do things with all the metrics and the data in their favour, and the best way to do that is to prepare one year ahead, one summer window to the next.
"So we deliberately didn't do a lot in our first season coming in but knew we could identify throughout the course of last year players who could come in to help the squad. The ages of the players we have recruited is very deliberate to make sure we are not only competitive now but competitive for the mid-term future. Realistically that's all you can control.
"The main thing for Arne is on the pitch, short-term and mid-term. The people have a lot to look forward to and I think that's very much the case here."
Long-term recruitment plans are rarely exclusive to one manager or head coach at any club. But everything points to Liverpool's summer window being shaped for and with the help of Slot.