Jamie Carragher has revealed the surprising “biggest thing” former Liverpool Sporting Director Michael Edwards told him about the Reds’ scouting and their transfer policy.
With sporting directors a hot topic in football – Liverpool are currently without one – Carragher revealed why he was surprised at what Edwards told him when he was Sporting Director at Liverpool.
Amid a conversation about scouting, recruitment and the role of Newcastle‘s sporting director, Dan Ashworth, in the Toon’s renaissance, Carragher offered another perspective.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, the Liverpool legend said: “I went to see him (Edwards) once because I wanted a bit more information. It wasn’t for me to come out and speak about, but obviously this is years later.
“I’m expecting some real big insight about how many scouts they’ve got, how they watch them, how they see different things.
“And he just said: ‘The biggest thing for us about getting the players that we want is relationships with agents’.
“I was expecting more than that but he was a bit like ‘It’s massive basically’.
“You see like agents fees, don’t you, at the end of every season. I’m not saying it’s just about the money but he was saying about having good relationships with their agents.”
Edwards left his role at Liverpool in 2022, and was replaced by Julian Ward, who lasted little more than 12 months in the job.
The German, Jorg Schamdtke, took some responsibilities of the job during the last two transfer windows, but he has now stepped aside, leaving the position vacant.
With Jurgen Klopp leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, the club approached Edwards about resuming his role with an “offer to be in charge of the restructure at the club,” reported Fabrizio Romano.
READ HERE: 6 candidates for Liverpool’s next sporting director – including West Ham chief
He rejected this proposal, though, and Liverpool are yet to appoint someone to the role. Among the names touted for the job are Tim Steidten, Simon Rolfes and Paul Mitchell.
