Edwards offers Liverpool stability on return ahead of turbulent summer
Jürgen Klopp and key figures of his staff may be leaving Anfield but the club’s former sporting director can minimise disruption in new role
There is change afoot at Fenway Sports Group and seismic upheaval on its way to Liverpool and yet, paradoxically, the club’s owner has ensured there will be a degree of stability and continuity on offer to Jürgen Klopp’s successor this summer with the rehiring of Michael Edwards. FSG’s persistent and ultimately convincing sales pitch to the club’s former sporting director underlines the belief in Boston there was only one candidate who could minimise disruption while expanding the company’s horizons.
Edwards returns as FSG’s chief executive officer of football – note, not Liverpool’s CEO of football – two years after stepping down as sporting director following a decade of outstanding service at Anfield. The 44-year-old’s success rate in the previous role presents an obvious case for his re-employment. There was the appointment of Klopp for a start, who sparked not only the club’s transformation but the revision of Edwards’s and FSG’s own reputations among a previously sceptical Liverpool support.