Liverpool record shows stark difference in Richard Hughes' approach to transfer window

Liverpool has yet to make a signing this summer. Among Premier League clubs, only Fulham can say the same. But does it actually matter? We will have to wait to find out.

The off-season of 2024 is the most turbulent the Reds have experienced for at least 12 years. Not since 2012 has the club changed managers ahead of a new campaign, and that’s without the other off-field appointments which have occurred at Liverpool in recent months.

Focus naturally falls on new head coach Arne Slot , but the return of Michael Edwards and the arrival of Richard Hughes are significant too. The latter is the club’s new sporting director and a remarkable piece of trivia has highlighted how the Reds’ transfer strategy now differs from what went before.

READ MORE: Who is Arda Guler? Liverpool 'makes transfer offer' to Real Madrid wonderkid

READ MORE: GET IT DONE! Liverpool must sign three players this summer with Euro 2024 winner among them

Speaking at Slot’s first press conference , Hughes spoke warmly about his illustrious predecessor. "Very much looking forward to working with Michael [Edwards], in my opinion the best British sporting director to date,” he said. "The decision to come to Liverpool was one I was humbled by and delighted to take, but the people I would be working with made it extra special as well.”

When Edwards was running the transfer show at Liverpool, the Reds conducted its business in a very considered manner. Leaks were rare, sagas even less common and players would be unveiled within a day or two of Liverpool’s interest becoming public knowledge.

However, Hughes seems to be taking this concept to new levels. It has been revealed in the Liverpool Echo that – aside from during the pandemic – the Reds last went this far into the summer without making a signing in 1996.

Three Lions on the shirt, it’s coming home, and all of that. Thirty years on from '30 years of hurt', England is still waiting for another trophy. But the similarities with that summer are not lost on Hughes.

"I think naturally, when there are major competitions during the summer, the attention is going to be there,” he said in Slot’s debut presser. "There was a flurry [of transfers] in June, I think it will calm down a bit now, and then like always when August starts and coaches have had more time to work with players, opinion will be more set at clubs, and then you may see a situation which is like in previous seasons a bit of a hurry to get things done."

As much as a deal has yet to be completed, it would be foolish to assume the club has not been trying. Hughes has also spoken about being “opportunistic”, which was clearly Liverpool’s strategy in its pursuit of Anthony Gordon . It was trying to take advantage of Newcastle’s Profit and Sustainability issues to its benefit.

"It's a very talented squad,” Hughes said at the recent press conference, and he’s not wrong. However, he then said: “we need to improve,” and fans would agree with that too. Liverpool is playing the long game, but it had better not take the notion too far.