SURPRISE: LIVERPOOL RANKED ABOVE REAL MADRID IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPIONSHIP POTENTIAL
Richard Hughes has packed his bags and left Anfield. Again.
Barely 48 hours after Alexander Isak finally looked like a £125million footballer, Liverpool’s sporting director walked out the door and headed for the desert. The club that spent the best part of £670million trying to rebuild itself now has a new manager, a new-look attack — and no sporting director.
The timing is brutal. On Friday night at Portman Road, Isak scored twice in the first nine minutes. Cody Gakpo created both. Bradley Barcola, the £123million deadline-day signing from Paris Saint-Germain, came off the bench for his debut. Andoni Iraola had his first Premier League win. For a few hours, Anfield dared to believe the storm had passed.
Then Hughes dropped the bomb.
Liverpool confirmed on Saturday that the 46-year-old Scot had stepped down after less than three years in the job. He is expected to join Saudi giants Al-Hilal. The club’s official line was polite: they “respect Richard’s life choices” and wish him well. Behind the scenes, the mood is rather less civil.
Hughes had already told Fenway Sports Group earlier this year that he wanted a new challenge. Michael Edwards, FSG’s football CEO and Hughes’ old ally, had already gone. The plan was that Hughes would see out the summer window — the window in which he signed Barcola and tried to paper over last season’s cracks — then leave. He did exactly that.
Iraola now faces the biggest test of his career without the man who brought him to England in the first place.
The nine minutes that changed everything — and changed nothing
Ipswich were supposed to be a banana skin. Newly promoted, leaking goals, but dangerous at home. Instead they were torn apart before most of the crowd had sat down.
Sixth minute: Gakpo finds Isak. One touch, one thunderous finish past Kjell Scherpen. Ninth minute: another Gakpo pass, Isak skips past Jacob Greaves and slots home. Game over. Two goals in three minutes. Isak had just equalled his entire Premier League tally from last season.
The Swedish striker looked unburdened for the first time since that messy, acrimonious exit from Newcastle. Last year he managed four goals in 22 appearances, spent months on the treatment table and never looked like the player Liverpool broke the British transfer record for. On Friday he was electric.
Gakpo, who could have left for Tottenham or Manchester City this summer, delivered two assists of the highest quality. The Dutchman has been the quiet winner of this window. While everyone obsessed over Wirtz, Ekitike and now Barcola, Gakpo simply kept producing.
Barcola’s introduction in the second half was the other story. The Frenchman, signed for an initial £106million plus add-ons that could take the deal to £123million, looked sharp and direct. He is the man Liverpool hope will fill the Mohamed Salah-shaped hole on the right — even if he prefers the left. The fee is eye-watering. The expectation will be even bigger.
Iraola was measured afterwards. “We needed this win,” he said. “It was nice to get a clean sheet.” On Isak he was more revealing: “If he’s fit and in good shape, he will produce the numbers.” The Basque coach has already made it clear his demands of the striker go beyond goals. He wants work rate, positioning, collective responsibility. Typical Iraola.
The result was only Liverpool’s first league win of the season. They had drawn their opening two games. The table still looks ordinary. But the manner of the victory — early goals, control, a clean sheet — was the first real glimpse of what Iraola wants.
Then the sporting director quit.
The man who hired him — and then left him
Hughes and Iraola go back. In 2023, Hughes, then technical director at Bournemouth, recommended the then-Rayo Vallecano coach for the Cherries job. Iraola took a mid-table side and turned them into a European team. Sixth place last season. First-ever European football. An 18-game unbeaten run to finish.
When Arne Slot was sacked after Liverpool finished fifth last season — a year after winning the title — Hughes went straight back to the man he knew. Iraola was the only candidate. Two-year contract, his choice. The reunion was supposed to be the start of something.
Instead Hughes has now done what he did at Bournemouth: built something, then left.
His Liverpool record is mixed. He arrived in 2024 after Slot was appointed. The title followed in 2024-25. Last season was a disaster — injuries, a flat style of play, boos at Anfield, Slot gone. Hughes sanctioned the huge outlay that followed: Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike last summer, then this summer’s splurge that included Barcola, Ronald Araujo on loan, Jeremy Jacquet and others.
The Athletic put the recent rebuild at around £670million. That is not a typo. Liverpool have spent like a club trying to catch up with itself after years of incremental decisions.
Hughes leaves with the window shut and the new manager still finding his feet. Convenient, some will say. Others will point out he stayed long enough to complete the Barcola deal and get the squad over the line.
FSG president Mike Gordon issued the usual statement. Hughes himself spoke of pride at serving “this incredible and unique institution.” Standard stuff. The real conversation is happening in the corridors at Kirkby.
This is Liverpool’s fifth sporting director since 2022. Edwards gone. Julian Ward gone. Jorg Schmadtke’s brief interlude. Hughes now gone. Stability this is not.
Iraola’s lonely job
The new head coach is 43. He has one trophy on his CV — the Cypriot Super Cup from 2018. He has never managed at this level of expectation. Bournemouth was overachievement. Liverpool is something else.
His style is high press, chaos, directness — the opposite of the more controlled, sometimes sterile football that cost Slot his job. Supporters who remember Klopp’s best years will like the sound of it. Whether the current squad can deliver it consistently is another question.
Isak’s early-season form is a start. Wirtz is still finding his feet after a first season that promised more than it delivered. Ekitike is out long-term. Barcola is raw at this level. The defence has been reshaped. Virgil van Dijk remains the leader, but the supporting cast has changed.
Iraola now has to do all of this without the sporting director who understood him, who signed the players, who knew the politics of FSG. The next man in the job will be the sixth in four years. He will inherit a squad built by someone else and a manager who was someone else’s appointment.
Sources close to the club insist the relationship between Iraola and Hughes remained strong to the end. They still socialised. Hughes kept his house on the south coast. The decision to leave was personal, they say — family, a new project, the pull of a Saudi project that has already hoovered up Simon Francis from Bournemouth.
Fine. But the optics are terrible. Win on Friday. Director gone by Saturday. The manager who was sold as “Hughes’ man” is now on his own.
The money, the mess, the next chapter
Liverpool’s owners have sold a minority stake to Amit Bhatia’s 1892 Holdings — a group that includes Jeff Bezos. They are still hunting for a new football structure. Edwards’ departure last summer left a vacuum. Hughes’ exit widens it.
The club that once prided itself on continuity under Jürgen Klopp now looks like a revolving door. Title one year, fifth the next, new manager, new director, another massive spend.
Isak’s brace will buy everyone a little time. Gakpo’s form will quiet some of the “why didn’t we sell him” chatter. Barcola’s arrival gives the attack a different dimension. But the bigger picture is unstable.
Iraola’s first months will be defined by results and by how quickly he can impose his ideas. The fixture list does not ease up. Champions League football is back. The Premier League does not wait for new managers to settle.
Hughes will watch from the Gulf. Al-Hilal have the money and the ambition. Liverpool have the history and the pressure.
For now, the Reds have a win, a striker who finally looks the part, and a manager who has just lost his most important ally.
That is not how you want to start a new era.