Liverpool Reportedly Set to Lose Sporting Director Michael Edwards

Liverpool’s summer transfer window has been marked less by the signing of new players and more by the extending of contracts for their existing stars, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho Tavares, and Andy Robertson all agreeing new deals.

As the summer nears its end, though, we have word of a potential departure, not of a player but of the man who brought those players—and lone first team summer signing Ibrahima Konaté—to Anfield, with news that Sporting Director Michael Edwards intends to move on.

According to The Athletic, Edwards’ intention is to step down at the end of the 2021-22 season. No other club is said to be involved in his decision to step down, with Edwards simply believing that after a decade at Liverpool it could be time for a fresh challenge.

It’s not, perhaps, a certainty Edwards will depart, with The Liverpool Echo suggesting the club retain some hope that he will agree a new deal beyond the current season. And if he doesn’t, his current assistant Julian Ward could be seen as Edwards’ natural successor.

Edwards joined the club in 2011, about a year after Fenway Sports Group bought the club away from Tom Hicks and George Gillett as it teetered on the edge of administration. He was promoted to sporting director in 2016, shortly after the arrival of Jürgen Klopp.