Liverpool boss praises transfer chief Richard Hughes amid previous role and Bournemouth's 'quality' threat

Arne Slot praised Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes during his press conference, outlining two danger men that he had signed for Bournemouth

Hughes arrived from the Cherries earlier this year, filling the vacant slot left after Jorg Schmadtke departed after his short-term contract ended in January. He arrived alongside a returning Michael Edwards, the previous director, who took on a ‘football CEO role while Julian Ward also returned to join FSG in a technical director role as Liverpool put together a brilliant team of professionals behind-the-scenes.

Speaking at his press conference, he was first asked about Bournemouth’s quality, calling them ‘aggressive’ before reflecting on how Hughes had helped them build a strong team full of quality that included two of his former players. “They have a lot of individual quality because, like I said, Andoni did a great job over there but the sporting director that worked there for so many years did a very good job as well - maybe because of that Liverpool tried to get him and Marcos [Senesi] and Luis [Sinisterra] are two examples of.”

When asked about how their relationship is after their time working together thus far, he said, “It’s been good from the start like all the others you work with it only develops if work longer with each other and gets better as you get to know each other so he gets to know my ideas about football even better. He already knew them really, really well - that was also the reason why I wanted to join Liverpool because he knew more about me than just results. And day by day, I get to know him even better and our relationship is very good.”

He oversaw a very profitable first transfer window as exits included the £27.5m received for Fabio Carvalho, the £20m for Sepp van den Berg and the £10m raised from Bobby Clark’s exit to RB Salzburg. On top of that, they received around £7.5m from the sell-on-clause in the deal for Dominic Solanke and loans were granted for Stefan Bajcetic and Nat Phillips.

Incomings were quiet due to the money spent last summer and the lack of viable targets on the market. However, we did see them complete a move for ex-Juventus star Federico Chiesa for around £10m - a fee that was incredibly low due to his contract and squad situation and it looks to be a relative bargain for his quality. A few days earlier, they confirmed the signing of Georgian keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia for £29m before revealing he would remain on loan at Valencia for the rest of the season.

Before that, he helped Bournemouth to strengthen on and off the pitch. He sourced Andoni Iraola as manager but also played a key role in bringing Ryan Christie to the club for just £1.5m, Tyrone Mings for £8m, earning a record amount from the sale of Nathan Ake when they were relegated, Aaron Ramsdale for £800k and £19m for Solanke from Liverpool, which eventually turned into £65m profit for the club.