Liverpool in 'the running' to secure sporting director who signed Kevin De Bruyne

Liverpool are reportedly turning their focus of a new sporting director towards the West Ham-employed Tim Steidten.

The 44-year-old, who was previously employed at Bayer Leverkusen, has an extremely strong reputation after his work in Germany and Liverpool are now looking to replace the outgoing Jorg Schmadtke, who is set to leave the club at the end of the January window.

With Jurgen Klopp announcing that he, along with his full backroom staff, will be leaving at the end of the season, Liverpool are in need of a re-shake across the board. Previously, the likes of Michael Edwards and Julian Ward brought great success to the club thanks to their brilliant transfer decisions and now, it's time to select a new sporting director who can guide the club in what will be a new era.

According to multiple reports, he is among a few targets for the role. He has been praised for his work at West Ham across the past year; he oversaw the £105m sale of Declan Rice and helped the club to reinvest that money smartly into the marquee signings of Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse - and with the club advancing in Europe and sat in sixth place in the league, it's safe to say those deals have paid off. Prior to his time in London, he was a sensation at Leverkusen. The German side are unbeaten five months into the season and have built a strong squad of talented young players who have their eyes set on multiple trophy successes under Xabi Alonso. What makes this link interesting is the fact that Steidten was key in bringing Alonso to the club as manager and now the former Liverpool midfielder is the odds-on favourite to replace Klopp.

In terms of his pedigree in identifying talent, that too is exceptional; he helped to bring Edmond Tapsoba for less than £14m, the young wizard Florian Wirtz as a 16-year-old and flying wing-back Jeremie Frimpong as well as Patrik Schick, Moussa Diaby and Liverpool target Piero Hincapie. His body of work at Werder Bremen prior to that brought an even more noteworthy name. He brought Kevin De Bruyne to Bremen on loan in the 2012/13 season which eventually helped him develop into the star he is today as well as Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry and it's clear his eye for transfers are extremely astute.