Across two full seasons at Liverpool Football Club, Richard Hughes has taken a side gifted to him by Jürgen Klopp and the past era’s upper management that appeared primed for long-term success and was good enough to win the Premier League title in year one and turned it into a work in progress.
The current side is unbalanced, lacks pace on the wings, has question marks in midfield and major gaps in defence. New signings have fit awkwardly or not at all, contracts have been allowed to run down, and succession
plans for aging stars haven’t panned out.
Liverpool were perceived to have won the transfer window last summer, but when the dust settled and the season played out it became clear that the big money signings that had so excited fans and pundits in 2025 hadn’t made the team better. Which brings us now to his third summer in charge and the hard job of making things right.
It’s a hard job, though, that few believe Hughes will be around to see the success or failure of, with rumours over the final months of the 2025-26 season suggesting that he had a deal in place to move to Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal and become their sporting director.
Those widespread rumours were given further confirmation today by The Athletic’s David Ornstein, reiterating that while Hughes has not signed on as Al Hilal’s new sporting director yet, the Saudi club are operating on the assumption that he will re-unite there with Simon Francis at the end of the season.
Francis took over as technical director at Bournemouth after Hughes joined Liverpool, and the two played there together before both transitioned into management roles at the club. Al Hilal announced the hiring of Frances this week not as sporting director but to “lead transfer operations” on a short-term basis.
