According to The Athletic, Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes has departed after overseeing a £670 million squad overhaul, but he leaves with the feeling that he has compounded Liverpool's problems rather than solved them.

Ten years ago this week, Sadio Mané scored in his home debut for Liverpool as they thrashed Premier League champions Leicester City 4-1. It was his second goal in 120 for the club, and he departed as a legend, having won virtually every major honour in 269 appearances, with Liverpool having nearly recouped their initial investment in him.

The numbers behind Mané should be a lesson for whoever replaces Richard Hughes as head of Liverpool's transfer strategy. Even accounting for inflation, signing a 24-year-old for £30 million and then selling him for potentially £35 million when he is 30 and laden with medals is good business.

Mané ultimately failed to deliver returns for Liverpool, struggling to settle at Bayern Munich before moving to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia a year later, where he continues to play. This has also fuelled the view that Liverpool could have kept Mané a little longer. When he left, his 23 goals in 2021-22 were his second-highest total in six seasons. However, during a significant period in his final season at Liverpool, he was deployed as a central striker rather than on the left wing where he had previously been so dangerous.

This decision was partly due to Roberto Firmino's declining influence. At the same time, Liverpool found Mané's replacement. Similarly to Mané, Luis Díaz joined from Porto and, as a Premier League title winner, eventually went to Munich—only this time Liverpool made a significant profit on the transfer. Such operations are difficult to replicate, but Liverpool should learn from it.

Díaz's departure now looks like a mistake, as he has excelled at Bayern, and nobody at Anfield can fill his void. The team has struggled for various reasons since summer 2025. It is easy to conclude that what matters is not how much you spend on a player or how much you recoup from selling them, but whether the next replacement is suitable and can succeed. However, the scope for improvement clearly depends on sensible figures, which in turn expand the club's options.

Liverpool officially confirmed that Richard Hughes has stepped down as sporting director. Hughes informed the club's owners of his desire to seek new challenges and departed with everyone's best wishes at Liverpool.

This brings us back to Hughes—who announced his departure earlier today. After Díaz left, Hughes and manager Arne Slot chose not to replace him with Barcola, instead prioritising other positions and believing Gakpo could develop. Giving an opportunity to Jarell Quansah was also a consideration. Since then, Hughes approved £670 million in investment to reshape Liverpool, culminating in the blockbuster deal that brought Barcola to Anfield last week. Liverpool's performance and away victory at Ipswich on Friday night reinforced confidence; it was their most fluid and organised display since winning the title in 2025.

However, Hughes is accused of leaving a loose squad and a squad lacking depth. Had he made smarter deals after Liverpool became champions, many subsequent problems might have been easier to solve.

Given that Fenway Sports Group always operates in a real financial world, it is shocking how many players have been allowed to leave Liverpool on free transfers since 2021. Of 14 players in the 2019 Champions League final-winning side against Tottenham, eight ultimately departed on free transfers or for nominal fees—if you count Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose market value is certainly ten times the nominal fee Real Madrid paid to acquire him for the Club World Cup. At some point, even before Hughes arrived, the ruthlessness that had made Liverpool competitive disappeared, because aside from Mané, Fabinho and Henderson, they barely recovered money from their heroes.

Hughes's record deserves serious scrutiny, because as it stands, overspending in 2025 means he departs with the feeling that he has compounded Liverpool's problems rather than solved them. Even at the end of his three-year tenure, he still had to deal with the consequences of poor decisions made by previous staff—some of which were far too easily overlooked.

The lavish praise Liverpool received for building their squad under Klopp is now merely a distant memory. In six transfer windows from summer 2016 to summer 2018, Liverpool brought in Mané, Matip, Wijnaldum, Salah, Robertson, Van Dijk, Fabinho and Alisson. Only Naby Keïta could be considered a mistake in that period, while player sales, Champions League performances and commercial growth helped balance the books.

Liverpool made virtually no signings in 2019 but won their first league title in 30 years a year later, so the ends justified the means. However, since 2020, after four changes in the sporting director role, Liverpool's record in transfers and retaining players has, at best, been inconsistent. Notably, when Slot won the title in 2025, the most influential players were still Alisson, Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah—players who have been together since 2018.

When transfer decisions consistently score only six out of ten, the team will eventually need significant adjustments across successive transfer windows, as Klopp did after 2016. Meanwhile, he will need to find short-term solutions to the challenges Iraola currently faces on the right wing. On the day Mané thrashed Leicester at Anfield, Klopp had Milner playing left-back, with midfielder Lucas Leiva paired with him at centre-back.

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