Liverpool sporting directors pop their head above the parapet so rarely that it would perhaps be foolish to ignore their public utterances. Such has proven the case with Richard Hughes.
When facing the media alongside new head coach Arne Slot in the first week of last month, the recently-appointed Hughes suggested it wouldn’t be until August that transfer business begins kicking into gear for the Reds.
With new head coach Slot needing time to get his feet under the table and assess the squad he inherited from Jurgen Klopp, such a wait was understandable. Not least because so many of what are likely to be his regular starters have still not returned after international tournament duty.
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Hindsight, though, now tells us the comments from Hughes were made just days after Liverpool were on the brink of completing what would have been the most eye-catching deal of the summer.
Newcastle United ultimately pulled the plug on an exchange that would have seen Joe Gomez move to the North East for £45million with Anthony Gordon coming the other way for £75m, the Magpies ultimately able to navigate the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules without cashing in on one of their best players.
That would have been a trademark opportunist deal from Liverpool under Fenway Sports Group, an example of them once again working in the shadows. While it was known at the end of June that the Reds had rejected an approach from Newcastle that would have seen Quansah involved in a swap, that it took a month for the Gomez news to emerge was telling.
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And in the 48 hours since, matters have, in some respects, progressed rapidly.
Newcastle now have no intention of allowing Gordon to leave this window – certainly not for £75m – and are reportedly keen to open talks over a new, improved contract.
This, though, could be a matter of saving face, a case of Newcastle showing they are trying to do everything they can to persuade the winger to commit his long-term future. They wouldn’t be the first club to do this – after all, Luis Suarez signed a new five-year contract with Liverpool but had gone to Barcelona barely six months later.
Liverpool are still very much interested in Gordon. The player would evidently jump at the chance of a move to his boyhood club. And there’s no escaping the fact Newcastle were, even if extremely reluctantly, willing to sacrifice him for the sake of being able to strengthen their squad elsewhere. The player might need some convincing Tyneside is still the place to be for him. That August 30 deadline is starting to loom on the horizon.
But perhaps the greater immediate intrigue surrounds Gomez, who is in a similar predicament. He will return to the AXA Training Centre at the start of next week having had three weeks of holiday time to ponder the reality the club he has served loyally for nine years are prepared to move him on.
Who made the decision to give the go-ahead for Gomez’s sale will be interesting. Was it Hughes? Was it Slot, despite having not yet directly worked with Gomez? Or was there influence from further up the food chain in FSG chief executive of football Michael Edwards?
The picture has become even more muddied by Newcastle now closing in on a deal for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi. While that has been incorrectly painted in some quarters as a blow for Liverpool – the Reds were never seriously interested in the England international this summer – it does close off an obvious transfer route for Gomez.
Liverpool have had expressions of interest in the centre-back from several other clubs. Newcastle, though, remain the only ones compelled to table a bid.
Having told everyone to wait until August for the market to start really moving, Hughes has placed a weight of expectation on himself and the Reds’ recruitment team to deliver a statement signing or two for Slot.
After all, the last thing the new-look Liverpool backroom team want is for their first window to be defined by a non-transfer that managed only to unsettle their longest-serving player.
