Bergas Brillianto continues the Transfer Gurus series with an analysis of Richard Hughes, a Sporting Director with big shoes to fill following a successful stint at AFC Bournemouth
This summer’s transfer window was unusually quiet for Liverpool. The club only signed one player, Federico Chiesa, from Juventus. The incredibly promising goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili was also announced as a new acquisition, but this move was classified as a transfer for next season, with a loan option back to Valencia for the current campaign.
While Liverpool has occasionally been passive in the transfer market in recent seasons, this summer’s inactivity seems particularly odd given the club’s transitional phase. With Jürgen Klopp stepping down and Arne Slot taking over as head coach, and the appointment of Richard Hughes as Sporting Director, a new era was expected to begin. The assumption, not unreasonably, was that Liverpool would have sought to bolster their squad with players who could seamlessly integrate into Slot’s system.
Martin Zubimendi was reportedly the primary target, but the player rejected Liverpool’s advances and opted to remain at San Sebastian. The club’s failure to pursue alternative options has shifted the spotlight onto Hughes, who now bears the responsibility of overseeing Liverpool’s transfer strategy. Relatively little is known about Hughes’s track record or his reputation as a transfer negotiator, so let’s dig in to the former AFC Bournemouth man’s work.
Richard Hughes: Bournemouth’s Guy
Richard Hughes has a deep connection with Bournemouth. He played for the club in two spells: between 1998 and 2002, and again from 2012 to 2014. After retiring from playing in 2014, he joined the club’s backroom staff, initially as part of the recruitment team. Two years later, he was promoted to technical director.
In this role, Hughes played a key supporting role to manager Eddie Howe, who famously led Bournemouth to Premier League promotion in 2015. As technical director, Hughes oversaw all transfer activity. From 2016 until the last winter transfer window, he oversaw 63 permanent transfers.
Under Hughes’ leadership, Bournemouth broke their transfer record. This came in the 2018/2019 season, with the €30.5 million acquisition of Jefferson Lerma from Levante. That record was surpassed this season with the €47 million signing of Evanilson, although that came after Hughes’ departure.
Hughes is known for his penchant for young or pre-peak talent. The average age of his permanent signings at Bournemouth was 24.4. This ability to identify talent has proved valuable in finding players who have thrived in Eddie Howe’s system. This bodes well for Liverpool, who also have a penchant for younger players (often under the age of 26) and whose new manager, Arne Slot, has a history of working successfully with young talent at Feyenoord.
However, there are some caveats to Hughes’ tenure. While he has shown an ability to sell young players for significant profits, Bournemouth’s overall net spending has remained negative under his watch. In only two of his eight seasons as technical director did the club make more money than it spent, and both of those years were in the Championship. Overall, Bournemouth’s net spending during Hughes’ tenure resulted in a deficit of €244,760,000. That said, running counter to theChampionship’s culture of overpaying in pursuit of promotion, and then securing good enough talent to remain in the Premier League is a major tick against Hughes’ record.
And it’s unlikely this kind of spending pattern would continue at Liverpool anyway. The club, under the previous Sporting Director Michael Edwards (who remains in place as Hughes’ superior with the title Chief Executive of Football), has a history of being more cautious with net spend. While Hughes may (counter-intuitively, perhaps) have less financial freedom than at Bournemouth, he will be expected to be more creative with player sales. This summer’s transfer window suggests he’s on the right track, exhibiting both buying and selling acumen.
Loves the English Lower Leagues
During his time at Bournemouth, Hughes demonstrated a consistent pattern in the transfer market, buying young players from English lower leagues. Lewis Cook, Aaron Ramsdale, Chris Mepham, David Brooks, and Antonie Semenyo are just a few examples of players Hughes brought in from League One or the Championship.
In some cases, Hughes was able to sell these players for considerable sums of money. For example, he bought Aaron Ramsdale for just €940,000 and later sold him to Arsenal for €20,500,000. He also managed to sell Tyrone Mings to Aston Villa and Calum Wilson to Newcastle for hefty fees, having bought them together for a mere €15,000,000.
Several of Hughes’ lower league signings remain integral parts of the Bournemouth squad to this day. Cook, Brooks, Semenyo, Marcus Tavernier, and Alex Scott are all key contributors under Andoni Iraola. Mepham is currently on loan at Sunderland but technically remains a Bournemouth player.
While Hughes’ strategy of building a competitive Premier League side by bringing in players from the lower leagues has proved successful at Bournemouth, it may not be as applicable at Liverpool, a club that typically targets higher profile talent. As such, Hughes may need to re-evaluate his approach and look to alternative markets. It will be interesting to see which leagues he prioritises during his tenure at Liverpool.
Another Hughes’ Favourite: Sidelined Players
Given Hughes’ track record, it’s not surprising that his first signing for Liverpool was Federico Chiesa. Hughes has a history of signing players who have been ‘sidelined’ by big clubs. Once a star at Juventus, Chiesa had been dropped by new coach Thiago Motta, making him a more affordable option. Liverpool’s purchase of Chiesa for €12,000,000 appears to be a shrewd move given his prime age, international experience, and market value of €30,000,000.
During his time at Bournemouth, Hughes signed Nathan Ake and Dominic Solanke, both of whom were struggling for game time at Chelsea and Liverpool respectively. Both players flourished at Bournemouth and were subsequently sold at a considerable profit. Hughes himself sold Ake to Manchester City for double his fee, while Bournemouth made €64,300,000 from the sale of Solanke this summer.
Another example is Justin Kluivert, who was struggling for game time at AS Roma. Hughes signed Kluivert for a relatively modest fee of €10,800,000 and the Netherlands international became a key player under Iraola. Last season, he made 26 league appearances and scored seven goals – both of which are the highest figures Kluivert has recorded since his breakthrough season with Ajax almost seven years ago. Kluivert’s performances for Bournemouth have justified the initial investment.
Hughes seems to have a knack for identifying talented players who simply need more confidence and playing time to fulfil their potential. By targeting these players, he can add quality to his squad at a lower cost and potentially profit from their development.
Brave Seller: Selling Young Players
Liverpool’s transfer business this summer is also typical of Hughes. Hughes is a bold seller, which means he is not afraid to sell or release players before their prime. This summer, Liverpool have sold Sepp van den Berg, Fabio Carvalho, and Bobby Clark. None of them are over the age of 23. Carvalho was often mentioned in the news as a player Liverpool would rather not sell, but in the first summer, Hughes sold him directly to Brentford because he felt the right offer came in.
At Bournemouth, this type of policy was followed in almost every transfer window. Twenty-three of the 55 outgoing transfers during his reign have involved players between the ages of 20 and 25. If Hughes knows that young players will not get game time or that their development at the club will be difficult, he will let them go. Even for nothing. He’s let a lot of young players go for free because he knows there’s no point in keeping them at the club, especially if he knows there’s no place in the squad for them to play or develop into starter calibre players.
If the right offer comes along, he won’t think twice either. Lys Mousset is a case in point. Hughes bought him from Le Havre for €6,500,000 when Mousset was 20. Three years later, Hughes sold him to Sheffield United for €11,100,000. Since then, Mousset has never achieved a market value higher than that and now finds himself without a club. Hughes knows that an offer like that would not come around twice, and knowing that Mousset is not fulfilling his potential at Bournemouth, the best solution is to let him go.
A Good Eye For Finding New Coaches
Eddie Howe may not have been Hughes’ first choice. But it was under Hughes that Howe’s Bournemouth became a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League, playing an attractive brand of football. It was an iconic period, as they finished ninth in Hughes’ first season. So when Howe’s time came to an end, it was up to Hughes to find the best replacement. His first choice was Jason Tindall, but it didn’t work out. Jonathan Woodgate, who was brought in as a replacement, also failed to get Bournemouth into the Premier League.
The following season, Hughes brought in Championship specialist Scott Parker. Things went well in the Championship, as they finished second and secured promotion to the Premier League. However, Parker and Bournemouth parted ways in the first month of the Premier League campaign, with Parker unhappy with Hughes’ transfer policy. It also showed that Hughes can be a tough and uncompromising man when it comes to transfers.
He went on to appoint Gary O’Neil as caretaker (and then full-time) manager, and to be fair, it was a good choice. With a squad built around Parker (even if he was unhappy about it), O’Neil managed to keep Bournemouth in the Premier League. They finished 15th, beating the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in the process. But that was not enough for Hughes.
Hughes wanted a coach who could bring a more intense and attractive style to the club. His choice was Rayo Vallecano’s Andoni Iraola, a name that had been on Hughes’ radar for about a year. With an intense pressing game, Iraola has brought Bournemouth a lot more than just a relegation battle. They finished 12th in the Premier League last season and went on a seven-match unbeaten run that included a 3-0 win over Manchester United.
Under Iraola, Bournemouth have found more stability. Their xG and xGA were better last season than the year before. They defended well with a pressing system that allowed them to concede fewer shots per 90 minutes than Chelsea and Manchester United. They had a PPDA of 10.7, the fifth lowest in the league (meaning the fifth most intense), and scored 7 goals from high-turnover situations, of which only three teams managed to score more from the same scenario. And so far this season, Bournemouth are seventh in the table, as they haven’t lost any of their three games.
And This Summer is Not His First Quiet Transfer Window
Context matters. There are expectations around new managers and new Sporting Directors. But if we just look at Hughes’ transfer history, a quiet transfer like this summer is nothing new for him. He only made two permanent transfers in the 2020/21 season. First, he signed Ben Pearson from Preston for €700,000 and then Jack Wilshere on a free transfer. Yes, he also brought in three more loan signings in Shane Long, Rodrigo Riquelme, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, but that also showed that Hughes is used to spending very little on a few players (one, actually) in the transfer window when the time is not right. Remember, too, that this was the window when they made over €90m from the sales of Nathan Ake and others.
And the interesting thing is that even the next season, when they were still in the Championship, Hughes spent far more money in the transfer window (almost €13m.). Reinvesting some of the previous window’s bonanza income, he bought the likes of Kieffer Moore and Ryan Christie, who went on to help them win promotion to the Premier League. So Liverpool fans may just have to be patient. This quiet summer could be the beginning of a storm (in a good way) in next summer’s transfer window. A Sporting Director who can identify pre-peak talent, reinvest sensibly, turn a profit, get rid of those who won’t make it, and doesn’t rush to market if the right player isn’t available – sounds very much like another Liverpool man.
Header image copyright IMAGO / Propaganda Photo / David Rawcliffe
