The Athletic: Richard Hughes Spent £670m During His Tenure, but Left the Impression He Added Problems for Liverpool

According to The Athletic, Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes has left the club. During his tenure, he spent £670 million rebuilding the team, but his departure has left the impression that he added problems for Liverpool rather than solving them.

Ten years ago this week, Mane scored on his Liverpool home debut, helping the team beat Premier League champions Leicester City 4-1. It was the second of the 120 goals he scored for the club. In 269 appearances, he won almost every major trophy and left as a legend, while Liverpool almost recovered their original investment in him.

The numbers behind Mane should serve as a lesson for the person taking over Liverpool's transfer strategy after Richard Hughes. Even considering inflation, good business is signing a 24-year-old player for £30 million and selling him at age 30 with a collection of medals, potentially for £35 million.

Mane ultimately did not generate a profit for Liverpool because he struggled to establish himself at Bayern Munich and moved to Saudi side Al Nassr a year later, where he remains. This led to the view that Liverpool could have kept Mane longer. When he left, his 23 goals in the 2021-22 season were the second-highest total of his six seasons at the club. However, during a significant period of his final Liverpool season, he was used as a central striker rather than the left winger role where he had previously been so dangerous.

That decision was partly because Roberto Firmino's influence was beginning to decline. At the same time, Liverpool had already found Mane's replacement. Similar to Mane, Luis Diaz joined from Porto and eventually also moved to Munich as a Premier League champion, but this time Liverpool made a significant profit from the sale. This type of operation is difficult to replicate, but Liverpool should learn from it.

Diaz's departure currently appears to have been a mistake because he has performed well at Bayern, while nobody at Anfield has taken over his role and the team has struggled for various reasons since the summer of 2025. It is easy to conclude that the key is not how much money is spent on players or how much can be recovered from sales, but whether the next replacement is suitable and successful. However, increasing opportunities clearly depends on whether the numbers are reasonable, thereby widening the club's options.

Liverpool officially confirmed that Richard Hughes has resigned from his position as sporting director. Hughes informed the club's owners of his desire to seek a new challenge and leaves with the best wishes of everyone at Liverpool.

This brings the focus back to Hughes, who announced his departure earlier today. After Diaz left, Hughes and then-head coach Slot did not replace him with Barcola, instead prioritising strengthening other areas and believing Gakpo could step up. Giving Ngumoha opportunities was also a consideration. Hughes later approved £670 million in spending to reshape Liverpool, including the major deal that finally brought Barcola to Anfield last week. Liverpool's performance and victory away against Ipswich on Friday night boosted confidence, representing their most fluid and organised display since winning the title in 2025.

However, Hughes has been criticised upon leaving for leaving behind a flawed team with insufficient squad depth. If he had made wiser deals after Liverpool became champions, many of the subsequent issues might have been easier to resolve.

Given that Fenway Sports Group has always operated in a realistic financial world, it is surprising that Liverpool have allowed so many players to leave on free transfers since 2021. Of the 14 players who appeared in the 2019 Champions League final win over Tottenham, eight eventually departed on free transfers or for almost no fee. If Alexander-Arnold is included, his market value was certainly more than ten times higher than the nominal transfer fee Real Madrid paid for him to participate in the Club World Cup. At some point, even before Hughes arrived, the ruthlessness that made Liverpool competitive had disappeared, as they recovered very little money from their heroes apart from Mane, Fabinho and Henderson.

Hughes' record deserves serious examination because, at present, the excessive spending in 2025 has left the impression that he added problems to Liverpool rather than solving them. Even at the end of his three-season tenure, he was still dealing with the consequences of poor decisions by previous staff, some of which were too easily overlooked.

The enormous praise Liverpool received for team building under Klopp now belongs to the distant past. Across the six transfer windows from summer 2016 to summer 2018, Liverpool signed Mane, Matip, Wijnaldum, Salah, Robertson, Van Dijk, Fabinho and Alisson. Only Naby Keita can be considered a mistake from that period, while player sales, Champions League performances and commercial growth helped balance the accounts.

Liverpool made almost no signings in 2019, but won their first league title in 30 years a year later, meaning the results justified the approach. However, since 2020, after four changes among sporting director figures, Liverpool's record in transfers and player retention has been inconsistent at best. When Slot won the title again in 2025, the most influential players were still Alisson, Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Salah, who had been playing together since 2018, which says a great deal.

When transfer decisions consistently rate only six out of ten, the team will eventually need major adjustments across multiple windows, as Klopp did after 2016 when he had to find short-term solutions for the challenges Iraola currently faces on the right side of the team. On the day Mane dismantled Leicester City at Anfield, Klopp used Milner as a makeshift left-back, with midfielder Lucas Leiva partnering him at centre-back.