Talks held: Liverpool meet with Premier League director over replacing Richard Hughes

Liverpool have reportedly held talks over hiring Brentford technical director Lee Dykes as a potential replacement for Richard Hughes.

Hughes recently left his role with the Reds to become the sporting director of Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal after a mixed spell at Anfield.

Although Hughes brought in some big names such as Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola to Liverpool, it’s debatable if the big spending on marquee signings has really worked out so far.

According to BBC Sport, Liverpool are now looking at a few candidates to come in for that role, and Dykes is one option they’ve met with.

Still, the report also suggests that an internal hire is looking like the more probable option for the club.

Liverpool still need signings after poor recent windows

While LFC clearly have no problems attracting exciting talents to the club, there’s more to being a good sporting director than having the right contacts and throwing huge amounts of money at the most obvious names.

One recent issue for Liverpool has been allowing players to come to the ends of their contracts, which led to important duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate leaving, while Mohamed Salah got a new deal before cancelling it less than a year later.

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Some signings also just haven’t worked out at all, with Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez looking like major flops.

Dykes has overseen a period of big improvement at Brentford, with the club both buying and selling really well whilst remaining competitive in the Premier League.

It would be interesting to see if he could make that step up to an environment like Liverpool where there would be a lot more pressure and a different calibre of the market to work with.