Richard Hughes says FSG are ‘ready to go’ ahead of new mega-deal | OneFootball

Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes says FSG are 'ready to go' ahead of a potential mega-deal. They mean business.

Richard Hughes has spoken publicly for the first time since appointing Arne Slot as Liverpool’s new head coach in 2024. This comes, of course, after a historic summer at Anfield.

Hughes has overseen the most dramatic transfer window in Liverpool’s history. They twice broke their transfer record, spending over £400m in the process.

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That was met with over £200m in player sales, somewhat helping to fund the ridiculous spend. Though, the director claims he’s had to actually detach himself from the spend.

“As best you can, you have to detach yourself from what the transfer fee is likely to be,” Hughes said, per the Athletic.

“First and foremost, the identification of the right player for the right system for the right head coach has a fair amount of importance, and I think this is not something that’s necessarily new for the football club and its ownership."

He goes on to claim that, with inflation taken into account, the fees involved weren’t actually far off those paid by Liverpool in the past. There’s certainly some truth to that.

But there was another potential deal that caught the eye. FSG, and by extension Liverpool, want to enter a new world.

Richard Hughes on multi-club ownership

Speaking at the 'IMG x RedBird Summit', Hughes discussed the potential multi-club ownership at FSG. The Reds' ownership group have twice been heavily linked with European clubs since early 2024, first with Bordeaux and then Getafe.

Neither club have come under the umbrella of FSG but Hughes is adamant that things are in place to make it work. When a purchase is made, of course.

“It’s something that does have a lot of benefits, but I believe it’s got its challenges as well, so you need enough good staff to be able to run it properly, which in our case isn’t so much of a problem," he said.

"If and when it happens, we’ll be ready to go from a staffing perspective.”

Hughes has experienced the multi-club system before, with Bournemouth having been associated with FC Lorient in France. The director does admit that it's not exactly a system that brings joy to fans, however.

“I had a bit of experience with it at Bournemouth when Bill Foley acquired Lorient in France, and then had stakes in Hibernian in Scotland," said Hughes. “In that example at Bournemouth, in that January transfer window, we benefited from that structure by signing Dango Ouattara from Lorient.

“It was beneficial to be able to go to Lorient and sign who we thought was their most talented player, not that the Lorient fans were very thankful necessarily in that case, but from Bournemouth’s perspective, it was accessible talent."

Liverpool do appear set to get involved with the world of multi-club ownership - even if it's not something everyone agrees with. They'll do it well, no doubt, but honestly, it's a path that reflects incredibly negatively on modern football and where it's heading.