Liverpool's Search for New Sporting Director: Internal or External Candidates?

Liverpool have stepped up their search for a new sporting director, sounding out external options while edging towards an internal solution at Anfield.

Brentford technical director Lee Dykes is among the candidates the club have spoken to as part of the process. The 40-year-old has earned strong recognition for his role in Brentford’s rise and consolidation as a Premier League side, having joined the Bees in May 2019 and helped shape the recruitment that underpinned their 2021 promotion and subsequent stability in the top flight.

Yet the mood inside Liverpool points in a different direction.

The club are understood to be leaning towards promoting from within, with current technical director Julian Ward emerging as a leading contender to replace Richard Hughes. Hughes’ move to Al-Hilal was confirmed at the start of the month, leaving a significant vacancy at the heart of Liverpool’s football structure.

Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon is driving the search and has cast the net beyond Dykes. FSG have held talks with other external candidates as they test the market and measure it against the talent already in-house.

Brentford’s sporting director Phil Giles is also highly regarded at Anfield. His work alongside Dykes has helped turn Brentford into one of the Premier League’s most efficiently run clubs. But prising Giles away from west London is viewed as a tough task, and Liverpool are realistic about the difficulty of tempting him to leave a project he helped build.

So the picture is clear enough. Liverpool are listening, asking questions, exploring ideas. The serious work is being done behind the scenes. But as the shortlist tightens and the interviews continue, all roads may yet lead back to Julian Ward and an Anfield solution to an Anfield problem.