Inside Michael Edwards’ Liverpool exit: Multi-club disappointment, what now for FSG and ex-CEO of football?
Michael Edwards had spent months in research before he delivered the presentations that led to nothing and the discovery that he and Fenway Sports Group were not on the same page about multi-club ownership.
Proposals were made about the viability of FSG taking over Bordeaux, Malaga and Getafe, as well as others, but the reception from the organisation’s figureheads was not as warm as it had been when they first launched the idea.
FSG had brought Edwards back to the fold in 2024 after two years away on the promise that they were determined to source a second football club to add to a portfolio of one.
At Liverpool, Edwards had previously been sporting director, receiving great acclaim for his role in the club’s rise from 2015, when Jurgen Klopp was appointed manager. Yet in 2021, following 10 years at the club in different roles, he felt burnt out and in need of a rest, handing in his notice as Klopp’s power began to increase, with this potentially affecting his own influence.
There was also a significant churn of staff across different departments and without a consistent support around him, Klopp had more than ever to do, draining his energy. After Klopp told FSG of his intention to take a break from football in late 2023, conversations with Edwards began about bringing him back to oversee the significant challenges in the subsequent transitional period. There was also a significant churn of staff across different departments and without a consistent support around him, Klopp had more than ever to do, draining his energy. After Klopp told FSG of his intention to take a break from football in late 2023, conversations with Edwards began about bringing him back to oversee the significant challenges in the subsequent transitional period.
Following denials from Edwards that he was planning to return, he accepted a new title with FSG in March 2024 as its CEO of football. The role was bigger than one club — he believed multi-club groups were where football was heading and Liverpool, along with FSG, could not risk being left behind.
“One of the biggest factors in my decision is the commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club, growing this area of their organisation,” Edwards said in a statement distributed by FSG. “I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary.” The appointment meant FSG president Mike Gordon could step aside from his day-to-day responsibilities running Liverpool from Boston, Massachusetts.
In an email sent to club staff, Gordon wrote: “To remain competitive, we must identify every avenue available to us to gain an edge. To this end, Michael will use every tool at his disposal and has already identified the acquisition of another club as one channel that will help fortify our overall operation and drive our competitive ambitions.”
Yet within 18 months, FSG’s appetite to grow their empire had retreated. Aside from a model involving a second club, Edwards had explored strategic partnerships and other ways of strengthening FSG’s position within the game, including a consultancy style operation similar to the one Tony Bloom (who has stakes in four clubs, including the Premier League’s Brighton & Hove Albion) has with Jamestown Analytics.
None of these ideas materialised and a senior source from FSG, who is not permitted to talk about decisions publicly, told The Athletic that price was not the only factor in putting the group off buying a second club. Following Edwards’ appointment, a tightening of UEFA regulations made deals more complicated, while there were also concerns over the ability to grow new clubs’ revenue streams.
While Crystal Palace were forced to play in last season’s Conference League, rather than the Europa League, because part of its ownership group also has an interest in Lyon, Nottingham Forest were only allowed to compete in the Europa League after being placed into a blind trust — owner Evangelos Maranakis also controls Greek club Olympiacos.
FSG moved away from the conviction that a second club would strengthen its self-sustaining model and help keep Liverpool ahead of the competition in a league where the cost of transfers continues to accelerate.
Had a deal for another club been sanctioned, Liverpool would, in theory, have been able to access more European players in the 16 to 18 age category, who they currently can’t sign following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, as well as youngsters who could play for the club’s first team in the future but who weren’t quite ready to make the jump to the senior side.
Edwards told FSG of his intention to leave in the autumn of 2025 after a plan to purchase Spanish side Getafe ground to a halt. Though FSG had failed to deliver on the main promise that led to him working for them again — leaving him as the CEO of football at an organisation that owned just one club — and he could have relinquished his responsibilities earlier than last week, he worked his notice until then rather than being placed on gardening leave. Edwards told FSG of his intention to leave in the autumn of 2025 after a plan to purchase Spanish side Getafe ground to a halt. Though FSG had failed to deliver on the main promise that led to him working for them again — leaving him as the CEO of football at an organisation that owned just one club — and he could have relinquished his responsibilities earlier than last week, he worked his notice until then rather than being placed on gardening leave.
Over the past nine months, Gordon has quietly resumed his control of Liverpool and, although Edwards spoke regularly with Gordon and the club’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, he was advising rather than leading.
Edwards moves on with Liverpool believing they are now in a position to execute their plans for the summer transfer window.
In his departing statement, Edwards suggested that he believes “Liverpool is in a strong position, with outstanding people, a clear direction and the foundations in place for In his departing statement, Edwards suggested that he believes “Liverpool is in a strong position, with outstanding people, a clear direction and the foundations in place forcontinued success”.
That view is supported privately by his former employer, FSG, which thinks it is a measure of his body of work that the structure he leaves behind remains as it was designed and continues as before.
They insist nothing really changes. For example, for FSG’s technical director, Julian Ward, or its director of football development, Pedro Marques, who remain in their roles despite being brought in for the organisation’s proposed but ultimately disbanded plans for expansion.
Yet the summer window is expected to be the last at Liverpool for Hughes, Edwards’ key appointment as a sporting director, who is expected to join Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal. It is also unclear what that means for Mark Burchill and Craig McKee, two of the senior scouts who followed him in 2024 from his old club, Bournemouth. Meanwhile, nine Liverpool players are entering the final 12 months of their contract at the club.
Since November 2021, Liverpool have had four periods where the club’s sporting director has either been serving his notice or acting as an interim. Only during two periods — for 18 to 24 months under Hughes, and five months in 2022 under Ward — has there been any semblance of stability in that role. The record may help explain why the contracts of so many players have slipped.
Hughes and Edwards have known each other since their time at Portsmouth more than 20 years ago, when Hughes was a player and Edwards was an analyst. Edwards brought him to Liverpool because he believed the recruitment work he’d done at Bournemouth was smart and effective, with the club later benefiting from much of the groundwork he had implemented.
Hughes never moved to Merseyside and, since 2024, has mainly operated from his home on the south coast, only spending a couple of days a week in the north-west. Although he has largely been unaffected in his day-to-day work by Edwards handing in his notice not even halfway through his own contract, the long-term effect appears to have been definitive, because Hughes’ future is likely to be in Saudi Arabia.
At Bournemouth, Hughes hired Andoni Iraola before leaving. In May, the Basque coach followed him to Liverpool. While Hughes was behind the approach, his assistant sporting director David Woodfine was heavily involved in the process. It remains to be seen whether Woodfine, having worked as Hughes’ understudy since 2024 after accruing vast experience in a variety of roles across the previous decade, will end up replacing him.
Like Hughes, Woodfine first worked with Edwards at Portsmouth as an analyst. While he is expected to remain at Liverpool in some capacity, so too is Ward, the former sporting director who rejoined FSG as technical director when Edwards came back two years ago.
Ward handed in his notice in November 2022 — and then officially stood down as sporting director in June 2023 — for some of the same reasons as Edwards after Liverpool tilted towards a manager-led operation. Despite claims Ward rather than Woodfine will replace Hughes, Ward is happy in his current position, which is heavily involved with the club’s academy. Should Ward move into his old position or if Woodfine were to step up, either one would need replacing because FSG believe a sporting director cannot realistically oversee every aspect of a club’s football operation.
And what next for Edwards? There are key differences between this departure from Liverpool and the last time. Then it was clear that, aside from the challenges of working with Klopp, he also wanted to take a break.
On this occasion, he didn’t want to carry on doing a job that isn’t as advertised and promised. Now, he is very much available for hire.
Given that Chelsea and BlueCo were one of a few ownership groups who attempted to recruit him last time he was out of work, you could imagine other opportunities coming his way from organisations who have admired his work at Liverpool and want him to do for them what he has done for FSG.
He leaves with the legacy of having delivered a largely excellent transfer record working beside Klopp and then the kudos of appointing the sporting director who recruited Klopp’s successor in Arne Slot, who promptly delivered a Premier League title in his first season. Hughes’ own transfer record at Liverpool in response to that success is currently not viewed in quite so positive terms.
Edwards leaves Liverpool having conducted precisely the same number of interviews as he had upon his arrival from Tottenham Hotspur in 2011.
That the figure stands at zero is a testament to his ability to fly under the radar — and get along with fewer distractions than he might, had awkward questions allowed the public to gain more of an impression of him.
Michael Edwards had spent months in research before he delivered the presentations that led to nothing and the discovery that he and Fenway Sports Group were not on the same page about multi-club ownership.
Proposals were made about the viability of FSG taking over Bordeaux, Malaga and Getafe, as well as others, but the reception from the organisation’s figureheads was not as warm as it had been when they first launched the idea.
FSG had brought Edwards back to the fold in 2024 after two years away on the promise that they were determined to source a second football club to add to a portfolio of one.
At Liverpool, Edwards had previously been sporting director, receiving great acclaim for his role in the club’s rise from 2015, when Jurgen Klopp was appointed manager. Yet in 2021, following 10 years at the club in different roles, he felt burnt out and in need of a rest, handing in his notice as Klopp’s power began to increase, with this potentially affecting his own influence.
There was also a significant churn of staff across different departments and without a consistent support around him, Klopp had more than ever to do, draining his energy. After Klopp told FSG of his intention to take a break from football in late 2023, conversations with Edwards began about bringing him back to oversee the significant challenges in the subsequent transitional period. There was also a significant churn of staff across different departments and without a consistent support around him, Klopp had more than ever to do, draining his energy. After Klopp told FSG of his intention to take a break from football in late 2023, conversations with Edwards began about bringing him back to oversee the significant challenges in the subsequent transitional period.
Following denials from Edwards that he was planning to return, he accepted a new title with FSG in March 2024 as its CEO of football. The role was bigger than one club — he believed multi-club groups were where football was heading and Liverpool, along with FSG, could not risk being left behind.
“One of the biggest factors in my decision is the commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club, growing this area of their organisation,” Edwards said in a statement distributed by FSG. “I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary.” The appointment meant FSG president Mike Gordon could step aside from his day-to-day responsibilities running Liverpool from Boston, Massachusetts.
In an email sent to club staff, Gordon wrote: “To remain competitive, we must identify every avenue available to us to gain an edge. To this end, Michael will use every tool at his disposal and has already identified the acquisition of another club as one channel that will help fortify our overall operation and drive our competitive ambitions.”
Yet within 18 months, FSG’s appetite to grow their empire had retreated. Aside from a model involving a second club, Edwards had explored strategic partnerships and other ways of strengthening FSG’s position within the game, including a consultancy style operation similar to the one Tony Bloom (who has stakes in four clubs, including the Premier League’s Brighton & Hove Albion) has with Jamestown Analytics.
None of these ideas materialised and a senior source from FSG, who is not permitted to talk about decisions publicly, told The Athletic that price was not the only factor in putting the group off buying a second club. Following Edwards’ appointment, a tightening of UEFA regulations made deals more complicated, while there were also concerns over the ability to grow new clubs’ revenue streams.
While Crystal Palace were forced to play in last season’s Conference League, rather than the Europa League, because part of its ownership group also has an interest in Lyon, Nottingham Forest were only allowed to compete in the Europa League after being placed into a blind trust — owner Evangelos Maranakis also controls Greek club Olympiacos.
FSG moved away from the conviction that a second club would strengthen its self-sustaining model and help keep Liverpool ahead of the competition in a league where the cost of transfers continues to accelerate.
Had a deal for another club been sanctioned, Liverpool would, in theory, have been able to access more European players in the 16 to 18 age category, who they currently can’t sign following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, as well as youngsters who could play for the club’s first team in the future but who weren’t quite ready to make the jump to the senior side.
Edwards told FSG of his intention to leave in the autumn of 2025 after a plan to purchase Spanish side Getafe ground to a halt. Though FSG had failed to deliver on the main promise that led to him working for them again — leaving him as the CEO of football at an organisation that owned just one club — and he could have relinquished his responsibilities earlier than last week, he worked his notice until then rather than being placed on gardening leave. Edwards told FSG of his intention to leave in the autumn of 2025 after a plan to purchase Spanish side Getafe ground to a halt. Though FSG had failed to deliver on the main promise that led to him working for them again — leaving him as the CEO of football at an organisation that owned just one club — and he could have relinquished his responsibilities earlier than last week, he worked his notice until then rather than being placed on gardening leave.
Over the past nine months, Gordon has quietly resumed his control of Liverpool and, although Edwards spoke regularly with Gordon and the club’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, he was advising rather than leading.
Edwards moves on with Liverpool believing they are now in a position to execute their plans for the summer transfer window.
In his departing statement, Edwards suggested that he believes “Liverpool is in a strong position, with outstanding people, a clear direction and the foundations in place for In his departing statement, Edwards suggested that he believes “Liverpool is in a strong position, with outstanding people, a clear direction and the foundations in place forcontinued success”.
That view is supported privately by his former employer, FSG, which thinks it is a measure of his body of work that the structure he leaves behind remains as it was designed and continues as before.
They insist nothing really changes. For example, for FSG’s technical director, Julian Ward, or its director of football development, Pedro Marques, who remain in their roles despite being brought in for the organisation’s proposed but ultimately disbanded plans for expansion.
Yet the summer window is expected to be the last at Liverpool for Hughes, Edwards’ key appointment as a sporting director, who is expected to join Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal. It is also unclear what that means for Mark Burchill and Craig McKee, two of the senior scouts who followed him in 2024 from his old club, Bournemouth. Meanwhile, nine Liverpool players are entering the final 12 months of their contract at the club.
Since November 2021, Liverpool have had four periods where the club’s sporting director has either been serving his notice or acting as an interim. Only during two periods — for 18 to 24 months under Hughes, and five months in 2022 under Ward — has there been any semblance of stability in that role. The record may help explain why the contracts of so many players have slipped.
Hughes and Edwards have known each other since their time at Portsmouth more than 20 years ago, when Hughes was a player and Edwards was an analyst. Edwards brought him to Liverpool because he believed the recruitment work he’d done at Bournemouth was smart and effective, with the club later benefiting from much of the groundwork he had implemented.
Hughes never moved to Merseyside and, since 2024, has mainly operated from his home on the south coast, only spending a couple of days a week in the north-west. Although he has largely been unaffected in his day-to-day work by Edwards handing in his notice not even halfway through his own contract, the long-term effect appears to have been definitive, because Hughes’ future is likely to be in Saudi Arabia.
At Bournemouth, Hughes hired Andoni Iraola before leaving. In May, the Basque coach followed him to Liverpool. While Hughes was behind the approach, his assistant sporting director David Woodfine was heavily involved in the process. It remains to be seen whether Woodfine, having worked as Hughes’ understudy since 2024 after accruing vast experience in a variety of roles across the previous decade, will end up replacing him.
Like Hughes, Woodfine first worked with Edwards at Portsmouth as an analyst. While he is expected to remain at Liverpool in some capacity, so too is Ward, the former sporting director who rejoined FSG as technical director when Edwards came back two years ago.
Ward handed in his notice in November 2022 — and then officially stood down as sporting director in June 2023 — for some of the same reasons as Edwards after Liverpool tilted towards a manager-led operation. Despite claims Ward rather than Woodfine will replace Hughes, Ward is happy in his current position, which is heavily involved with the club’s academy. Should Ward move into his old position or if Woodfine were to step up, either one would need replacing because FSG believe a sporting director cannot realistically oversee every aspect of a club’s football operation.
And what next for Edwards? There are key differences between this departure from Liverpool and the last time. Then it was clear that, aside from the challenges of working with Klopp, he also wanted to take a break.
On this occasion, he didn’t want to carry on doing a job that isn’t as advertised and promised. Now, he is very much available for hire.
Given that Chelsea and BlueCo were one of a few ownership groups who attempted to recruit him last time he was out of work, you could imagine other opportunities coming his way from organisations who have admired his work at Liverpool and want him to do for them what he has done for FSG.
He leaves with the legacy of having delivered a largely excellent transfer record working beside Klopp and then the kudos of appointing the sporting director who recruited Klopp’s successor in Arne Slot, who promptly delivered a Premier League title in his first season. Hughes’ own transfer record at Liverpool in response to that success is currently not viewed in quite so positive terms.
Edwards leaves Liverpool having conducted precisely the same number of interviews as he had upon his arrival from Tottenham Hotspur in 2011.
That the figure stands at zero is a testament to his ability to fly under the radar — and get along with fewer distractions than he might, had awkward questions allowed the public to gain more of an impression of him.
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