Jurgen Klopp gets his wish as Jorg Schmadtke arrival signals big Liverpool change

In more than a few ways, the imminent arrival of Jorg Schmadtke represents a change in direction at Liverpool.

But as the Reds approach what is being widely described as a critically important summer transfer window, the expected appointment of the German as sporting director is entirely in-keeping with what is hoped will be a fresh chapter of the Jurgen Klopp story at Anfield.

Liverpool’s two previous sporting directors – the vaunted Michael Edwards and current incumbent, the impressive Julian Ward – spent over a decade each with the Reds in various roles before taking charge of what must be considered one of the most demanding off-field roles in European football.

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Ward’s ascension through the ranks mirrored Edwards’s before him and the rise of both bore resemblance to the way the club was run in decades previous with the famous Boot Room culture that often saw appointments from within and promotions for people like Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and Roy Evans.

Edwards and Ward’s respective tenures were lengthy ones and the variety of jobs both had during their time with the club meant that their widespread experience of all facets of the football club helped them as sporting director at Liverpool.

Now, Schmadtke will arrive on what is understood to be a short-term deal with no inside knowledge of how the club operates at a time when key decisions need to almost be perfect to get Klopp’s Reds challenging once more after a difficult campaign.

It’s fair to say the formerly retired 59-year-old was not the obvious candidate to replace Ward at the end of this season when it was announced back in November that he would be stepping down after just 12 months in the position. But at the same time, the track records of those at executive level are not as easy to dissect, analyse and critique in the same way that performances of managers and players are.

Supporters will inevitably boil a sporting director’s contribution down to the transfers made by a club on their watch, even if that is perhaps a rudimentary metric. For Schmadtke, those who he has brought to his clubs during a long-spanning career in Germany may be familiar to some but they are hardly household names.

Indeed, the most recognisable name – Victor Osimhen – remains one of Schmadtke’s biggest mistakes. The Nigeria striker was allowed to leave Wolfsburg for Belgian club Charleroi for around £3m back in 2019 before he was sold to Ligue 1 outfit Lille for as much £19m just a few weeks later as a replacement for Nicolas Pepe, who had moved to Arsenal that summer. Barely a year later, Osimhen moved to Napoli for a reported fee of around £80m and the forward has since become one of the rising stars of European football having helped the Italians to their first Serie A title since 1990 this season.

“The most important lesson is that you have to be patient with some transfers,” Schmadtke would later tell Kicker about the Osimhen episode.

At the same time, it should also be stressed that the job of identifying the players a club wants to bring in is not solely a sporting directors. Suggesting so would be a disservice to the scouts, the analysts and, ultimately, the managers, who – theoretically at least, and certainly at Liverpool – give the final green light on any potential target.

So while Edwards and Ward have rightly been hailed for their work in putting together a Liverpool squad that has won every top-level trophy between the years of 2019 and 2022, their successes in the transfer market are just as indicative of an exhaustive recruitment system working perfectly.

Perhaps a better indicator of a sporting director’s prowess is the figures they are able to extract for those without a future at the club; something which the Reds have been able to proudly boast about in recent years.

A short-term deal to bring Schmadtke in, however, is in stark contrast to the long-term careers of both Ward and Edwards at Anfield. And the fact that the experienced former goalkeeper is being coaxed out of retirement to take up the post points to this being an appointment that Liverpool firmly believe is the right one.

If the names of those added to the ranks of the clubs he has been at don’t immediately jump off the page, the list of accomplishments of the teams he has helped put together should.

After arriving as sporting director of Alemannia Aachen in late 2001, the unfancied second-division outfit eventually qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2004 after being beaten by Werder Bremen in the DFB Pokal final. A year later, they earned promotion to the Bundesliga.

After leaving Aachen in 2008, he spent four years at Hannover between 2009 and 2013, helping them get on track as they earned a top-four finish in 2010 to qualify for the Europa League.

At Koln, they were promoted back to the Bundesliga within a year of his arrival in 2013 before steady improvements helped them secure a Europa League berth in 2017. His work there was enough for Wolfsburg to sit up and take note before they convinced him to join in 2018. Die Wolfe were eventually able to welcome the return of Champions League football on his watch in 2021.

Schmadtke, who only retired earlier this year, said of his decision to walk away: “I’ve been doing all this for so long and I’ve realised that it’s time to end this chapter. There are other things in life that I would like to do. First and foremost I think of my wife, my family, who had to put back many years.”