Nothing but Praises for Liverpool’s New Man in Charge of All the Dealings

The Anfield faithful are loving Liverpool’s new sporting director, Julian Ward. He has not only successfully brought in top talents and beat rivals to their signatures, but he has also successfully tied down key first-team players to new long-term contracts with the club.

Before the summer kicked off there are not many around Anfield who could have predicted the outcome of their business this summer. Many believed that business would be at a minimum and there would be more sales than anything else.

Thankfully, Michael Edwards left the club in capable hands when they appointed Julian Ward as his successor. He not only signed some of Europe’s biggest young talents in the game but solved long-standing issues at Anfield.

So far this summer and after Liverpool announced the extension of Joe Gomez until 2027, they have brought in three new players, sold others to recover some funds, and then tied down their most important players, who want to stay at the club for the foreseeable future.

Included in their summer buys, the Reds broke their transfer record and completed the acquisition of Darwin Nunez. But this is where one can see how brilliant the business mould has been at Anfield since FSG took over the club.

The sales made have almost covered all the costs of their purchases, and they are far from done negotiating deals for outgoings with Neco Williams, Nat Phillips, and others still being linked with exits. Williams is expected to leave for an expected fee of £17m while Philips will be allowed to leave for anywhere between £15m-20m.

Summer Spending, excluding bonuses and add-ons totals £77,21m (this does not include Neco Willams’ deal as he is busy with his medical and must still be announced by Nottingham Forrest). Including add-ons, the total comes to about, £99,71.

Added to this, he took a couple of days to finalise a deal between Mo Salah and the club, this was an 18-month saga before being sorted out by Ward.

Joe Gomez, barely put up a fight and it took about 24 hours of discussions before he penned a new five-year deal with Liverpool. James Milner’s future was up in the air but thanks to a breathtaking end-of-season parade and the work of Ward, he signed a year extension.

Just in: Neco Williams, Liverpool’s backup fullback could be sold for a reported fee of £17m to Nottingham Forest. That’s £17m for a player who barely featured in the Premier League for them and came in behind Trent Alexandre-Arnold, Joe Gomez, and James Milner.

Liverpool Fans Loving the Ward of Julian

"£35m for Neco Williams and Taki Minamino, two players who would only ever be League Cup starters, proves Julian Ward is carrying on where Michael Edwards left off.(Via: @empireofthekop)"

The best reaction of them all:

"A Liverpool delegation led by Director of Football Julian Ward resolved an 18-month contract impasse, with negotiations accelerating over the last few days as both parties made the necessary compromises to ensure the unthinkable did not happen. #lfc [telegraph](Via: @AnfieldWatch)"

You know when one of the world’s biggest transfer gurus praises your work. The crazy thing is, Julian Ward has only been Liverpool’s sporting director for one summer. Scary to think what’s next with the Reds starting their rebuild for the future.

"Julian Ward did an incredible job for Nunez and then Mo Salah new deal… (Via: @FabrizioRomano)"

"Watch the next major job he pulls off. (Via: @GrizzKhan)"

"So in his first year as LFC sporting director, Julian Ward has signed Diaz, Nunez, Carvalho and Ramsay for a combined £110m up front, banked up to £50.5m by selling Mane & Minamino and tied Mo Salah down to a new deal. (Via: @Dave_Comerford)"

With the three newcomers added this summer, the arrival of Luis Diaz in January, and the departure of Sadio Mane, the Reds will have a new look as they take the same approach but with new servants in both the backroom and on the pitch.