Newcastle have the edge on Liverpool over appointment of key man

With the business end of the current campaign almost upon us, thoughts will soon be turning to the summer transfer window, though as far as Newcastle and Liverpool are concerned, there’s other important business to attend to.

Both Premier League heavyweights have lost their sporting directors, with Jorg Schmadtke having left the Reds after the January transfer window and Newcastle placing Dan Ashworth on gardening leave after an approach from Manchester United.

Newcastle and Liverpool want Richard Hughes

Clearly, for both clubs, bedding down that area of the business quickly will be key to their transfer aspirations this summer.

It’s thought that Liverpool will go after Michael Edwards again despite him already turning down a move back to Anfield, and were he to do so again, The Times (subscription required) suggest that the club will approach Bournemouth’s Richard Hughes who has already indicated that he will be leaving the Cherries this summer.

The spoke in the wheels of that particular approach is Newcastle’s Eddie Howe.

He used to work with Hughes when first-team manager at the South Coast club, and one can imagine that reigniting that working relationship would be more favourable to the 44-year-old.

Indeed, The Independent (subscription required) suggest that this could be the case.

Of course, at this stage nothing is set in stone, however, the appointments are going to have to be made quickly to ensure that things run smoothly in the summer.