Richard Hughes has left his role as Liverpool’s sporting director and been confirmed as the new sporting director at Saudi Pro League leaders Al-Hilal, arriving in Riyadh just days after his Anfield exit was announced on Saturday. The move ends a two-year spell in which Hughes oversaw close to £700 million in transfer spending and one Premier League title.
Why He Left Liverpool
Hughes told Fenway Sports Group earlier this year that he wanted a fresh challenge, with interest from Al-Hilal circling for months, according to TNT Sports. He stayed on through the summer transfer window to finish the club’s recruitment business before formally departing.
FSG president Mike Gordon thanked Hughes, calling the work done during his tenure “testament to this contribution” while wishing him well. Hughes himself described the job as “a source of great pride.”
A £700m Spend and a Bumpy Title Defence
Hughes joined Liverpool from Bournemouth in June 2024 and immediately picked Arne Slot to succeed Jurgen Klopp, a call that paid off with the Premier League title in Slot’s first season. The follow-up campaign went badly enough that Liverpool sacked Slot in June 2026 and turned to Andoni Iraola, another manager Hughes brought over from his old club Bournemouth, as Al Jazeera reported at the time.
Along the way, Hughes sanctioned close to £700 million in transfers across two summer windows. The 2025 spend, worth roughly £450 million, was headlined by a club-record deal for Alexander Isak from Newcastle, plus Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen and Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt. This year added a further £250 million, including a £123 million move for Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain, plus smaller deals for defender Jeremie Jacquet and winger Victor Munoz.
None of that spending was enough to protect Slot once results turned. Liverpool’s title defence unravelled badly enough over the season that the club moved on from the manager Hughes himself had appointed just two years earlier, handing the job to Iraola before this year’s window had even opened.
Fifth Departure From the Post in Four Years
Hughes becomes the fifth senior recruitment figure to leave Liverpool’s football operations since 2022, following Michael Edwards, Julian Ward, and Jorg Schmadtke through the same door, Inside World Football noted. His exit lands roughly two months after Edwards himself stepped down as the club’s CEO of football.
Two members of Hughes’s own recruitment team, Mark Burchill and Craig McKee, both former Bournemouth staff, are following him to Al-Hilal. It is another sign of how much of Liverpool’s recent recruitment setup has now moved to Saudi Arabia, a market this site examined in Why the Saudi Pro League Is Reshaping Global Football.
Ward himself spent over a decade at Liverpool before replacing Edwards as sporting director in 2022, only to step down after a single season, with Schmadtke covering the role on an interim basis until Hughes arrived from Bournemouth. That churn at the top has made Liverpool’s recruitment department one of the least stable in the Premier League even as the team kept winning trophies underneath it.
What Happens Next
Liverpool have not named a replacement, though Ward is reportedly among the internal candidates being considered, with his existing knowledge of the club’s recruitment structure and ownership model seen as an advantage during a settling-in period for Iraola. Al-Hilal, meanwhile, say the appointment is meant to strengthen recruitment and scouting across their own football operation.
Until a successor is in place, Iraola and his coaching staff will run Liverpool’s football department without a permanent sporting director above them, a gap the club will be looking to close before the mid-season window opens in January.
Sources:
TNT Sports
Al Jazeera
Inside World Football
CaughtOffside