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Arne Slot is having a difficult second season at Liverpool, and Gary Lineker says he's heard suggestions that the Dutchman has fallen out with Richard Hughes
Gary Lineker claims he's heard rumours that head coach Arne Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes have fallen out at Liverpool.
The relationships between head coaches and their employers have been a major talking point over the last couple of weeks following the departures of Ruben Amorim and Enzo Maresca from Manchester United and Chelsea respectively.
Maresca exited Chelsea on New Year's Day, having spoken out about a lack of support from above last month, while Amorim was sacked by United on January 5, fewer than 24 hours on from a fiery post-game press conference at Elland Road, when he hinted at interference in on-field matters from the higher-ups at Old Trafford.
READ MORE: Man City signing Antoine Semenyo is repeat of classic transfer moveREAD MORE: Liverpool pushes Roy Keane into U-turn as Man Utd legend forced to admit mistakeNow, Lineker is suggesting he's heard that something similar might be brewing on Merseyside.
“You know, the people up in the top want to make the decisions," Lineker said. "We saw that obviously with Maresca. We’ve seen that now with Amorim.
“Very strong rumors around Liverpool at the moment. There’s a bit of a fallout between Arne Slot and I think it’s Richard Hughes running the operations there. People want their say on team matters and et cetera.”
It's not clear where Lineker's information has come from, and the only recent report that we could find that suggests there is a rift between Slot and Hughes came from Anfield Watch on January 5.
That report said that Slot ignited a "civil war" during last summer's transfer window, due to a disagreement over what Liverpool should do with young players like Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni.
Slot was said to have been keen to send Ngumoha out on loan and sign a replacement for Luis Diaz, who joined Bayern Munich, but Hughes reportedly favored keeping Ngumoha at the club.
Ngumoha stayed put and has been a regular fixture in Liverpool's gameday squads this season, but he has not had many minutes, despite scoring a dramatic late winner off the bench against Newcastle in the Reds' second game of the campaign.
The unsubstantiated report says that this disagreement over how young players should be used remains a bone of contention between the hierarchy and Slot, with Liverpool reportedly favoring predecessor Jurgen Klopp's approach to blooding locally-developed players in the first team.
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