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You won’t find many more popular men around Anfield right now than Richard Hughes.
After an inauspicious start to his time as Liverpool’s sporting director last year, the Scot has more than made up for it over the last few months. Securing new deals for Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah would have been enough to get him in the good books with fans, but then he went above and beyond during the summer.
A quite remarkable transfer window saw the Reds break the Premier League transfer record twice, completely transform a side that had already won the title, and still come out the other side with a better net spend than Arsenal. It was an almost perfect summer for Hughes.
Almost is the key word there. It might sound cynical after the window Liverpool has just had, but it did of course miss out on one of its big targets.
Given the way Marc Guehi’s move collapsed, you certainly can’t lay the blame at Hughes’ door. After all, the deal was agreed and the defender had already undergone his medical, only for Crystal Palace to pull the plug at the eleventh hour.
Reports of Guehi being enraged at his current club’s decision tell their own story, and although Liverpool would certainly be happier if the 25-year-old were a Red right now, Hughes and co can console themselves in knowing that the groundwork is done.
The decision now, assuming another center-back doesn’t take the club’s fancy in the meantime, is whether to go back in for Guehi in January, or wait until next summer to get him for free.
Liverpool would almost certainly get a reduction on the $47 million deal that was agreed if it went for the earlier option, but getting a player as good as Guehi for nothing will be more than a little tempting - and it might chime in with Hughes’ approach to transfers.
“With the window open, we'll always be opportunistic if we can,” Hughes said last year.
You don’t get much more opportunistic than signing one of the Premier League’s best defenders for free, and as long as Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez and Giovanni Leoni don’t break down in the meantime, that will be the most attractive prospect.
It does come with its own risks though. Already, other clubs are being linked with Guehi, and if he finds himself in a position where he can speak freely to anyone, he might well consider his options beyond Liverpool.
And Hughes knows there’s another problem lying in wait should the Reds choose to wait until next summer.
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"When there are major competitions during the summer — a European Championship, Copa America and the Olympics as well — there's a lot of football being played, naturally the attention is going to be there," Hughes added upon his unveiling last year.
2026 is a World Cup year, and bar a quite spectacular collapse, England will be at the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. And, fitness permitting, Guehi should be in Thomas Tuchel’s starting line-up, never mind his squad.
With the tournament running from June 11 to July 19, that will add a hurdle to a potential transfer. Depending on how far England goes, Guehi may look to delay any decision over his future, which might leave Liverpool a little more on edge.
Hopefully, given he already knows of the Reds’ interest, his head won’t be turned by another club before he finally gets the chance to complete a move to Anfield. Hughes and Liverpool though may well have to bide their time - unless they pull the trigger in January.
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