Liverpool close to sealing Julian Ward's return as sporting director

Liverpool already know exactly who they want back in the sporting director's office. According to sources consulted by ESPN, the club is close to finalizing the return of Julian Ward, who previously held the role during the 2022-23 season and is now set to take the same seat once again.

The story has its own internal logic. Ward is stepping into the vacancy left by Richard Hughes, who arrived from Bournemouth in March 2024 with the job of rebuilding the project after Jurgen Klopp's departure. The Scot delivered on that mission, bringing in Arne Slot and later his successor, Andoni Iraola. But this month he decided to take his career in a new direction, leaving to take up a new role at Al Hilal of the Saudi Pro League.

That exit forced Liverpool to move fast. The search for a replacement was led by Mike Gordon, president of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and it did not take long for a familiar name to emerge from within the club itself: Ward, who has spent the past two years working as FSG's technical director after leaving Liverpool in 2023.

A familiar face at Anfield

Ward is no stranger to the fan base or the locker room. During his first spell as the club's sporting director he was behind the signings of Darwin Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo, before stepping aside for personal reasons.

His ties to Liverpool, in fact, go back much further. He joined in 2012 from Manchester City to run the club's scouting network in Spain and Portugal, and over the following decade took on a series of responsibilities within the football operations department: loan and football partnerships manager, and later assistant sporting director under Michael Edwards.

That internal track record is exactly what makes his return appealing at this moment. With Ward back, the club secures a familiar face, someone who understands how the machinery works from the inside, at a time when other important pieces are also moving off the field.

This return, in fact, comes just as the 1892 Holdings Consortium, led by Amit Bhatia and also including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is in the process of acquiring 38% of the club's shares. At a moment of ownership changes, having continuity in the sporting director's role is no small detail for Liverpool. It is, rather, a way of keeping the day to day football running smoothly while other matters are negotiated at the top.