New from The Athletic (James Tryard). A few interesting tidbits on Hughes.
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When you walk into Richard Hughes' Kirkby office, you're struck by two things. One, an irresistible waft of Dior Sauvage which permeates every cubic millimetre of the space. Two, the fact that he's not there.
Colleagues of Hughes, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their identity, have spoken glowingly about Hughes' uncanny ability to disappear during critical moments, enabling the previous previous season's champions to ignore bids for their valued players.
"The first season he was here was astonishing - Dicky just disappeared. His genius is that he doesn't tell people where he's going, he's just gone. In hindsight, it was a bit weird that summer that we did get people from Al-Hilal answering his mobile sometimes but we assumed he was just doing some big deal."
Since his appointment and Michael "Mickey" Edward's return, Liverpool have led the way, again, on genius analysis of the state of the game. Where once a nice balance of defensive and attacking players was seen as the way to succeed, colleagues spoke rapturously about Hughes' and Edwards' foresight.
"Dicky and Micky first identified that the game had moved on way before anyone else. Two seasons ago they zeroed in on the idea that transfers were very 2018 and we just didn't need them. Year after, he was again at the pinnacle of the game, identifying players through Ultimate Team and just.....buying them! [At this point, Richard laughs out loud for a solid 5 minutes]. Since then the football cycle has moved on and now no-one uses midfielders anymore. Dicky has done amazingly in resisting the urge to have any kind of midfielder or even full-backs. It's all just wingers now, in practically every position."
When Richard finally packs up his aromatic office and jets to Saudi at the end of this window, he'll leave behind a legacy of status quo smashing, trail-blazing and a ruined, imbalanced squad sacrificed on the altar of his ego. But colleagues, fans and players alike will remember him fondly.
"To be fair, he's a great boss. When he is here he just asks us who we've got on the wing in our Football Manager games. It was dead funny actually when he tried to sign a regen off Bournemouth and they sent along that YTS kid! Then we all just head off for lunch about 11am and he's not fussy about people going back to the office."
Richard Hughes. The man. The legend.
