With Richard Hughes joining Liverpool as the club’s new sporting director, all eyes are on the club’s next appointment. Hughes has filled an important position at Liverpool. However, the most important vacant role is that of Jurgen Klopp’s replacement.
Liverpool are still on the search to secure the right candidate to take over that role after Klopp. Although Xabi Alonso has become a favourite, it is not yet set in stone that he will be the man to succeed the Anfield throne.
Hughes, Michael Edwards and FSG will have other candidates in mind as well. But it’s interesting to note that Hughes has a good working relationship with Alonso’s agent, Iñaki Ibáñez. Just last summer, he has appointed Ibáñez’s other client, Andoni Iraola, as manager of Bournemouth in what was a major coup for the Premier League side at the time.
Hughes’ own history with Alonso also stretches back many years in the past. The first time he met him was 19 years ago.
What happened when Alonso met Hughes 19 years ago
Hughes and Alonso actually have a bit of a history of facing each other on the football pitch. The first time Hughes and Alonso met each other was back in 2005, while Alonso was playing for Liverpool and Hughes was playing for Portsmouth.
Both Hughes and Alonso played in midfield in a game between the two sides during the 2004/05 season. Liverpool won 2-1 with Fernando Morientes and Luis Garcia scoring the goals on the 20th April 2005. Just a month before Liverpool would go onto achieve the remarkable Istanbul miracle in the Champions League final.
Since then Hughes has faced Alonso five other times but only beat him once back in 2007 in a Premier League fixture at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park during the 2006/07 season. The other times Alonso’s Liverpool had been victorious on every single occasion.
All together, they have played 326 minutes against one another, which is a considerable amount of time, and they will know each other well from the battles they had shared on the field.
Whether they will now turn from enemies to allies at Liverpool remains to be seen. But it certainly would not be a surprise. Given Hughes links with Alonso’s agent and the fact that the Spaniard is the strongest candidate for the job, it would make a lot of sense.