With calls for Richard Hughes to step in and address Liverpool’s ongoing contract situation, the sporting director’s comments from July could be telling.
There is not only a frustration around Liverpool’s failure to tie up new deals for Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold so far, but also the lack of dialogue with fans.
Hughes, the club’s new sporting director, held a press conference alongside Arne Slot at the start of July but, six months on, that remains his only public address.
That day at the AXA Training Centre saw Hughes asked about the situation around contracts, with it known at the time that Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold had 12 months remaining.
And the 45-year-old gave a similar answer to that which Slot has throughout the campaign, saying: “Contractual situations, I don’t think would be fair for me to talk about.
“I think these are private matters between clubs and players.
“The only concern that I have, that Arne has, about those situations and everyone else in the squad is total commitment from the players to the cause for next season.
“We’re absolutely convinced that that is the case.”
Whether those comments, in reflection, will be interpreted as kindly as they perhaps will have been at the time is unlikely.
Liverpool were clear in distinguishing Slot’s role as a head coach, rather than a traditional manager, but still throughout a quiet summer transfer window and the ongoing impasse over new contracts he has been left to answer weekly questions.
• READ: If Liverpool wanted a head coach, Slot shouldn’t be left to explain transfers
There have been references to Hughes’ work behind the scenes, but The Athletic’s Simon Hughes was among those to scrutinise his lack of public statements after Slot was queried on Alexander-Arnold’s future on Friday.
“Another instance where reporters have no option but to ask a manager questions about a player’s future when someone else in the organisation is in theory in a better position to at least try and answer them,” the journalist wrote on X.
The frustration among supporters is certainly understandable, as though details on talks are not to be expected there is a sense that fans are owed clarity over Liverpool’s intentions.
Instead they are left to decipher vague messages filtered through the media, such as the club’s insistence that Alexander-Arnold will not be sold despite a bid from Real Madrid being widely reported.
Hughes has been a regular on Liverpool matchdays and is in constant contact with Slot and the players involved, but there is still a lingering feeling that fans deserve more.
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