Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards was a former footballer who played at left back and had signed for Peterborough. Unfortunately he was released by them and thus his career took a different path. Born in Southampton he attended Sheffield University and Graduated in Analytics. When he was released by Peterborough he became a teacher in IT, but the lure of football saw a return home to the South Coast for Michael when he joined Portsmouth as an analyst.
Michael had a very intelligent footballing brain and realised that there was a future in football analysis as the game got progressively technical and that metrics could give a team an advantage in such a competitive sport.
When Harry moved to the Spuds he took Michael with him giving him the same role he held in Portsmouth. During his tenure with Spuds he caught the eye of Damian Comolli (Director of Football) who brought Michael to Liverpool in 2011.
Damian had head hunted Michael to Liverpool to lead the new Moneyball approach under FSG. He became Director of Technical Performance then Technical Director until 2016, he was then promoted to Sporting director the position he holds now.
It has been well documented that Michael never saw eye to eye with Brendan Rodgers who despised the idea of a transfer committee. No surprise that their relationship produced some horrific signings (Aspas, Benteke, Balotelli) and to this day we will never know the truth as to who chose who.
What is telling is that when Rodgers got sacked Michael got promoted to Sporting Director. He seems to really gel with Jurgen. and the only Turkey they have chosen amongst the graceful swans is Karius.
Michael has really matured and excelled at his role beyond all expectation, he has helped change the transfer policy back to no media discussion until the deal is sealed. He is an astute and ruthless negotiator in the mould of Gordon Gecko or Jordan Belfort, he has pulled off some superb deals for the club.
As well as buying he has overseen some great sales, Philippe Coutinho joined for £8.5m and sold for £142m. Sakho bought for £18.5m sold for £26m, Dominic Solanke bought for £3m sold for £27m. Danny Ings bought for £8m sold for £20m. More recently Ki Jan Hoever bought for £90K sold for £13.5m.
Perhaps the most telling of all Michael’s talents are his inventive transfer dealings, some that have come to the fore this summer. We purchased Thiago for £20m, but with only £5m upfront and the balance over 4 years, he then goes and tops that deal by purchasing Jota for £41m with Hoever going the other way for £13.5m. Nothing spectacular about that deal I hear you say, until you hear the structure of that deal. Wolves will pay £9.5m upfront for Hoever with the balance in add ons. Liverpool will pay £4.5m upfront for Jota and the balance over 4 years. The original fee was £35m but Michael agreed to £41m if they took it over 4 years. In 4 years time Kloppo will have turned Jota into £150m player.
Still quiet and unassuming, I would call Michael Edwards a transfer genius without equal in the Premiership. Liverpool are World class on the pitch and also off the pitch.
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