The return nobody saw coming, and why it matters

Julian Ward was spotted moving through London Euston on Saturday lunchtime with the kind of purpose you don't fake. He has things to do, decisions to make, and not a great deal of time in which to make them. Liverpool's returning sporting director is back in post after FSG reversed course on a structure that, frankly, wasn't working without him.

Ward officially left the sporting director role in the summer of 2023, returning to Fenway Sports Group in a technical director capacity before being reappointed during the most recent international break. The context of his first departure matters here. Under Jürgen Klopp, the balance of power at the AXA Training Centre had shifted so organically toward the manager that a sporting director was, in practice, operating below him. Klopp's star power was such that he answered only to FSG and Mike Gordon directly. Ward, brilliant as he is, was working in the margins of that setup. The German's departure at the end of the 2023/24 season changed everything, and it seems FSG eventually concluded that Ward was the man to fill the structural gap that was always going to open up.

Iraola and Ward: a connection that predates all of this

What makes the current setup genuinely interesting is the relationship between Ward and head coach Andoni Iraola, which runs considerably deeper than the official reappointment suggests. Ward was Liverpool's scouting manager for Portugal and Spain back in 2013, and it was in that capacity that he recommended Iraola, then a versatile defender at Athletic Club, as a potential January transfer window target for Brendan Rodgers. Iraola chose to stay with his boyhood club, but crucially he wrote Liverpool a letter thanking them for their interest. Smart move, as it turned out.

The connection didn't end there. Iraola himself revealed during Liverpool's pre-season tour of the United States that their paths crossed again when he was managing in the Spanish second division and Ward was handling loans at Anfield. "I knew Julian previously a little bit because he was head of loans before and I remember asking him when I was in the Spanish second division, asking him for a couple of players on loan that we couldn't get in the end," Iraola said. One of those players was understood to be Sepp van den Berg, who has since gone on to establish himself in the Premier League with Brentford after a move in the summer of 2024. Iraola also hinted he might one day share the contents of that original letter, should his time at Liverpool prove to be a success. On the evidence of a season in which they lost 20 matches across all competitions and mounted a pitiful defence of the Premier League title, he has work to do before that story gets told.

Iraola was clear about what Ward brings beyond the transfer window, though. "I think Julian is someone who has been working at the club for a lot of years, so he understands the club and its different departments. He will help us a lot every day, not just during the market period where everyone is looking for the signings." That is the kind of endorsement that carries weight, particularly given that Iraola himself has only signed a two-year deal and needs results quickly.

The contract pile building up at Anfield

The most pressing business on Ward's desk is the cluster of first-team players entering the final year of their contracts next summer. Virgil van Dijk, as club captain, is the most prominent name, but Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas and Wataru Endo are all in the same position. There will also need to be a decision on Ronald Araujo once his loan spell from Barcelona concludes.

There is reason for cautious optimism about Ward's ability to navigate this. He was the driving force behind Mohamed Salah signing fresh terms in 2022, a deal that required months of negotiations with the player's agent and was eventually concluded on the Greek island of Mykonos when a club delegation flew out to finalise it. He also worked through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day that same year to ensure Liverpool pipped Manchester United to a £40m deal for Cody Gakpo. His relationships with Alexis Mac Allister's camp and the representatives involved in Luis Díaz's 2022 move from Porto further underline just how central he was to Liverpool's last period of serious squad-building.

The bigger picture: strategic partnerships over multi-club ownership

Beyond the contracts and the summer window, Ward and the football operations department are said to have agreed on a new approach to how Liverpool build influence across European football. FSG had been exploring a full multi-club ownership model, with Bordeaux, Monaco, Malaga and Getafe among the clubs assessed before the plans were shelved earlier this year. That U-turn was reportedly a factor in Michael Edwards choosing to leave his role as FSG's CEO of football during the summer, two years into a three-year deal.

The new direction points toward strategic partnerships with clubs rather than outright ownership, an approach seen as delivering similar recruitment and development benefits without the regulatory headaches that come with affiliated ownership, particularly around European competition rules. It is a quieter model than the one Chelsea have pursued through their BlueCo structure with Strasbourg, and it avoids the intense scrutiny that comes with deals between clubs under shared ownership. Whether it delivers the same competitive advantages remains to be seen, but for a club that needs to rebuild quickly, the clarity of direction is at least a start. Ward knows what Liverpool looks like when it is working. The job now is to make it look like that again.