What does Michael Edwards' FSG return mean for Liverpool?

The Fenway Sports Group has revealed that Michael Edwards is their new CEO of Football from June 1, 2024 and everybody will now be focused on what that means for Liverpool Football Club.

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Edwards, 44, was instrumental in rebuilding Liverpool under FSG's ownership as he hired Jurgen Klopp and was at the club from 2011 and was their sporting director from 2016 until when he resigned in 2022.

But with Jurgen Klopp announcing he is leaving this summer, Liverpool's owners have moved quickly to bring Edwards back to FSG and he will oversee Liverpool Football Club as well as some exciting new projects.

What does it all mean?

Michael Edwards will call the shots at Liverpool

Edwards is going to be the main man at Liverpool. He is familiar with the day-to-day runnings of the club and was extremely close with Klopp during his time at the club. That is a great thing.

With Klopp leaving this summer, FSG clearly wanted a smooth transition to whoever the next manager is and Edwards arriving is a less risky appointment and will keep things moving in the same direction off the pitch.

Edwards will oversee all football decisions at FSG and he will appoint a new sporting director at Liverpool, widely believed to be current Bournemouth sporting director Richard Hughes.

Edwards and Hughes go way back and it seems like Hughes will do much of the day-to-day work at Liverpool, while Edwards will focus on big decisions and overseeing the structure in place. Having someone like Edwards — who knows everything about why Liverpool have been so successful over the last eight years — making the big decisions for the club should give Reds fans plenty of optimism for the future. Even with Klopp moving on.

Could Edwards’ arrival impact who the next Liverpool manager will be?

Of course.

Along with the ownership and new sporting director at Liverpool, Edwards will have a huge say on who the next manager will be. After all, he picked Jurgen Klopp and it worked out pretty well.

It has been reported that he admired Eddie Howe (someone he knows closely from his time at Portsmouth too) before he hired Klopp as Liverpool boss, while another name to keep an eye out on is Gary O'Neil.

O'Neil goes way back with both Richard Hughes and Edwards from their time together at Portsmouth where O'Neil and Hughes were midfielders and Edwards was an analyst. O'Neil was also employed by Liverpool in their academy setup before he went to Bournemouth and then on to Wolves as head coach.

Given the job Gary O'Neil has done at Wolves this season he is clearly a rising star but perhaps this big of a job could come too early for him in his managerial career. Still, O'Neil name to keep an eye on aside from the regular Xabi Alonso and Ruben Amorim links and it seems like Alonso is destined to take charge of Liverpool after the fantastic job he's done at Leverkusen and the fact he played for the Reds.

Another little bit of info: Alonso's agent, Inaki Ibanez, is the same agent Andoni Iraola has and the Bournemouth head coach was hired by future incoming Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes, so there's already a close connection there.

Edwards will also lead FSG’s charge to buy another club

This was one of the most intriguing things about the news that Edwards is returning to FSG.

Of course, a lot of the focus will be on Liverpool but Edwards also had this to say about why he returned to work for the American company.

"It was vital for me that, if I did return, it had to be with renewed vigour and energy. In practice, this means having fresh challenges and opportunities," Edwards explained. "As such, one of the biggest factors in my decision is the commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club, growing this area of their organisation. I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary."

Now this doesn't seem like Liverpool are about to build a similar multi-club model to Manchester City but it does seem very likely that they will acquire one other team in Europe to use as a testing ground for the young players from their academy while also developing young talent there who could move on to Liverpool.

All of this is extremely interesting and underlines FSG's commitment to Liverpool. The reason why it is so exciting for Liverpool fans is that Edwards is obviously the best man for this job and with Klopp moving on he provides stability and a link between their recent success and lofty ambitions for the future.