How much blame should sporting director Richard Hughes take for Liverpool's woeful season?

Hughes only formally joined Liverpool on June 1, 2024, but he'd started work long before then. From the moment his move to Anfield was confirmed in March, he threw himself into finding the best possible coach to replace outgoing manager Jurgen Klopp and, after weeks of meticulous research, Hughes identified Arne Slot as the man for the seemingly impossible job.

"The philosophy and playing style that attracted us to Arne is based on subjective footballing opinion and data as well, as you'd expect," Hughes explained at Slot's official unveiling as Liverpool's new manager on July 5. "In all the metrics, Arne's Feyenoord team came out really well. 

"The way they played with real front-foot, attacking football, played with intelligence, played with passion, and I think those are all attributes that we would welcome here at Liverpool. I think they lend really well with the current squad that we have, our supporters and the football club as a whole."

Hughes couldn't have been more correct, as Slot led Liverpool to just their second Premier League title in his first season in charge - and with the addition of just one player, Federico Chiesa, who barely played!

Verdict: Even accounting for Liverpool's current problems, a spectacular smash hit.

There's undeniably an argument to be made that Liverpool's decision to sign only Chiesa across the entire 2024-25 campaign was vindicated by their title triumph. There's certainly no denying that Klopp left the squad in rude health. Slot even acknowledged that himself.

However, the joy - and beautiful scenes of celebration - that greeted Liverpool's record-equalling 20th top-flight championship shouldn't mask the fact that the Reds were running on fumes during the final few months of the season.

In that sense, they were a little lucky that they'd managed to blow all of their Premier League opponents out of the water by the time spring roll around - because they were visibly starting to tire, as was so emphatically underlined by Slot's side being knocked out of the last 16 of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain and then upset by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final during a demoralising five-day spell in March.

In that context, one cannot help but wonder what might have been had Hughes managed to sign Martin Zubimendi and at least one other defender. Of course, it's hard to be too critical of the sporting director for the way in which Zubimendi went back on his word, while Slot pulled off a masterstroke by turning Ryan Gravenberch into a No.6, but missing out on the Basque has since been shown to be very costly indeed - and particularly in terms of this season's title race.

The fact that there was no Plan B in place also meant that Slot, by his own admission, was forced to play Gravenberch far more than he would have liked in 2024-25, resulting in the Dutchman showing serious signs of fatigue during the second half of the campaign. Looking back on it now, then, one trophy could have easily been transformed into three with greater squad depth.

Verdict: Missed opportunity.

When Hughes formally took up his role, three of Liverpool's most important players were about to enter the final year of their respective contracts: Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. However, while Hughes can't be held accountable for creating the problem, we can appraise how he went about solving it.

It was obvious from the start that both Salah and Van Dijk wanted to stay at Anfield, while Liverpool's reluctance to give the ageing duo lucrative extensions was understandable - to a degree. However, no matter what was going on behind the scenes, there should have been greater transparency over how the negotiations were progressing, because the lack of information became a major source of frustration - and not just for the fans or the players involved.

Slot was left to answer incessant questions about whether both his captain and talisman would still be at the club the following season, and it's genuinely a wonder that the constant contractual chaos didn't become a damaging distraction during a title pursuit - because the fallout from Trent Alexander-Arnold's decision to leave Liverpool was annoying enough.

At the end of the day, Hughes deserves credit for finally agreeing terms with Salah and Van Dijk. Although the wisdom of those two deals will probably only become clear at the end of the current campaign, they unquestionably made sense at the time - and arguably still do. Both had undeniably done enough to earn extensions and remain integral to Liverpool's hopes of a successful season. What's more, even if Salah were to leave this summer due to his strained relationship with Slot, he'd still command a decent fee from a Saudi Pro League side.

As for Alexander-Arnold, it's clear now that there was little Hughes could have done to convince him to stay at Anfield. As the right-back's level of Spanish in his first public appearance as a Real Madrid player underlined, his decision to move to the Bernabeu was made long ago.

The only issue there is whether Liverpool should have sold Alexander-Arnold before he ran his contract all the way down to its final few weeks but he did, at least, play a pivotal role in the title win, while £10 million ($13.5m) wasn't a bad return on a player that was expected to leave for nothing.

Verdict: Two out of three ain't bad - but the drama was allowed to drag on for far too long.

Anfield has never known a summer like 2025. Supporters still buzzing after seeing Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy were almost overcome with excitement after watching the club's previously prudent owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), sanction one expensive signing after another.

Jeremie Frimpong arrived the same day that Alexander-Arnold officially left to take the edge off the former Kop idol's disappointing departure, and, in a development that nobody saw coming, the Dutchman was soon joined on Merseyside by his former Bayer Leverkusen team-mate, Florian Wirtz, who had previously been expected to join either Bayern Munich or Manchester City.

Before June was out, Hughes went back to the Vitality Stadium to sign Milos Kerkez, the incredibly exciting left-back that he'd previously bought for Bournemouth. It was at that point that Liverpool stepped up their search for a new striker and, remarkably, it didn't end with the acquisition of Newcastle target Hugo Ekitike. Liverpool actually ended up managing to sign the Magpies' No.9 too, as Alexander Isak eventually managed to force through his "dream" move to Anfield on the final day of the summer transfer window.

By that stage, the supporters were in a state of delirium. It felt as if Hughes was playing fantasy football, assembling a squad of superstars, Liverpool's answer to Real Madrid's 'Galacticos'. 

However, the Reds' recruitment came in for severe criticism during a historically bad run of nine defeats in 12 appearances in all competitions between September and November - during which their hopes of retaining their Premier League crown disintegrated. The British-record fee for Isak bore the brunt of the criticism because, as many said at the time, Liverpool didn't necessarily need the Swedish striker - particularly after signing Ekitike, who has proven even better than expected - and the feeling remains that they would have been better served signing someone like Antoine Semenyo to replace versatile winger Luis Diaz, who was integral to their championship success, rather than relying on the erratic Cody Gakpo.

Still, after being slated during a slow start to his Premier League career, Wirtz is now starting to prove his worth - and the same goes for Frimpong and Kerkez, who shone simultaneously for the first time this season in the midweek win in Marseille. The hope now is that Isak, who suffered a broken leg just seconds after scoring what felt like a game-changing goal in every sense at Tottenham in December, is also destined to come good once he returns to full fitness (although probably not until next season), given he's a proven Premier League goal-scorer.

Verdict: Could eventually pay off.

No matter what Isak & Co. go on to achieve at Anfield, there can be no denying that the decision to spend so much on the centre-forward while trying to save a few million on Guehi was a gross error of judgement.

It was abundantly clear after Liverpool's opening two games that signing a replacement for - or alternative to - Ibrahima Konate should have been the No.1 priority. The France defender was atrocious against both Bournemouth and Newcastle, and Liverpool have paid a heavy price for deciding to rely on an error-prone player with an expiring contract.

Of course, the Reds did bring in a very promising centre-back in Giovanni Leoni and the injury he suffered during a very encouraging debut against Southampton in September was desperately unfortunate. However, he was never meant to go straight into the starting line-up - as illustrated by his first appearance coming in the Carabao Cup.

It's not as if Joe Gomez's inability to stay fit was news either, meaning Liverpool's shortage of adequate cover at centre-back was a crisis that Hughes could have easily averted by paying what would have still been a bargain £40m ($54m) for Guehi long before deadline day.

Gambling on the England international waiting until the end of the season before moving to Merseyside on free transfer also backfired spectacularly, with City strengthening an area of the field in which the Reds are painfully weak.

Verdict: Negligence that effectively cost Liverpool the league.

As it stands, Liverpool are unlikely to add to their squad before the close of the winter window - which is understandable in one sense, given the committed something close to £450m ($600m) on new players last summer. However, as Slot stated again after Wednesday's 2-0 win at the Stade Velodrome, Liverpool don't have the same strength in depth as some of their rivals even when all of his players are fit - so sticking with what they've got is a brave call.

It's also arguably unsurprising. Slot's ability to make the most out of the resources at his disposal is one of the reasons why Hughes championed the Dutchman during the recruitment process, and his faith in his No.1 choice to succeed Klopp has, evidently, been unaffected by recent results. At many other European clubs, Slot would have been sacked for overseeing such a pathetic Premier League title defence.

Of course, Liverpool take pride in their patience and prudence. They're traditionally willing to give their coaches time to turn things around, and Hughes will be hoping that Marseille represents a turning point in this desperately trying campaign - because it's clear now that his fate is now intertwined with that of Slot.

The sporting director has just 18 months to run on his current contract and Liverpool's results between now and the end of the season will likely determine if he's given a new one. An FA Cup win or deep run in the Champions League would be nice, but a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League is absolutely imperative.

Verdict: Jury is still out...