Exclusive Raphael Honigstein insight into what ‘innovative’ Jörg Schmadtke could bring Liverpool

There is no doubt that this summer will herald a series of major changes at Liverpool as Jürgen Klopp looks to arrest the slide after an inconsistent season. With fortunes looking revived on the pitch of late, instilling stability behind the scenes will be essential in the coming months.

In some ways, the past year has been a little rocky off the field for the Reds, with long-serving sporting director Michael Edwards having departed the club last summer, only for his successor Julian Ward to announce that he will be departing the club at the conclusion of this current campaign. On top of this bombshell, it has also emerged that director of research Dr Ian Graham will be leaving Anfield at the end of the season, alongside loans manager David Woodfine.

It would be fair to surmise that this upheaval is far from ideal for Klopp, especially when one considers the importance of the upcoming transfer window, not least due to the number of incomings and outgoings expected from a squad perspective. All of these factors considered, it has not come as a major surprise to see the German boss turn to a tried and trusted ‘ally’ who may help steady the ship during a period of change on Merseyside.

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Liverpool supporters will be aware that sporting director Jörg Schmadtke has been mooted as a potential solution either on a temporary or permanent basis in recent weeks (as per the ECHO), with the former Bundesliga personality currently out of work after ‘retiring’ from his post at Wolfsburg in January. Something of an unknown quantity in many quarters on these shores, the 59-year-old is a respected figure in German football, and his connection with Klopp may make him the perfect candidate to offer some much-needed assistance during what will be a pivotal summer for the Reds.

Casual observers may have heard tales about Schmadtke being something of a ‘court jester’-type figure over the past month. But his achievements in the German top flight indicate that beneath his enigmatic exterior lies an extremely competent operator who boasts a great deal of experience.

In an exclusive interview with Liverpool.com, German football expert Raphael Honigstein provided an insight into Schmadtke’s character and work, while also detailing how the sporting director could assist Klopp in the coming months.

According to Honigstein, the former Hannover 96 sporting director is not somebody who will think twice about speaking his mind, a quality which could well be a real asset for Klopp at Liverpool. He explained: “[Schmadtke] is definitely a character. He’s been a real face of the league in the past 20 years, especially when he became a sporting director.

“Before that, he was a pretty prominent goalkeeper but it is through his work at [Alemannia] Aachen, Hannover, Köln and lately at Wolfsburg that he has really become a household name in Germany. He’s somebody who has always said interesting things.

“[He is] often someone who is quite outspoken, often quite honest to the point of being a little bit painful to those who might be on the other side of it. But certainly, he is somebody who is known for doing a good job wherever he has been in charge.”

Although the former Bundesliga figure has not necessarily unearthed a succession of unpolished gems during the last couple of decades, there is no doubting the impact he has had on pretty much every club he has worked at, Honigstein contends.

“There’s [been] no superstars, there’s no story of finding, let’s say, a Kevin De Bruyne and making him into a superstar, but whatever he has done has helped his clubs be in a better place.

“I think that is the true test of somebody like that who works at a club for four, five or six years and then leaves the club much stronger financially, in terms of the quality on the pitch. [He has] also had tangible successes like playing in Europe sometimes for a first time, or in other cases has taken them back into the Champions League, like for example Wolfsburg who had a really lean spell for a few years.

“So there’s a reason why he was always in really hot demand and would always get a decent job.”

More specifically, in terms of what Schmadkte can bring to Liverpool, Honigstein is quick to point out that perceptions surrounding the potential hiring have been met with understanding in his homeland. Although some skepticism had emerged initially, he points out that this was largely down to cultural differences, with the role of a sporting director in Germany different from one in England.

In addition to this, a lot of the confusion regarding the links emerged as a result of Schmadkte having seemingly retired from the game earlier this year. Given Liverpool’s current off-field predicament, the German football expert asserts that the potential appointment could well end up making a lot of sense, especially when one considers his ‘innovative’ approach to his work.

Honigstein said: “We are doing Schmadkte a disservice to see him as old-fashioned as he has, from the outset, been very innovative in a lot of the things he has done. Part of the reason why he has been successful is he has always been open to new ideas and doing things slightly differently, but I guess people just did not immediately connect him with a club like Liverpool.

“Especially, and I think this is important for people to understand, because the role of a sporting director in Germany is very different to the one in England. A sporting director is really the most important person in a club when it comes to the football leadership — he hires the manager, sets the transfer strategy, addresses the press and players when things don’t go well — so it’s a very, very different role to the more shadowy figures we have in the Premier League where they work behind the scenes on behalf of the manager, rather than above him.

He added: “That’s why I think immediately, when people heard [the links] people found it hard to square with the perception that Schmadkte had just retired but now here he is taking over Liverpool. It felt a little bit incongruous but I think the more people learned about what the job entails and how it is different to what they are used to, the more they came around to the view that it probably made a lot of sense to have somebody when Liverpool are a little thin on the ground where experience is concerned.”

So the potential appointment might be surprising on the surface, but if Liverpool does go for it, Klopp might just be adding an innovative operator to his operation.