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Jörg Schmadtke and Ryan Gravenberch can continue $144m Liverpool transfer trend in 90-day plan
Liverpool is now on the verge of announcing its agreement with former Wolfsburg director Jörg Schmadtke.
According to i’s Mark Douglas, Schmadtke will take on the responsibilities of the outgoing Julian Ward, though his official title has yet to be decided.
The German is due to begin work a week on Thursday, having shaken hands on an initial three-month deal.
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At the end of that period, Liverpool will hold talks with Schmadtke and may look to extend his stay on Merseyside, albeit potentially in a different role.
The club is expected to continue looking at alternative sporting director options over the course of the summer.
Intriguingly, Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg adds that the plan is for Schmadtke to ‘mainly focus’ on talent in the Bundesliga.
While this is bound to raise eyebrows — you would expect a recruitment chief to be more comprehensive — it wouldn’t necessarily represent a break from tradition at Anfield.
Over the course of Klopp’s seven and a half years in charge, Liverpool has already signed six players from the German top-flight.
Indeed, the very first permanent deal Liverpool agreed during his tenure was a free transfer move for Joël Matip, whose contract at Schalke was expiring.
The same summer, the Reds picked up Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius for $6.7m (£5.4m/€6.2m), and Augsburg center-half Ragnar Klavan for a similar fee ($5.4m/£43.m/€5m), while back-up goalkeeper Alex Manninger also came in on a free transfer.
Then there was the protracted pursuit of RB Leipzig’s Naby Keïta, ending in a $65m (£52m/€60m) pre-agreement for 2018, and the opportunistic $24m (£21m/€22m) swoop for Bayern’s veteran superstar Thiago in the midst of the pandemic.
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And most recently, Liverpool activated the $43m (£35m/€40m) release clause in Ibrahima Konaté’s Leipzig contract ahead of the 2021/22 season, taking the total outlay on Bundesliga exports past $144m.
For reference, the second-most popular foreign market for Liverpool under Klopp is Italy, but that has only delivered three players (Alisson, Mohamed Salah and Arthur), while Portugal has supplied two (Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz).
Schmadtke’s task will be to maintain the emphasis on the Bundesliga, the competition most comparable to the Premier League in style, and spot talents that can ascend to the elite level.
We probably won’t be seeing him going after the superstars in the division like Thiago, who had already won a litany of trophies, including the Champions League, before moving to the Reds. Instead, he’ll present options comparable in status to the other five players on the list.
Up to now, only Konaté and Matip stand out as hits. The former is proving himself to be a bargain and is well on the way to becoming one of the world’s best, while the latter has been a key contributor to Liverpool’s achievements despite his string of injuries.
You could make the case that Klavan was a success as an under-the-radar but dependable auxiliary center-back, the role he was bought to play, but Keïta and Karius certainly don’t fit that bill.
The midfielder simply wasn’t on the field enough to justify his price tag as his body repeatedly failed him, while the goalkeeper endured an error-strewn stint that culminated in a nightmarish Champions League final unravelling.
We don’t yet know if Schmadtke will remain in place in long-term, but it may not take long for his influence to become clear.
He could raid his former club for defender Micky van de Ven, as per i, and there have also been repeated links with Ryan Gravenberch (via Goal).
Schmadtke’s best hope of proving his worth, then, will be succeeding where his predecessors have failed by tapping into his enviable knowledge of Liverpool’s favorite talent pool. If he does that, an initial 90-day relationship looks likely to be extended.
