When Fenway Sports Group met Jurgen Klopp for the first time before his appointment as Liverpool’s manager in 2015, what its president, Mike Gordon, really wanted to know was whether he and the German, along with the club’s would-be sporting director Michael Edwards, were comfortable enough in their own skins to fight each other’s views, albeit in a constructive way.
Liverpool’s previous manager, Brendan Rodgers, had grumbled about lots of issues privately and then complained later, with Gordon concluding he should have intercepted such feelings before they mushroomed, undermining his own authority. Gordon would tell Klopp that speaking his mind and disagreeing with colleagues wasn’t just allowed — it was required.
It is an anecdote that should prompt some reflection at Arsenal in the wake of Edu’s abrupt departure as sporting director which has, by common consent, left manager Mikel Arteta as the dominant figure in the club’s football structure. While nobody is doubting the Spaniard’s coaching or motivational acumen, it is not necessarily to anyone’s benefit for that situation to persist in the long term.
Events on Merseyside prove as much. For five years, the culture of mutual challenge established by Gordon at Liverpool worked beautifully: the team won every major trophy that mattered, including a first league title in 30 years, and, by 2022, had reached three Champions League finals.
This, it must be stressed, would have been impossible without Klopp’s strength of character. He made Edwards’ job easier because he was so clear about what he wanted, yet Edwards helped create the economic environment that made it possible for Klopp to bring in era-defining record signings, mainly through player sales. In between both of them was Gordon, who acted as a buffer, shielding the pair from some of their less helpful instincts.
Michael Edwards (left), Jurgen Klopp and Mike Gordon formed a formidable team (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
The dynamic meant that rival clubs sought their own Klopp, but also wanted another Edwards and even a Gordon. The problems only began when Liverpool had to let go of players Klopp wanted to keep. Initially, Edwards was backed by Gordon, who decided Georginio Wijnaldum’s wage demands were not worth meeting. Subsequently, Edwards started to see Klopp getting his own way. The age of collaboration was over and the last three or four seasons of Klopp’s reign, with Edwards disappearing from view, was emphatically a manager-led operation.
In terms of trophies, the team was less successful during this period, with some spectacular near-misses rubbing up against campaigns where the team underperformed, to the extent that they even dropped out of the Champions League entirely for one year.
FSG responded to that development by allowing Klopp to appoint his own sporting director after Edwards’ successor, Julian Ward, announced his intention to walk out less than a year into the job in the summer of 2023.
Klopp’s chosen man, Jorg Schmadtke, had a sole focus of getting transfers done. The significant matter of handling existing contracts was allowed to slide and next summer, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all free agents. Losing these players at different moments for good fees would be hard to take; for them all to depart at the same time, and for free, would be indefensible, especially when FSG operates on a real system of profit and loss.
Liverpool are currently bobbing away nicely at the top of the Premier League under Arne Slot, but will he be able to stay there in the long term without players who are continuing to perform at the highest level and regularly deciding big games?
Somewhere along the line, FSG took their eye off the ball — a scenario that would have been unthinkable when Klopp, Edwards and Gordon worked in tandem between 2015 and 2020, and others were trying to copy them.
One of those clubs was Arsenal, whose revival arguably began in the summer of 2019 when they appointed Edu — who had his own gilded history at the club as an ‘Invincible’ — as sporting director. Soon, the Brazilian was heavily involved in the hiring of the team’s new manager.
Arteta was something of a gamble: a highly regarded coach from his time at Manchester City working with Pep Guardiola, but unproven as a No 1. But the move has paid off — under Arteta and Edu’s guidance, Arsenal have become relevant again. They may not have been as successful in terms of trophies as Liverpool in the same time frame under Klopp, Edwards and Gordon, but no team has come closer to challenging Manchester City’s hegemony in the last two seasons and many expected them to go one better this term.
Mikel Arteta has made Arsenal title contenders (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Edu’s departure from Arsenal potentially destabilises that progress. He is a different character to Edwards, who was punchy, and would confront Klopp if he saw a problem. Liverpool’s former manager was not exactly slow in coming forward either — like Arteta. As Amy Lawrence suggested in her article on The Athletic this morning, Edu’s people skills offered a good balance to Arteta’s impulsive reactions. He was also not shy to offer his own opinions.
Arsenal’s owners would be wise to learn from what happened at Liverpool, where so much responsibility falling in one place — Klopp — ended up draining him, arguably contributing towards his own departure. Arteta is a younger man than Klopp, of course, and has spent far less time in the managerial meatgrinder. He might have more energy in his reserves, but he also has far less experience, and ultimately is yet to prove he can turn all his undoubted promise definitively into a winning culture.
Even if he had, like Klopp, it would be unwise to leave him alone. There is a yearning in football for yesteryear, when the most successful clubs — think Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsenal themselves under Arsene Wenger — tended to be dictatorships where managers decided everything from travel arrangements to staffing levels.
There are so many games and departments now, that this is impossible. It is why figures like Edu and Edwards, as well as their underlings, are not just useful accessories but fundamental to a club’s success.
(Top photo: Edu with Mikel Arteta; David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
