David Ornstein has confirmed that Julian Ward remains a key fixture as far as the club’s planning ahead of the summer window is concerned.
This is despite the Englishman having already handed in his notice and amid reports of a new role at Ajax being accepted (as alleged by the Mirror, via the Daily Mail).
“There is also uncertainty in the corridors of power at Liverpool, with sporting director Julian Ward serving his notice period ahead of his departure this summer,” the reliable reporter wrote for The Athletic. “Ward has remained involved in planning for the summer along with Klopp, head of recruitment Dave Fallows and chief scout Barry Hunter, but finding a new sporting director is a priority.”
The Merseysiders are understood to still be searching for a potential long-term replacement for the man who briefly filled Michael Edwards’ boots at L4.
READ MORE: Fresh development just made it much easier for LFC to sign Jude Bellingham – Marca
Paul Mitchell, set to leave Monaco at the end of the summer window, is understood to not be a firm candidate, with one report going as far as to claim that Jurgen Klopp is not a fan of him personally.
We’d be surprised to see the club still struggling to fill the position in question by the end of the summer window, however, given attractive the prospect of moulding Liverpool’s squad must be for prospective candidates.
That being said, it does fill us with some concern that we appear no closer to identifying the right individual ahead of what is expected to be a summer of major change.
We’ve no doubt that Ward won’t have his feet up and be twiddling his thumbs until the time comes for him to stare up at the AXA training centre one last time, though we’d certainly feel more assured if it was clear what direction we’d take either before or after the upcoming window.