Richard Hughes gets another SENSATIONAL transfer win

Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes is enjoying a solid run of successes right now. The executive got new deals over the line for Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah - ensuring the Reds some precious continuity for the next two seasons.

Even the one that got away - Trent Alexander-Arnold - ended up moving to Real Madrid for an £8.4m fee rather than for free as expected.

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Hughes also oversaw a sale that could reach £18m for Liverpool’s third-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher - who has joined Brentford. That is excellent business from Hughes and the best is yet to come.

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We will soon see Florian Wirtz join the Reds for a British record £116m. The Reds will pay £100m up front for the 22-year-old and another £16m in various bonuses.

Given that Bayer Leverkusen were seeking £126m (€150m) for their prized asset, that can be chalked down as outstanding negotiating on the part of Hughes.

Liverpool x Kerkez deal close

And he might have repeated the trick with Milos Kerkez. It’s no secret that the Merseyside club are about to acquire the Bournemouth left-back.

The 21-year-old is on track to move to Anfield next week - with a fee now agreed between Liverpool and the Cherries.

Hughes of course signed the Hungarian once before - during his days as Bournemouth technical director. And he appears to have talked his former club into doing a deal on a lower-than-expected fee for Kerkez.

Liverpool will pay only £40m for Kerkez

All summer long we’ve heard how the defender would cost £45m. But according to the latest report from transfer insider Ben Jacobs, Liverpool will be signing Kerkez for cheaper than that.

“Liverpool set to finalise a deal for Milos Kerkez next week,” Jacobs wrote on X. “Understand the fee is £40m. Formalisation to follow with only small details outstanding.”

Hughes earns £15m transfer discount

Add that £5m shaved off the Kerkez fee to the £10m discount the Reds have achieved in the Wirtz deal and that leaves £15m in the transfer kitty for deals elsewhere.

That might not seem a lot in the current transfer market but under FSG every penny counts.

READ MORE: Liverpool set to break transfer record for SECOND time

And Hughes has demonstrated with this latest transfer win that he won’t simply roll over in talks. Liverpool have got one of the best execs in the game right now, and he’s proving it deal after deal.

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