Richard Hughes agrees GENIUS £29m transfer to replace cult hero

Richard Hughes deserves a lot of credit for his work in the summer, but his best transfer may have been a £29m deal that didn't happen this year.

So much change has happened at Liverpool over the course of the last 12 months. It's a miracle really that amid all of that change Arne Slot was able to deliver a Premier League title.

Liverpool are now the most successful team in England with 20th league titles to their name, and six Champions League triumphs.

This summer it seemed like Hughes was gearing up for another league title challenge and building a super team ready to conquer it all.

With a lot of money spent and big names arriving, that just hasn't quite seemed like a reality so far in the campaign. It is early days though.

But being eight points adrift during the November international break makes it a difficult climb for Slot's side to get back on level terms with Arsenal.

Hughes got a lot of praise in the summer and now he's getting a bit of flack for supposedly not getting things right.

It's all a little bit unfair. It's not Hughes' fault that Crystal Palace pulled the plug on the Marc Guehi transfer right at the last minute. It's also not his fault that Giovanni Leoni got a season-ending injury in his first game for the club.

Unfortunately, some things are out of a sporting director's control, and the blame should not be on Hughes alone.

It's also important not to overlook Hughes' success.

Some of Liverpool's signings have settled in well and have caught the eye. Hugo Ekitike is becoming a fan favourite.

Meanwhile, fans have overlooked how seamlessly he replaced a cult hero in Caoimhin Kelleher.

Given Alisson's injury record, for years now it's been essential for Liverpool to have a world-class second choice keeper. Kelleher was that for several seasons until he finally decided to leave to join Brentford in the summer.

By that point Hughes had already replaced the club's cult hero with Giorgi Mamardashvili in what was a genius move from the Liverpool man.

For just £29m (BBC), Hughes secured one of the biggest goalkeeping prospects in world football, and convinced him to be Alisson's understudy for potentially one, or maybe even two years.

He did that all in the summer of 2024, having the premonition to prepare Liverpool for Kelleher's eventual departure.

And in Alisson's absence Mamardashvili has only confirmed just how good of a business that was. The Georgian has been brilliant through difficult times.

He has made important saves and even stopped an Erling Haaland penalty. The latter is so crucial because Kelleher was a penalty saving expert, too. He won the League Cup final for Liverpool with his heroics back in 2022.

As Sky Sports have pointed out Mamardashvili's save vs Haaland was his sixth since the 2023/24 season, which is more than any other goalkeeper in Europe's top five leagues.

That's a remarkable statistic and it proves the £29m star has been a genius replacement for Kelleher.

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