Richard Hughes completes genius deal

Richard Hughes will have done it again with another genius deal.

The club's sporting director has a pretty good track-record. Not just at Liverpool but at Bournemouth as well where he built a super team, with stars like Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Antoine Semenyo.

Now at Liverpool he's brought in Kerkez as well as Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. On top of that the Reds have Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni as well.

Hughes' business has been nothing short of terrific. Even in his first summer at the club when he wasn't as active he brought in Federico Chiesa, who has become a cult figure at Anfield and Giorgi Mamardashvili who will play an important role as the understudy and future successor to Alisson.

Not to mention the recruitment of Rio Ngumoha, who might just become a generational talent.

There are other deals that seem less genius on the surface but when you really dig deeper become all the more impressive.

There were so many deals being done in the summer one went under the radar amid all the talk of Isak and Wirtz.

Hughes agreed to loan James McConnell to Ajax towards the final weeks of the window and struck a new contract with him in what could end-up being a genius deal.

McConnell is very highly rated by the club's academy ranks. Arne Slot is a big fan of him, too. Which is why sending him out on loan to Ajax makes so much sense.

Johnny Heitinga, who worked with Slot at Liverpool, is in charge of the club, so he's arrived at an environment where his current manager already knows him and understands the role he could play in his team.

So far, it's been a bit of a slower start for the 21-year-old, having come back from an injury and then having suffered a knock. However, he's slowly getting the opportunities that he should be getting and making his moments count.

His latest 20 minute came on in a defeat to AZ Alkmaar was a great example of that. On Saturday afternoon, McConnell came on to replace Jorthy Mokio, and he put in a solid performance.

The Liverpool wonderkid won all of his ground duels (3/3) and completed all of his dribble attempts (1/1) while also completing 12 out of 14 passes.

That's a really active cameo from the youngster. In 20 minutes, McConnell put a lot on the table and while he could not turn the game around for his side, he definitely showed that he is ready to start a game.

Since arriving at Ajax, he's yet to do that but he's only been available for five games and he's made four substitute appearances, all with impressive moments.

Moving to the Dutch giants was always going to be a massive step-up for McConnell, considering he's mostly just been playing U21 football at Liverpool.

But it's also a genius deal. If he can play regularly and catch the eye, Liverpool may unearth a special talent. After all Ajax have a great track record of producing elite players into world football.

McConnell is on the right-track and if he can continue to build on his cameos in a year's time he might just be ready to step-up to Liverpool's first-team and become the next midfielder from the club's academy to play a key role in the senior team, after the likes of Steven Gerrard and Curtis Jones.

In return, Hughes might just have done it again and completed a genius deal.