Senior figures call for calm, Liverpool on brink of high-profile exit

Liverpool are on the brink of another high-profile exit. Senior figures have reportedly tried to calm the situation.

Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all left Liverpool this summer. The Reds will move forward without any of them, leaving giant holes in their squad heading into the new season.

All will need replacing, of course, and probably at great expense. But they weren't the only high-profile exits this summer.

Arne Slot lost his job as Liverpool's head coach. It came as something of a shock, for the simple reason that the club appeared to back Slot all the way through the press.

Now Andoni Iraola is in and Liverpool start again. But ridiculously, they're now on the brink of another high-profile exit and one that arguably has a bigger impact on the club.

Richard Hughes is expected to leave Liverpool at the end of the summer and join Al-Hilal. This is something that Saudi Arabian outlets have reported for some time and the English press caught up last week.

The BBC are one of several outlets reporting it. His long-time assistant Steve Francis is already working there, with the expectation that Hughes soon follows.

It's a mad situation and one that puts Iraola under immediate pressure. The man who hired him is leaving and there will be a new sporting director in place - one who may have very different ideas about the team and the head coach role.

The Athletic claim that 'senior' figures at Anfield are treating all of this as business as usual. They believe Hughes will undergo his job as he's paid to do and that there aren't any concerns about his long-term planning.

That does feel a little like wishful thinking, however. Hughes has no real stake in Liverpool's long-term future, and barely has any in the short-term.

He's doing his job knowing full well that whoever replaces him will have free rein to tear it all up and start again. It's just a very strange situation for a club the size of Liverpool to be in.

This hasn't exactly been a stellar summer, either. The Konate exit could have been avoided but Liverpool failed to agree a new contract with him - nor have they signed a proper senior replacement.

The Yan Diomande pursuit was essentially an embarrassment for the club as they publicly made him their no.1 target before losing out to Paris Saint-Germain.

Things are going to have to turn around quickly if Hughes is to leave Liverpool with his reputation intact. For the Reds' sake, we hope he can do that.