Richard Hughes: 8 of new Liverpool sporting director's best transfers at Bournemouth

Richard Hughes is destined to become Liverpool’s next sporting director.

The 44-year-old announced last week that he would be leaving his post as Bournemouth’s technical director at the end of the season and is going to again link-up with Michael Edwards, FSG's incoming CEO of Football.

The pair go back a long way, to Hughes’s playing days when Edwards was a performance analyst at Portsmouth, and have remained in touch throughout their respective careers.

Hughes has earned plaudits for guiding the club to two Premier League promotions while having oversight for their recruitment, and also played a prominent role in the progressive appointment of Andoni Iraola last summer.

The Glasgow-born former midfielder worked his way up the recruitment set-up at Bournemouth to become the club’s technical director in 2016. He has previously represented the club across two spells, making 185 appearances in all.

He came through the youth academy at Atalanta, having been raised in Italy, before moving to Arsenal to operate under Arsene Wenger. He did not make the grade at Highbury and instead forged a career lower down.

He once scored an FA Cup goal for Pompey to knock Liverpool out and was also punched by Cristiano Ronaldo, a moment he described as a career highlight.

But it’s his off-field work which has earned him his reputation and he will be coming in to replace Jorg Schamadtke as sporting director. The German had the role for a short while, signing Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister among others last summer.

With Hughes stepping into the role once occupied by Edwards, he will have big shoes to fill. Edwards was responsible for the recruitment of Alisson Becker, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and more during his first spell at Anfield and the former Scotland international Hughes will be expected to live up to that level of quality. 

Here we look at his best Bournemouth signings.

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Dominic Solanke 

Eyebrows were raised when Bournemouth paid £19m to Liverpool for Solanke back in January 2019, even more so when his subsequent woes in front of goal were considered.

He struggled with the step up to regular, Premier League football and only looked at home in the Championship, scoring 44 times across two seasons in the second tier.

This season however the striker has caught flight. He has scored 14 Premier League goals to date, and was crowned the league’s player of the month for December.

Now the 26-year-old is being linked with a move worth many times more than the initial fee Hughes paid for him. It took him a while to get going at the top level but Solanke now looks at home. 

Illya Zabarnyi 

Bournemouth pulled off a significant coup when they landed Illya Zabarnyi from Dynamo Kyiv for around £20m last January.

The centre back was long seen as one of the finest talents in the world for his position and in his age group and it’s no secret he was being tracked by some top clubs all over Europe.

Zabarnyi was highly experienced when he moved from Dynamo, having played in the Champions League, and, at the age of 20, is already a veteran of more than 30 Ukraine caps.

The defender is a fan favourite at the Vitality Stadium but is destined for greater things. He will likely move for big money one day and give Bournemouth a massive profit. 

Marcos Senesi 

The central defender is currently out injured, meaning his recent call-up to the Argentina national team was put off in what must have been a bitter blow.

But the 26-year-old has demonstrated throughout his short time in the Premier League that he belongs in top-class company. Hughes and his recruitment team deserve credit for stealing a march on Europe’s elite and snaffling one of the stars of Feyenoord’s run to the final of the 2022 Europa Conference League.

Signed for a paltry £12.6m, Senesi is a Bournemouth cult hero who is destined to move on to bigger and better things. He’s got a wand of a left foot, is a potent goal threat around set pieces and never shirks a challenge.

With so many top Premier League clubs in dire need of a centre back it would be no surprise to see him move on this summer. 

Nathan Ake 

The 29-year-old Dutch international was signed for a Bournemouth club record fee, reported to be £20m, back in 2017 after enjoying a productive loan spell before transferring to Manchester City in 2020.

It was an inspired piece of business from Hughes and his team as they more than doubled their money on the former Chelsea players.

He didn't have the easiest time of it on the south coast, suffering relegation, but has gone on to become a treble winner and key component in Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering City squad.

Ake is the archetypal transfer for a club like Bournemouth; his talent was spotted, honed and sold on for a massive profit. It’s a trick many have tried to repeat without success. 

Callum Wilson 

Another player picked up for a rock-bottom fee, Wilson was a consistent goalscorer for Bournemouth although struggled with his fitness throughout his time at the club.

He scored 21 League One goals for Coventry City in 2013/14, attracting the attentions of the Cherries, and was recruited for a fee in the region of only £3m.

He added another 20 goals for Bournemouth in 2014-15 as they earned promotion to the Premier League. Wilson was then linked with all the big boys, including Tottenham and Chelsea, but ended up giving six seasons of service to Eddie Howe’s team.

When a £20m bid came in from Newcastle in 2020, however, Bournemouth were in no position to turn it down.

He has remained among the goals for the Magpies under Eddie Howe and now has nine England caps to his name. Again, an example of a textbook transfer. 

Arnaut Danjuma 

Danjuma signed for Bournemouth from Club Brugge for around £13m back in 2019 but initially struggled to get to grips with life in the English top tier.

It wasn’t until they were relegated to the Championship that he really discovered his form. He weighed in with 15 goals in 33 second-tier appearances, with Bournemouth qualifying for the playoffs, where they were beaten by Brentford.

But Danjuma did enough to earn a surprise transfer to LaLiga mainstays Villarreal, who paid around £21.3m to sign him. He fared decently for the Yellow Submarine, as they even made the Champions League semi finals in 2022, but was attracted back to the Premier League with Tottenham and, latterly, Everton.

Bournemouth made a tidy profit on Danjuma, who has since established himself in the Dutch set-up. 

Aaron Ramsdale

Another name worth considering here is Aaron Ramsdale, who made Bournemouth an incredible profit when he moved to Sheffield United in 2020 after relegation. Signed for only £800,000, he was sold for around £18.5m, before netting the Blades a tidy sum of their own upon moving to Arsenal. He was only in the Bournemouth goal for one season despite spending three years on the books and his side shipped 65 goals as they went down to the Championship.

He was, nonetheless, voted player of the year. 

Tyrone Mings

Tyrone Mings was spotted by Hughes and his team when he signed from Ipswich Town for around £8m in 2015 but the centre back never really made an impact across three and a half seasons at the club.

He moved on loan to Aston Villa in the Championship in the 2018/19 season, where he established himself in the heart of defence. His loan deal was then converted into a permanent move for a fee in the region of £25m.

That represents a great piece of business on a player who never really featured.