Richard Hughes lacked cash to sign 4 players now at Liverpool

Liverpool’s new sporting director Richard Hughes tried to sign four players for Bournemouth who ended up at Anfield. The 44-year-old has a good eye.

Liverpool officially announced Richard Hughes as their new sporting director on Wednesday. Hughes, who has worked with Bournemouth for the last decade or so, steps down from the Cherries at the end of the season.

And so he's ready to take over at Anfield from June 1st. Hughes doesn't just bring plenty of experience to the position at Anfield but also a relationship with Michael Edwards.

The pair go way back, having worked together when Hughes was playing at Portsmouth. They've remained in touch ever since and, per the Telegraph, that includes talking transfers despite working for rival clubs - even competing for players.

Richard Hughes and Liverpool players

The Telegraph's report claims Hughes actually attempted to sign four players for Bournemouth who are now at Liverpool. The first and most notable of the lot is Virgil van Dijk.

The director attempted to sign him from Celtic in 2015 but lost out to rivals Southampton. Van Dijk would eventually move to Anfield for a world-record fee for a defender, of course.

But he's not the only one who Hughes lost out on. He also directly battled Liverpool for Harvey Elliott, Joe Gomez and Andy Robertson, losing out every time.

Of course, that's nothing but positive for the Reds. Hughes not only has the same eye for a player as we've seen at Anfield for the last decade but really just lost out on the latter three for a lack of funds.

He will have those at Liverpool and be in a far better position to grab the players he wants. The article even mentioned Alisson Becker and Mohamed Salah as names he admired before their moves to Anfield.

Altogether, it suggests Hughes's thinking is very much in line with Edwards' - and that should be an exciting prospect.