Four things 'definitely happen' if Liverpool hires Jörg Schmadtke as FSG strategy gets frontman

Liverpool's search to find a successor to Julian Ward has taken the club several months since the former sporting director announced he would be stepping down from his role this summer.

But now at last it seems like Liverpool may have a successor to Ward's throne.

According to The Telegraph, Liverpool is now in advanced negotiations with Jörg Schmadtke. A fellow German, the report claims he is a close ally to Jürgen Klopp, who could be the ideal fit for the Liverpool boardroom.

Schmadtke previously spent a long stint at Wolfsburg before stepping down earlier this year due to family reasons.

After stepping down from his role, Schmadtke told Kicker:

"There are other things in life that I want to do. First and foremost, I'm thinking of my wife and my family, who have had to take a back seat for many years. It's time to close this chapter."

"But," Schmadtke added. "It might be the case that, after three months, I can't take it anymore. Or even worse: My wife chases me out of the house again."

It's been a little longer than three months, but it seems like that prediction might just prove to be the case. Just like Klopp's hiatus from football was short-lived when Liverpool came calling, Schmadtke's could be as well.

So here are four things that might happen if he is appointed:

Budget used efficiently

Everywhere Schmadtke has gone, he has had to operate on extremely tight budgets, even smaller than Liverpool and FSG's, and yet he has always done well.

At Wolfsburg, Schmadtke only spent more than $45m (£35m/€40m) in one of his five seasons at the club. Yet despite this, he spends money efficiently and has brought in some excellent players.

When he joined Wolfsburg, the club had finished just a couple of spots above the relegation zone. Under him, Schmadtke helped the team to transform back into a regular European club, even making it to the Champions League.

During his time he has brought in talent like Ridle Baku, Maxence Lacroix, Aster Vranckx, Jonas Wind, Matias Svanberg, Wout Weghorst, Patrick Wimmer and Jakub Kaminski, just to name a few players.

Some of the aforementioned stars have since been linked with big money moves elsewhere. Weghorst is now at Manchester United and Vranckx is at AC Milan.

At Liverpool, Schmadtke will be given a bigger budget by FSG, but will still have to operate on a tight scale in comparison to the club's rivals. His track record at Wolfsburg shows he is ready to step up to the task.

In fact, his skills at squeezing the absolute maximum from budgets might just make him the perfect frontman for the FSG strategy.

New markets tapped

Because of Schmadtke's limited budget at Wolfsburg, he has often been forced to pursue alternative markets in European and world football in order to source talent.

He has shopped a lot in the Austrian Bundesliga, has tapped into the Polish Ekstraklasa market with a couple of recruits including the talented Kaminski. He has also bought in big names from relative obscurity such as Lacroix, who was recruited from Sochaux in Ligue 2, and Jonas Wind from Copenhagen.

Recently, he has also made forays into growing markets in Asia and the United States as well.

He signed Yun-sang Hong from Pohang Steelers in South Korea back in 2021. The following year, he also brought in Kevin Paredes from DC United, who in just 434 minutes this season has four goal contributions for the club, averaging 0.82 goal contributions per 90.

Again, this Moneyball-esque eye for undervalued regions would suit FSG down to the ground.

Red Bull connection retained

Under Michael Edwards, Liverpool built a strong relationship with Red Bull's clubs, most notably RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.

Making signings like Takumi Minamino, Naby Keïta and Ibrahima Konaté in the space of just a few years, Edwards built strong connections.

Schmadtke must also have relatively strong links with the energy drinks empire. During his time at Wolfsburg, he only bought more than one player from three clubs, and one of them was Red Bull Salzburg — with the two others being LASK and Manchester City.

In the case of Xaver Schlager, Schmadtke then also went on to sell his recruit from Salzburg to another Red Bull team in Leipzig.

Having conducted business with the Red Bull clubs both in terms of outgoings and incomings, he must have built up a strong rapport. Liverpool played both Leipzig and Salzburg in pre-season friendlies last summer, and hiring Schmadtke would allow those cordial relations to continue.

Increase in loan activity

At Wolfsburg, Schmadtke often used the loan market rather than selling his players directly.

Victor Osimhen for example was sent out on loan before he was sold. Josip Brekalo, Marin Pongracic, Elvis Rexhbecaj, Omar Marmoush, Felix Uduokhai, Aster Vranckx and Maximilian Philipp have all also been given temporary moves away from the club at one point or another.

Sometimes, in the case of players like Marmoush, sporting director Schmadtke utilized loan spells in order to help them to integrate back into the first team. Whereas for others like Brekalo, Uduokhai and Rexhbecaj, they were used to bump up their transfer fees.

Right now, a similar thing is happening with the aforementioned Vranckx, Philipp and Pongracic, who are all out on loan at Serie A or Bundesliga clubs.

Under Julian Ward, Liverpool has increased its activity in the loan market, sending out a plethora of players from the club's academy out on loan. Perhaps under Schmadtke, that strategy could continue as well, with FSG no doubt keen to extract maximum value when selling players in order to carry out its self-sustaining approach.