Royal blue at the heart of Liverpool's title win
Standing at the pinnacle of the English game with his stock soaring, it’s incredible to think the architect of Liverpool’s Premier League success was almost lost to the game forever.
Yet that was certainly the case, as an acrimonious end to a Pompey career which deserved so much better saw a deep bitterness at his treatment take hold of Richard Hughes.
After nine years, 165 appearances and levels of commitment to the Fratton cause unmatched by his peers, a contract wrangle and Machiavellian manoeuvres from former chief executive David Lampitt saw the final six months of his loyal service played out on the Fratton sidelines.
Apathy led to the former News columnist turning his back on the game in 2011, instead focusing on opening his Italian restaurant, Mele e Pere, with his brother in London’s Soho. Any association with football was limited to occasional five-a-side kickarounds.
A glorious rise after turning back on football
It would have been a brave man who’d have anticipated Hughes putting one of football’s great institutions back on top then, but there he was amid the red smoke and sulphur last week flanked by two of his former Fratton colleagues amid Liverpool's title celebrations.
Even the stattiest of royal blue stattos may struggle when tasked with recognising Michael Edwards, David Woodfine and their contributions to Pompey past.
Yet the pair have provided the framework for Liverpool to emerge from fears gripping the club over the post-Jurgen Klopp era, to becoming champions in less than a year.
Hughes is now the man who signed the man, in Dutch coach Arne Slot, but it’s Edwards who brought in that man and rekindled a relationship crafted at the ramshackle surroundings of Eastleigh’s King Edward VI School’s sports ground.
That venue doubled as Pompey's training base for 11 years until 2013, with Edwards arriving at the end of 2004 as head of performance analysis.
This was a time, however, where a data-driven approach to football operations was firmly in its infancy, in fact it was derided by many of the traditionalists. Yet, the man known as ‘Prozone Eddie’ had long been a signed-up convert, even at this early stage.
A disciple of Moneyball, baseball's ground-breaking move to using data over traditional scouting methods which football adopted, Edwards’ office was a small first-floor nook of Pompey’s home - one which big-money players would tellingly flock to in the Premier League era.
Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes in his Pompey days.
If the Fareham man’s face has become more recognisable in recent years as he gained recognition for being the power behind the Anfield throne, the same certainly can’t be said for Woodfine and his nine-year stint at the club.
Various roles in scouting and loan management saw the 45-year-old arrive as assistant sporting director to Hughes last year, with Edwards Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group’s CEO of Football.
A rare picture of David Woodfine, right, with brother Toby at the Great South Run in 2014.
Woodfine’s connection stretches back to his Pompey arrival as a performance analyst in 2005, with a five-year stay ensuing before following Avram Grant to West Ham.
The 45-year-old came across as a quieter character, while Edwards worked the laddish banter of the football environment to create his bonds with the Blues squad.
