Liverpool have been rocked by the news that Julian Ward is to leave the club next summer - just one year after replacing Michael Edwards as sporting director.
The departure represents another huge change at Anfield, following the news that owners Fenway Sports Group are considering a sale of the club.
But one change that may have gone under the radar is the role of Mike Gordon, a key FSG player who was responsible for running Liverpool on Merseyside.
Gordon, who will be replaced by Billy Hogan, was a close ally of both Ward and Edwards, as well as enjoying a strong relationship with Jurgen Klopp. He will now concentrate on trying to find investors.
It's no surprise that he was pictured alongside Klopp and Ward when the German signed a new contract to commit his future to the club earlier this year.
Gordon's shift in responsibilities is a significant at Anfield and this piece, published on November 22, delves deep into his position at Liverpool and role in selling the club.
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If the hope of Fenway Sports Group is to make a maximum impact with minimal fuss when it comes to exploring a potential sale of Liverpool FC, then there is no-one better placed to do so than Mike Gordon.
Such has been the low profile of Gordon throughout his time at Liverpool that many supporters would probably be unable to pick the FSG president out of a lineup. Indeed, the American's unassuming nature even had many of the assembled press unable to spot arguably the most important man at Anfield when he traipsed quietly through a post-match mixed zone after a 4-0 win over Southampton in February 2020.
That is exactly how the Milwaukee native - and FSG as a wider organisation - would like it to be. If club chairman Tom Werner and the principal owner John W Henry, are instantly recognisable - and more open to the occasional media request - it is Gordon's work behind the scenes that powers the day-to-day operation at the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby and Melwood before it.
"Day to day, Mike, being the operating owner if you will, lets people get on with it," one senior source told the ECHO in 2020. "If some big decisions arise, what we might call 'an ownership decision' then Mike is involved.
"Whether that is (CEO) Billy Hogan, (COO) Andy Hughes, Michael Edwards, Jurgen, at times, but day to day, they are allowed to run the football club. If there are big decisions for the football club, such as financial or strategic ones to be made, then they would either be run by the ownership, which is mostly Mike, but also Tom Werner as well."
When Gordon flew into Merseyside to put the finishing touches on a contract extension for Klopp in December 2020, he had done so with the expectation of being as incognito as possible. Liverpool, though, were forced to offer an update on their owner's health and safety after his private jet skidded off the runway at the city's John Lennon Airport.
But despite the unobtrusive public persona, the Tufts University graduate's shift from quietly running Liverpool to actively overseeing what offers are on the table for the keys to the Shankly Gates is hugely significant.
The man who served as FSG 's third-highest stakeholder, prior to RedBird Capital's investment in April 2021, is now playing a central role in exploring the potential sale of Liverpool FC itself, with Billy Hogan stepping up his responsibilities and widening his remit inside the club as a result.
With a presentation produced for any would-be bidders and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley instructed to search for external investment, FSG, despite their 'business as usual' stance are certainly looking at the longer-term at Anfield and the exit strategy is in the hands of Gordon.
Having bought the club for just £300m in October 2010, the club's owners will be looking for somewhere around the £4billion mark to sell it outright and Gordon's presence will be integral towards whittling down the enormous interest that will no doubt follow.
“Mike is well known among professional investors as being one of the brightest financial minds in the country," Henry has previously said of his long-time business partner. “So he is involved in virtually all of our important financial discussions and decisions.
"He is by far FSG America’s most knowledgeable person with regard to soccer and is involved on the football side daily in constant communication with the members of our football committee and our manager."
It was Gordon who alerted other members of FSG to the managerial talents of a free agent by the name of Jurgen Klopp in the Autumn of 2015. When it became clear that Brendan Rodgers's reign had run its course at Anfield, the FSG chief reached out to Klopp to arrange a meeting in the New York offices of law firm Shearman and Sterling after persuading him to end a planned year-long sabbatical after seven largely decorated years with Borussia Dortmund.
"Analytically, [Dortmund] stacked up very well relative to expected performance," he said in 2020. "I called Jurgen. We had an extraordinary conversation, and it was pretty clear to me by the time I hung up that he was the right person.
"We arranged a meeting in New York City, had a lengthy discussion late one night and the following day, and it was very straightforward. This was the perfect choice."
The pair have remained close ever since with Gordon a key ally for the Liverpool manager. They are known to converse several times a week on all facets of the club and that was perhaps one of the reasons why initial talk of an outright sale led to some minor concern over the long-term future of Klopp.
"What I read was they are looking for investors and that makes sense," Klopp said. "[It's] a good idea, I like that. It didn't distract the preparation at all. The players didn't ask me but if they want to ask me I can tell them everything.
"For me it means nothing. Whatever happens, I really like how we work together with our owners but if that would change I'm committed to the club obviously. As far as I know they are looking for investors and I thought that makes sense."
His close bond with Klopp extends to the rest of the coaching staff too. In 2015 when Pep Lijnders's father was diagnosed with cancer, the American offered to send him to a Boston-based hospital for treatment from a world-leading specialist.
Lijnders wrote earlier this year in his book Intensity: "My dad had great care in Holland, but had things started to go wrong it was absolutely an option for us to take the hand he had so kindly extended to us.
"I’m grateful for loads of things, but I am really grateful for our relationship. I’m glad that we never had to take it, even when the cancer came back, but what Mike did in this phase of our lives was incredibly generous and compassionate.
"In life you meet many people and many pass by, but there are just one or two you meet who will influence your life forever. Mike is one of these people for me."
Like Henry, Gordon, who started out selling popcorn at Milwaukee Brewers matches, is a keen student of data analysis in sport and it is that devotion that has allowed Liverpool to thrive at the cutting edge of that side of the game. It was his trust in Michael Edwards that allowed the former technical director to enjoy a wildly successful spell as the Reds' first-ever sporting director where he oversaw the recruitment of virtually everyone currently in Klopp's squad.
Liverpool's unrivalled success in the transfer market over the past five years was a necessity, though. Such are the constraints of the FSG framework that every big-money transfer simply has to be a hit at Anfield. That is not necessarily the case elsewhere at clubs of a similar level.
Sources have spoken of Gordon's candidness when in private about the challenge Liverpool face in keeping pace alongside the likes of Manchester City and now Newcastle United, whose total outlay in the two transfer windows under their Saudi Arabian owners to date stretches past £200m.
As far back as April, when Klopp and his staff signed new deals until 2026, Gordon was understood to be open and honest about the financial obstacles in Liverpool's way, something which the manager himself so publicly addressed in the eve of City's visit to Anfield in mid-October.
There is a private acceptance that it is getting harder and harder to stay atop of the English and world game given the financial benefits other clubs are able to enjoy that Liverpool, under FSG, cannot. This is perhaps why now is the time to explore the possibility of sale.
There is, however, also a feeling from some who regularly deal with key figures at executive level that FSG are pleased with what their Anfield legacy would look like if they were to walk away soon.
The Boston-based group have won it all since 2019 and have helped turn Anfield into a 61,000 stadium while also bringing the club's training facilities into the 21st century with the opening of the £50m AXA Centre two years ago.
What happens next is anyone's guess right now as the non-disclosure agreements are signed and the due diligence is performed but Gordon's track record should at least inspire confidence.
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