The news that both Julian Ward and Ian Graham will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season inevitably opened the floodgates for the social media wisecracks on Thursday.
Most supporters were still trying to absorb the bolts from the blue that both the sporting director and the head of research were set to be walking away next summer when the knaves and the wags spotted their opportunity.
Because after all, who needs a recruitment department when you're at a club that doesn't sign anyone? It was all very dry and droll, but there's often a lot of truth said in jest.
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As Liverpool fans survey the landscape of a club that is now up for a sale - one that has seen the most important man at Anfield, in FSG president Mike Gordon, take a backseat to oversee that bidding process and one that will need to hire for two of the most integral positions for successful recruitment by next summer - fans will be forgiven for questioning if what they have witnessed so far during an incredible month of November for off-the-field bombshells is the beginning of the end of what has been a golden period, yet one that was all too fleeting.
Make no mistake, the Reds are hurtling into the great unknown as 2023 approaches and perhaps, from Jurgen Klopp 's perspective, the small mercies are that such news of FSG's openness to selling and the future departures of influential figures like Ward and Graham were made public at a time when the press conferences are fewer and further between than the normal deluge of media meetings.
Klopp has only had three conferences to navigate since FSG put the club on the market and two of those were post-match dealings immediately after games with Derby County and Southampton. He is not scheduled to speak to any media for some time, meaning he will at least have an opportunity to mull through his answers of reassurance for supporters concerned by the recent developments.
Klopp, though, is at least the one great constant for Kopites to cling to at such an uncertain time. Having established a reputation as one of the best-run, top-level football clubs in Europe over the past five years or so, Liverpool are preparing for the return of domestic action next month with so many major questions that will need clarity.
What is the latest on a potential sale? Are the club able to operate with backing in the transfer window? How will they counteract the losses of Ward and Graham? Uncertainty reigns just now. It's all very un-Liverpool.
Crucially, they still have their talismanic manager front and centre and committed to the long term having signed a new deal with his staff barely six months ago. While Klopp sits in the dugout, supporters will always be able to park their concerns to an extent.
It is Klopp whose input will be most taken into consideration around what happens next in their recruitment department. While Graham and the rest of his six-strong team of data analysts were employed thanks to the forward-thinking vision of Michael Edwards, it is unlikely the director of research's exit will be the death knell for that department.
Liverpool have proven that traditional and modern methods of scouting can co-exist to great effect on Klopp's watch, meaning the blueprints surely won't be ripped up by the German, even if there yet might be a slight shift in the transfer policy at the heart of the AXA Training Centre.
Anfield insiders, some of those who work closely with Ward, have spoken of their shock at the news on Thursday. It's believed the sporting director informed the club of his decision before the World Cup got underway late last week but many only learned of the news when it was initially reported.
Having spent 11 years at the club in various roles that include being the loan pathways manager and the first-ever assistant sporting director to Edwards, the 41-year-old Ward may feel that it's simply time for a change after over a quarter of his life as a Liverpool employee.
Sources are insistent the Aintree-born analyst has yet to formulate plans for his next move and he has decided, like Edwards upon his own departure last summer, to simply take some time off, away from what is no doubt one of the most demanding jobs in English and European football.
In a way, though, is there some credence to the train of thought that supporters' fears of a crumbling Liverpool empire is overegging the pudding somewhat? There is no doubt the state of flux the club appears to be in both on and off the pitch is troubling just now, but fans have little real insight into the day-to-day work of a sporting director.
It's an enigmatic position that, while important to the overall running, is more shrouded in mystery compared to what supporters are able to glean from managers and players, where the measure of performance is more obvious through the weekly results. Ultimately, a sporting director is judged as a success by fans simply through the prism of how much money can be raised for offloading players and how well those brought to the club do in Liverpool shirts.
That is why there is a degree of quiet confidence behind the scenes that for all the uprooting and upheaval that will inevitably follow in 2023 - across all facets of the club - the continuity, the strategies and the work practices that have held everything in place for years at Liverpool will continue unchanged.
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