The man coming back through the door

Julian Ward is on the verge of returning as Liverpool's sporting director, with the 45-year-old set to reclaim the post he first held during the 2022/23 season before stepping down at the end of that campaign. He has been back at Fenway Sports Group as technical director since the summer of 2024, and with Richard Hughes having departed for Al-Hilal earlier this month, Ward is now the favourite to fill the vacancy.

It is worth remembering that Ward's original stint was a relatively brief one. Liverpool were not especially active in the transfer market during his tenure, yet the eight signings he oversaw, including two deals he helped close before and after his official period in charge, came at a combined cost of up to £225m. With Ward now preparing to return, it is the right moment to revisit those deals and ask honestly how they landed.

The big hits that still warm the heart

Luis Diaz was arguably the defining signing of the Ward era, and it arrived before he had even officially taken the reins. With Tottenham Hotspur moving for the Colombian winger, Ward helped accelerate negotiations with Porto to get the deal done in January 2022, Liverpool agreeing an initial £37m with £12m more in add-ons. The urgency was completely justified. Diaz was an instant hit on Merseyside, contributing to both domestic cup wins as Liverpool came agonisingly close to an unprecedented quadruple. A serious knee injury cost him much of the following season, but he came back stronger, and under Arne Slot in 2024/25 he enjoyed his finest individual campaign in a red shirt, scoring 17 goals in all competitions as the Reds lifted the Premier League title. He eventually left for Bayern Munich for £65m last summer, but his 41 goals and 16 assists from 148 appearances put him firmly in the category of players this club will not forget in a hurry.

Alexis Mac Allister, the other marquee name from this period, was a signing Ward helped conclude as he stayed on briefly beyond his intended departure to close the deal in June 2023. The source material does not rate that one in detail here, but its inclusion confirms Ward had a hand in one of Liverpool's most important recent acquisitions.

Then there is Ben Doak, signed from Celtic for a training compensation fee of just £600k. Within months of arriving, the then 16-year-old had made his first-team debut and signed his first professional contract. He made 10 appearances over three seasons, impressed on loan at Middlesbrough, and was then sold to Bournemouth for an initial £20m in August 2025. That is extraordinary business by any measure.

The record signing who never quite convinced

Darwin Nunez remains the most complicated conversation from the Ward era. The Uruguayan arrived from Benfica in a deal worth up to a club-record £85m, reportedly driven in large part by Jurgen Klopp's enthusiasm, with suggestions that parts of the recruitment team were rather less certain. What followed was pure Nunez: spectacular and maddening in equal measure. He scored on his debut, then got sent off on his Anfield bow for a headbutt. He returned 15 and 18 goals in his first two seasons, fell out of favour when Slot arrived, still produced important moments as Liverpool won the title, and was eventually sold to Al-Hilal for up to £56.6m last summer. Forty goals and 22 assists in 143 appearances is a decent return, but for a club-record fee, most supporters would tell you more was expected. He was never truly the player that price tag demanded.

Fabio Carvalho tells a different kind of story. He signed for an initial £5m after helping Fulham win promotion, started brightly with a handful of goals, then drifted to the fringes before loans to RB Leipzig and Hull City. Liverpool ultimately sold him to Brentford for up to £27.5m, making a handsome profit on a player who made just 21 appearances for the club. Financially, a success. On the pitch, a story of unfulfilled promise.

What Ward's return could mean going forward

The profile of these eight signings, one generational bargain, one divisive club-record outlay, one slow-burn success, and a couple of smart pieces of financial business, suggests Ward understands the market at different price points. With a number of high-profile Liverpool players either out of contract next summer or approaching the end of their deals in 2028, his first task back in the role could well involve contract negotiations rather than incomings, much as his work on Mohamed Salah's extension in July 2022 illustrated. How he handles that challenge, and whether he can build on the platform already assembled at Anfield, will define whether his second chapter surpasses the first.