Agent launches vivid tirade against Richard Hughes over ongoing Mo Salah contract uncertainty | OneFootball

One football agent has branded Richard Hughes a ‘robot’ who lacks ‘any sense of empathy’ in a colourful tirade against the Liverpool sporting director.

The ex-Bournemouth chief has had a difficult first few months at Anfield, having overseen a quiet summer transfer window and thus far failed to resolve the contract situations regarding Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah.

The latter went public with his feelings on his future when, after the Reds’ win over Southampton on Sunday, he spoke of his disappointment at not yet being offered a new deal on Merseyside just seven months out from the expiry of his existing terms.

Agent blasts ‘robot’ Richard Hughes

Speaking on the Kieft Jansen Egmond Gijp podcast, football agent Rob Jansen – who represents Liverpool assistant head coach Johnny Heitinga – claimed that Hughes’ demeanour may be part of the reason why Salah’s contract situation hasn’t yet been resolved.

He declared (via soccernews.nl): “One thing Richard Hughes doesn’t have is any sense of empathy. Zero. He’s a robot. I know that because I negotiated with him, for Heitinga. There’s zero feelings in him. That may well be the reason, especially with a player like Salah, who has emotion, has a different culture and is sensitive to warmth.”

Fellow podcast host René van der Gijp, a former winger with PSV Eindhoven, registered his surprise at the ongoing contractual impasse by saying: “You would think if you are that club, that you would text Salah three times a day and send a bouquet of flowers twice a day?”

Image via KieftJansenEgmondGijp

Hughes needs to get contracts sorted out ASAP

While we don’t condone the personal attack on Hughes from Jansen (i.e. the ‘robot’ comment), it’s justifiable for fans to ask why the Liverpool sporting director hasn’t secured a new contract for even one of the three crucial players whose current deals expire next June.

The agent is speaking from a position of having dealt with the 45-year-old in the negotiations for Heitinga and may well have found the ex-Bournemouth chief to be a distant character, and perhaps that apparent lack of emotion is a big reason as to why he was hired for the role that he has at Anfield.

At boardroom level, sentiment ought not to enter the thinking over major decisions such as contracts and recruitment, but Salah is such an exceptional player that an exception would be merited in his case.

As Henry Winter sensibly opined, Liverpool don’t have anyone who’d be capable of immediately filling the void that the Egyptian’s departure would create, nor is there a reasonably attainable alternative of similar quality elsewhere.

Many Reds fans on social media have been distinctly unimpressed with Hughes in his first few months at Anfield, but he has the opportunity to answer the critics in style if he can secure new contracts for Salah, Van Dijk and Trent in the coming weeks.