Having spent eight and a half years at the Premier League giants and returned Liverpool back to their former glory with stars and silverware, Klopp’s exit will put extreme importance on the hiring process of his replacement. If the club swings and misses here, they risk dismantling much of the glorious work Klopp has accomplish
The Sporting News spoke with Stewart King of search firm Nolan Partners, a major player in the European and U.S. football landscape, to gain a further, more general understanding into how search processes play out.
While Nolan Partners is vastly experienced in finding sporting directors for European football clubs, having worked with nearly half the Premier League including multiple ‘Big Six’ sides. The firm also has recent forays into managerial or head coach searches in global football, so far largely in women’s football in the NWSL.
Nolan Partners has carved out a niche with clubs who feature American investors, and while their specific knowledge of the Liverpool search will be limited as they have not been hired to aid in the search for Klopp’s replacement, they have experience to lean on in similar environments.
Most often, search firms are brought in for one of two more common situations: either to replace a manager or sporting director who was fired, or find a successor to an individual who moved on to another employer.
“There’s a few different scenarios that we get brought in for,” King told The Sporting News. “One, there’s someone in the role at the moment, and [ownership] doesn’t believe it’s going in the right direction, but instead of terminating things there and then, they want us to have done as much as we can before they potentially terminate that contract to make sure we use time efficiently and we can turn things around quicker.
“Or, [the club has] already terminated someone. Or, [the club] has had the person they love poached by a bigger club, which is a very real situation for most clubs aside from one or two in the world.”
“We never just put one [candidate] up. Our job is to give our clients a menu of different options,” King said. “We will agree on what we call the ‘acid test’, which will be what we agree to be the three or four most important qualities, whether that’s technical, experience, personality… the absolute non-negotiables. Then, we’ll go and build a long list of eight to 10 profiles, which we come back and
