Liverpool's Michael Edwards 'has all the qualities needed by Newcastle' as they search for a sporting director, The Telegraph's Luke Edwards writes.

The lowdown

Edwards was promoted to the role of Liverpool sporting director in 2016 and has helped to bring the likes of Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker to Anfield. All of those players have since been nominated for the Ballon D'Or.

However, he is expected to step down from his role at the end of the current season when his contract expires (via The Athletic).

Newcastle's owners want to appoint someone to work above the manager and 'lead the technical aspects of a new era'.

The latest

In The Telegraph, Luke Edwards noted that his namesake is 'widely' viewed as one of the architects of Liverpool's success alongside Jurgen Klopp.

'His CV commands respect' and he ticks all of the requisite boxes, while there's a possibility that he 'could be persuaded' to leave Anfield early given that he has already made his intentions clear.

The verdict

Having money isn't in itself a guarantee of footballing success, but if you give an elite operator like Edwards control of those funds, you're unlikely to go too far wrong.

Hailed as a 'visionary' by The Athletic's James Pearce, he has had to work within a self-sustaining business model at Liverpool. It's scary to think what he could do at Newcastle with the shackles unleashed.

In other news, a manager who's never had a job in Britain is under consideration by Newcastle