Liverpool is searching for a successor to Julian Ward as its sporting director, with Michael Edwards’ replacement set to leave 12 months after taking the job. Jörg Schmadtke is the frontrunner, which has led to much discussion in Germany.

“Am I allowed to swear? When I saw this break over the weekend, my original reaction was ‘What the actual f***?’,” Bundesliga expert Archie Rhind-Tutt told The Anfield Wrap about his views on the news.

“While he has a good reputation, he is somebody that I associate with the Bundesliga carousel. Schmadtke has done the rounds in the Bundesliga as a sporting director and he has been successful, but he has never gone beyond a certain height.

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“His last job was at Wolfsburg, where he said he was retiring. That was another reason why I reacted the way that I did — he is not just going to the Premier League, but one of the biggest clubs. This took me by surprise.”

It was suggested by BILD’s Christian Falk over the weekend that Schmadtke was not actually a long-term appointment but that he would be coming in as a short-term fix. “According to our information, Schmadtke is actually in talks with Liverpool first about a post as ‘external consultant for transfers’ for temporary support,” Falk tweeted.

Quite what his role might be at Anfield remains to be seen, but talks have taken place over the position at Liverpool and he appears to be the leading candidate.

Schmadtke has a good relationship with Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool would not be hiring the 59-year-old without being certain that he was a good fit, but there are reasonable questions that a wildcard appointment would create.

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For one, Schmadtke has never worked at a club with Liverpool’s profile and stature — and therefore has no experience of player trading at the very highest level.

That is not necessarily insurmountable, of course. With a different budget, there is no reason to think that Schmadtke’s ability to spot a player could not translate at the upper end of the transfer market.

The other big difference between sporting directors in the Bundesliga and in England is the contrast in how visible they are. Edwards was famously something of a mysterious figure among Liverpool fans, and Ward has been the same.

Few Reds fans would know what either of their previous two sporting directors sounded like, and neither has conducted interviews. In Germany, sporting directors are as vocal as managers and regularly speak with the media. It was incredibly rare — and spoke volumes for his exceptional success — that Edwards gave an interview upon his departure from Liverpool being made public.

In Germany, however, sporting directors are regularly asked questions by the press. This is what has led to Schmadtke building a persona of being a funny character, but by all accounts someone who is not afraid of speaking his mind. That has led to fallouts in the past after differences in opinion.

“I’m not as big an ass as you might think,” he said earlier this year. If Schmadtke does arrive at Liverpool, that would point to that being the case, but there are other question marks that would arise if a deal is confirmed.

Chiefly, how Schmadtke could adapt to a bigger club than he has worked in before and with a more understated and behind-the-scenes brief appear to be the big questions coming from Germany. In such a vital role as one of the leading voices on transfer decisions, it is massively important that Liverpool gets the appointment right.