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Liverpool have wasted no time strengthening their squad as they look to put the bitter disappointment of last season firmly behind them,

Anfield’s transfer committee has been busy with six signings already in the bag and the Reds aren’t finished yet.

The six-strong committee identify transfer targets, consider their merits and value, decide which players to pursue and carry out negotiations.

The ECHO looks at who sits on that committee and what role each will have played in getting deals done.

Mike Gordon

The 50-year-old American is the president of Fenway Sports Group and the most senior member of the committee. He has hold of the purse strings.

Gordon has become an increasingly important figure at Anfield over the past three years but most Kopites wouldn’t know him if they bumped into him.

He doesn’t give interviews. He doesn’t have a public profile and that’s how he likes it – out of the limelight.

He is FSG’s second largest shareholder with around 12%. Only John W Henry (around 40%) holds a bigger stake.

Gordon, who grew up in Milwaukee but moved to Boston as a student, enjoyed a hugely successful career in finance prior to getting involved with FSG in 2002 after they had bought the Boston Red Sox,

For years he was a limited partner but that changed following FSG’s takeover of Liverpool in October 2010. He was installed on the club’s board of directors and since 2012, when he increased his stake in FSG, he has spent more and more of his time on this side of the Atlantic.

“Mike is well known among professional investors as being one of the brightest financial minds in the country,” Henry told the Boston Globe back in March.

“So he is involved in virtually all of our important financial discussions and decisions. He spent his career essentially buying businesses through choosing stocks. He understands present value, all of the financial issues that exist in an organization as wide and diverse as this is.

“He is by far FSG America’s most knowledgeable person with regard to soccer and is involved on the football side daily in constant communication with the members of our football committee and our manager.”

Ian Ayre

The Liverpool chief executive is responsible for the day to day running of the club. He’s the key link between Anfield and Boston.

Kirkdale-born Ayre is a lifelong Red who used to mind Evertonians’ cars on matchdays in order to get money to stand on the Kop and watch Bill Shankly’s men.

After attending Litherland High School, he joined the Royal Navy before embarking on a business career in Asia. He was chief executive of Pace Systems, who were pioneers of the digital set top box.

He returned to the UK and spent three years at Huddersfield Town as chief executive and chairman before working for Premium TV, a Virgin/NTL subsidiary.

Ayre headed back to the Far East and was based in Malaysia as chief operating officer of Total Sports Asia.

In 2007 he was appointed Liverpool’s commercial director after being head-hunted by Tom Hicks and George Gillett. He oversaw a massive 85% increase in revenues and was instrumental in securing the record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered.

As the divisive and debt-ridden ownership of Hicks and Gillett saw Liverpool lurch into crisis, Ayre combined with Christian Purslow and Martin Broughton to outvote the American duo and help FSG buy the club after a High Court battle in 2010.

After Purslow stepped down, Ayre was promoted by the new owners to the role of managing director in 2011 and a year ago he was made chief executive.

He’s instrumental in transfer negotiations – recently flying out to Chile to secure the £29million deal for Brazil’s Roberto Firmino. Along with Gordon, he’s also responsible for contract talks with players and agents.

“What we believe, and we continue to follow, is you need many people involved in the process,” Ayre said.

“That doesn’t mean somebody else is picking the team for Brendan but Brendan needs to set out with his team of people which positions we want to fill and what the key targets would be for that.

“He has a team of people that go out and do an inordinate amount of analysis work to establish who are the best players in that position.

“Despite what people think and read, it’s not a whole bunch of guys sitting behind a computer working out who we should buy.”

Brendan Rodgers

When Liverpool were looking for a manager to succeed Kenny Dalglish in May 2012, FSG were also preparing to appoint a new director of football to replace Damien Comolli, who had been sacked the previous month.

However, their plans changed after holding talks with Swansea City boss Rodgers. The Northern Irishman agreed to take over but he wanted full control. As a result FSG’s discussions with Louis van Gaal went no further.

“For me coming in, I was always going to work with a team of people, rather than a director of football,” Rodgers said.

“I always think the manager is the technical director. He is the man who oversees the football development of the club, and I believe you should take on that responsibility when you are manager.

“I work best whenever I have clear communication lines with owners. My only failure – if you can call it that – was when I had something in between at Reading, which was when I had a director of football.

“One of my strengths is to communicate upwards, and if I can’t do that, or if the message is diluted, then I don’t work the same, and for me it was important that when I came in at Liverpool I didn’t want those lines blocked.”

With the director of football model ditched, the transfer committee was formed.

Over the past three years Rodgers has always had the final say on signings and no player has been brought in without him giving the deal the green light.

However, there have been occasions when the manager hasn’t been able to convince other committee members that a particular transfer has been worth pursuing due to the cost involved.

There have also been times when Rodgers has been left to pick from a shortlist which didn’t include his initial targets. The best example of that was last summer when he was given a choice between Mario Balotelli and Samuel Eto’o at the end of the window.

“The principle idea when I first came in was that like any manager you will have the first call on a player and the last call,” Rodgers told the ECHO in 2014.

“That’s the call on whether he’s good enough to continue to look at and try to organise a deal and the last call to say yes or no.

“There is a big part that goes on in between. In modern football you need to trust other people to do the work.

“We will never bring in a player here who the manager doesn’t want in. That’s a great credit to the owners and the other people at the club.”

Dave Fallows

Sometimes referred to as the head of recruitment, Fallows’ official job title is director of scouting.

He joined Liverpool in 2012 after being lured away from Manchester City where he was first team scouting and recruitment co-ordinator.

The former Bolton Wanderers performance analyst accepted the opportunity to be part of the new scouting set-up under Rodgers.

During his time at Manchester City he was key to building the club’s international scouting infrastructure using state-of-the-art technology.

“My role is primarily to co-ordinate all aspects of our scouting department, which includes liaising with scouts, fixture planning, managing the constant stream of reports coming in and effectively linking everything together,” Fallows explained back in 2010.

“The traditional role of a scout, where they went to a match and kept all the knowledge in their head rarely exists in modern day scouting structures.”

At Liverpool, Fallows has a worldwide network of scouts reporting back to him.

When Rodgers says that the Reds need strengthening in a particular position, Fallows is heavily involved in the drawing up of a shortlist of candidates who fit what the manager is looking for.

Barry Hunter

Liverpool’s chief scout is a 46-year-old former Northern Ireland international defender.

Born in Coleraine, he played for Crusaders in his homeland before signing for Wrexham in 1993. Reading bought him for £400,000 three years later and it was with the Royals where he got to know Rodgers.

Hunter moved into management with Rushden & Diamonds in 2004 but he couldn’t prevent them from suffering relegation to the Conference and left the club two years later.

He had a spell as assistant manager at Swindon Town before embarking on a career in scouting.

Hunter joined Blackburn Rovers as a senior scout in 2006 and did a similar job for Norwich City before moving to Manchester City in 2008.

He was City’s chief scout for Italy, Switzerland and Russia. Hunter was recruited by Liverpool as their new chief scout in 2012 at the same time as they snapped up Fallows.

At Liverpool he follows up recommendations from regional scouts and draws up detailed reports on players who the Reds are tracking.

Michael Edwards

Liverpool’s current director of technical performance is the least well known face on the transfer committee but Edwards’ influence has increased since he was brought to Anfield during Damien Comolli’s reign as director of football. He had previously worked alongside Comolli at Tottenham.

Edwards graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in business management and informatics before putting his IT knowledge to use in the world of football.

He was Portsmouth’s head of performance analysis from 2003 to 2009 before moving to London to carry out the same role for Spurs. Comolli was suitably impressed with his work that he offered him a job with Liverpool in 2011.

Initially, he was head of analytics – poring over the mass of data Premier League clubs gather on players in every match and providing reports.

Once Comolli left in 2012, Edwards took on greater responsibility and was made head of performance and analysis. He’s well regarded by FSG and since June 2013 he’s been director of technical performance.

The nod to his expertise tallies with John W Henry’s admiration for the ‘Moneyball’ philosophy where statistical analysis is used to try to find value in the transfer market.

Edwards assesses data from leagues across the world and is involved in the drawing up of scouting assignments.