NEW Liverpool manager Matt Beard admits he has had to have some difficult conversations as he makes plans to get the club promoted back to the Women’s Super League.

Beard, who won successive Women’s Super League titles in 2013 and 2014 with the Reds, has returned from relegated top-flight side Bristol City where he was interim boss.

One of his first jobs was assessing the squad he inherited and, as a result, the likes of Jess Clarke (69 appearances), Kirsty Linnett (52), Amy Rodgers (50), Becky Jane (32) and Amalie Thestrup — who only arrived from Roma last season — have all departed after their contracts expired.

The club was criticised for the manner in which some of those exits were handled, with Linnett claiming in a post on social media the club withdrew their contract offer and did not tell her, and Beard said some tough decisions had to be made.

However, he suggested the failure to return to the top flight at the first attempt had influenced their thinking.

“Those conversations are never easy. Yes, it is part and parcel of the game but this group got relegated from the WSL and they’ve not gone back up,” he told liverpoolfc.com.

“It proved last year what a tough division it is and it’s going to be even tougher this year with the investment of Charlton and Coventry and teams like Lewes.

“The ambition is to get promoted. It’s not going to be a given, it’s not going to be guaranteed, we have to earn that right.

“We’re working incredibly hard on bringing players in and I’m really excited with the conversations we’re having and the options we’ve got available.

“Hopefully we can start to get the new players in and over the line in the coming weeks.

“I know the areas we’ve identified — not just me but the whole technical team — the areas we want to improve on. We want to create more competition for places.

“We’ve done a lot of homework on our own group. I’m confident, I think we’ve got a really good core group here.”