Fabrizio Romano reports that Liverpool had no intention of making any signings in January but were forced into action by Spurs making an advance on Luis Diaz, a long-term target of theirs.
Spurs might hate Liverpool but Liverpool fans love Spurs. Without them, Diaz would likely not be a Red yet and would only have made the switch to Anfield in the summer as was originally the plan.
According to The Athletic, the Londoners put in months of hard work negotiating with Porto to bring down the €80m fee they were demanding for Diaz and once the Portuguese club agreed to €40m upfront and €20m in bonuses, Liverpool simply matched it and hijacked the deal.
The deal is worth €60million in total or £50m and he’s expected in Liverpool today.
Daniel Levy and Tottenham were understandably furious but Liverpool are simply reaping the rewards for their on-field success and are just more attractive to top players these days.
Read about why Diaz was spotted in Paris and how it’s linked to Coutinho
From there, Diaz snubbed Spurs for Liverpool as he viewed the Reds as the club with the better pathway to success for his career.
How did Liverpool change Luis Diaz approach to seal €60million deal?
The Reds were originally planning to sign the Colombian this summer but were alerted to his price being dragged down by Spurs and so they swooped in and agreed the same deal with Porto.
Speaking on the latest edition of Rio Ferdinand presents FIVE, Fabrizio Romano told the former Manchester United defender that Jurgen Klopp considers the 25-year-old to be a ‘special’ player.
He said: “I’m told that the plan from Liverpool was to not sign any single player in January. So they wanted to continue with the current team they have.
“Then what happened for this boy, for Luis Diaz, the information I have is that they sent their scouts in 2021 five times to watch this boy closely, to have an impact on this boy to see how he was working face-to-face and they loved him, and in particular Jurgen Klopp, after Porto’s clash with Liverpool in the Champions League, said to the scouting team, ‘this boy is special’.
“So they were not planning to sign him in January, but in the summer. But they decided to anticipate this deal in January because they saw that Tottenham were going really big on him.”
