Welcome to Liverpool Luis Diaz

[RedHeadedRed]

Delighted with this I didn't expect a signing at all in January not alone one this good, I hope he hits the ground running.

[Tj hooker]

Looks a very good  signing to say the least,   can't wait to see him tearing shit up for the rest of the season .

[The Midnight Rambler]

What boss said basically.

[an tha]

Well fair do's to club.

 

Gonna be interesting to see how this plays out with rest of attacking options....Can definitely see one of the other 4 going in Summer - just don't see us having Salah, Mane, Firmino, Jota and Diaz for 3 spots.

 

 

[manwiththestick]

If he doesn't score at least two goals on his debut he can go to Spurs in the summer.

[TD_LFC]

 

Might have just created a nice little working relationship and pipeline of talent.

 

Liverpool saves FC Porto from UEFA sanctions Dragons asked to postpone the deadline that was until tomorrow, to pay off debts to creditors. UEFA refused. Reds advanced funds before the medicals.

[A_S]

I could be wrong, but I wonder if Vitor Matos has had a significant impact on these Porto-related deals in Jota and now Diaz? 

 

As said above too, getting them out of a financial pickle can't hurt club relations. 

[Bob]

57 minutes ago, bizzle10 said:

Didnt they do this to us when we were a mess i think it was Sigurdsson and Willian who then fucked off to Chelsea so Levy can fuck off

And Salah, when he went on to join Chelsea too.

[dockers_strike]

Friday morning and news of a classic transfer switcheroo. Luis Diaz, Porto’s Colombian forward long-anticipated to be heading for Tottenham Hotspur, was now scorching an unexpected new path in the febrile January window that took him straight to Anfield.  

 

“Backdoored”. That is the old transfer window hands’ term for the deal that is repurposed in the white heat of the last days of negotiations to take the player in question to a completely different club. The fees and the wages are much the same, although there is likely some incentive for the player and his representatives to switch horses at the last moment.

 

But essentially the deal that is in place for the subject to move from club A to club B is hijacked by club C who quietly emerge into the negotiations through the figurative backdoor.

 

It was not news on Friday to Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman. He had found out 24 hours earlier he was being backdoored and tried his best over Thursday to regain the advantage as Liverpool’s recruitment department and their new 25 year-old goalscorer came to a swift agreement.

 

Liverpool vs Spurs is a fierce transfer rivalry from the early days of the previous decade when they were largely in the same market for players. At the end of the 2012 summer window the Fulham striker Clint Dempsey joined Spurs and not Liverpool, regarded as a failing by Liverpool’s new owners Fenway Sports Group who at the time were a lot less keen on signing the United States international than their then-manager, Brendan Rodgers.

 

That same summer, Spurs had completed a deal for Gylfi Sigurdsson, another Rodgers target in whom Fenway only had a lukewarm interest. The respective budgets and ambitions of the clubs put them head-to-head on further players over that decade. In 2013, Liverpool had a deal agreed with Anzhi Makhachkala for the Brazilian Willian. Levy backdoored Liverpool to agree a deal with the player for Spurs.

 

And then, in what some say was genuinely at the moment Willian prepared to press pen nib to paper on his contract, Chelsea backdoored Spurs.

 

Danny Ings, a free agent when he left Burnley in 2015, chose Liverpool over Spurs. Spurs’ evidence at his subsequent compensation tribunal that they would have paid £15 million for the striker raised the fee payable by his new club. Dutch midfielder Gini Wijnaldum chose Liverpool over Spurs in 2016.

 

Come Thursday, when Levy finally learned just how far down the road Liverpool’s recruitment team had progressed with Diaz, there was precious little he could do about it. Well-placed sources say that Levy threatened to report Liverpool’s recruitment staff to Fenway owners John W Henry and Mike Gordon. The key flaw in that plan being that Henry and Gordon were delighted with the strategy pursued.

 

It had all started last year with Porto’s financial problems - news of which had started to circulate in the game. Liverpool were aware of how serious those had become by the delays the Portuguese club had sought in paying the balance on their fees owed on the deal for Serb midfielder Marko Gruijic.

 

Through the autumn and towards the end of the year the club were making it known that they would sell Diaz, the joint-top goalscorer at last summer’s Copa America. Jurgen Klopp had identified Diaz as his first-choice recruit and Liverpool were interested. Diaz had an €80m buyout clause but the price was set by Porto at €60m plus add-ons. At that cost Liverpool were not interested. They said they would meet Porto after the January window to discuss a possible summer deal.

 

A few weeks later Porto told Liverpool there were other interested parties, and the Premier League club asked to be kept up to speed. More than once, Liverpool said they were not interested at the price being quoted, and in the meantime Levy started negotiating. The only caveat on Liverpool’s side being that if a deal was agreed, the recruitment team asked that they could be informed. They told the players’ representatives they would take any Spurs deal for Diaz to Fenway for consideration.

 

Recruitment at Anfield is in the process of being handed over to Julian Ward, assistant sporting director, by his current boss – soon to be predecessor - Michael Edwards. Worth also noting that Edwards, who has overseen 10 years-worth of highly successful transfer strategy at Liverpool, was previously at Spurs.

 

Levy agreed a €45m fee with around €15m of add-ons. It was in the add-ons he drove a hard bargain – they were based on targets that would be difficult for Diaz to achieve. Once that was agreed, Liverpool were given sight of the deal. Ward and Edwards, working closely with Dave Fallows, the head of recruitment, moved quickly.

 

Fenway agreed to pay the fee. Desperate for a cash injection to deal with payments due, Porto asked for €8m by this coming Monday. Liverpool said they could do it. A FaceTime call between Klopp and Diaz was sanctioned by Porto and the pair met at last, albeit remotely. Diaz was in the Colombia team hotel as they prepared for their World Cup qualifier against Peru on Friday in the city of Barranquilla. Klopp was on Merseyside. They got on well.

 

By Thursday morning, a deal was agreed between Liverpool and Porto: €45m up front and €15m in add-ons, more or less what had been agreed between Porto and Spurs. In addition, that €8m would be paid almost immediately – not an insignificant amount of cash for any club to find in a few days. Diaz and his representatives told Porto that Liverpool were the preferred destination. A transfer agreement was in place by the end of Thursday.

 

For Levy, missing out on his second major signing of the window after Adama Traore was a major setback in his attempts to galvanise Antonio Conte’s squad – especially as the news on AC Milan’s Franck Kessie was to be much the same later in the day.

 

On Thursday, the Spurs chairman tried to get back into the running with an improved offer to Porto but these things tend to have a momentum of their own. Those crucial funds for Porto had been arranged. Diaz and Klopp had spoken. The deal was moving inexorably in Liverpool’s direction and by close of play on Friday the backdoor closed gently behind them. 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/01/30/liverpool-backdoored-tottenham-win-battle-luis-diaz-outflanked/

[Leyton388]

Boss signing and totally unexpected. 

[Scott_M]

9 minutes ago, A_S said:

I could be wrong, but I wonder if Vitor Matos has had a significant impact on these Porto-related deals in Jota and now Diaz? 

Lijnders also came via Porto.

[Leyton388]

Just need to get the Mo deal sorted now. 

[Mudface]

6 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

Just need to get the Mo deal sorted now. 

To PSG or Madrid?

[Vincent Vega]

 

[Tj hooker]

8 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

 

Hahahaha Brilliant 

[A_S]

So you could field this team now of Liverpool players 25 and under: 

 

Kelleher

 

TAA  Konate  Gomez  Tsimikas

 

Morton  Elliot  Jones

 

Bradley  Jota  Diaz

 

Fucking hell, the potential of THAT lot in 3 or 4 years time is scary!  Even more when you have this lot to usher in the next generation:

 

Alisson

 

Milner  Matip  Van Dijk  Robertson  

 

Fabinho  Henderson  Thiago

 

Salah  Firmino  Mane

 

Squad is actually in good shape. 

[bossy]

I do love an out of the blue(s) unexpected major signing. Welcome to Liverpool!

[Jennings]

2 hours ago, Scott_M said:

Klopp expressing his pleasure at the signing.

 

https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopp-luis-diaz-hes-player-we-really-wanted

Love Kloppo's phraseology. "This team deserved to add quality".

 

Makes it sound like a reward rather than a threat to established players.

[Captain Howdy]

38 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

 

Outstanding 

[The Midnight Rambler]

26 minutes ago, A_S said:

So you could field this team now of Liverpool players 25 and under: 

 

Kelleher

 

TAA  Konate  Gomez  Tsimikas

 

Morton  Elliot  Jones

 

Bradley  Jota  Diaz

 

Fucking hell, the potential of THAT lot in 3 or 4 years time is scary!  Even more when you have this lot to usher in the next generation:

 

Alisson

 

Milner  Matip  Van Dijk  Robertson  

 

Fabinho  Henderson  Thiago

 

Salah  Firmino  Mane

 

Squad is actually in good shape. 

Looks like you can add Carvalho to the list pretty soon

[Anubis]

2 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

 

Might have just created a nice little working relationship and pipeline of talent.

 

Liverpool saves FC Porto from UEFA sanctions Dragons asked to postpone the deadline that was until tomorrow, to pay off debts to creditors. UEFA refused. Reds advanced funds before the medicals.

 

EVERTON TRANSLATION

Liverpool bribed Porto to lose in the CL group games.

[Anubis]

That Spirit of the Blues song is the gift that keeps giving. The perfect soundtrack for failure.

[Chip Butty]

Bono estente, chrissy waddle. 

[polymerpunkah]

The theme from "Happy Days".

[TheHowieLama]

1 hour ago, A_S said:

So you could field this team now of Liverpool players 25 and under: 

 

Kelleher

 

TAA  Konate  Gomez  Tsimikas

 

Morton  Elliot  Jones

 

Bradley  Jota  Diaz

 

 

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