Liverpool pulled a fast one on Spurs last January when they stole Luis Diaz from under their noses.
Tottenham were all in for the Colombian and even had their £45m bid accepted by Porto. It was all about convincing Luis Diaz, but a last-minute Zoom call changed everything.
Jürgen Klopp’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders details it all in his new book, ‘Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC – Our Identity’ (Express):
“I was on a skiing trip with my wife Danielle when, during dinner, our sporting director called me: ‘You and Jurgen have to speak with Luis Diaz in five minutes. We’ve just agreed with Porto but Tottenham are all-in as well.’
“I joined the call and Jurgen was explaining to Luis how he would fit into our style and that we would help him. He said in reference to me joining (the call) ‘but you will hear this guy much more often!’ to which I immediately said ‘but I will explain things more calmly than Sergio (Conceicao, the Porto manager)!’, to which Luis laughed.
“I told him: ‘We want you desperately and have been pushing for the last one-and-a-half months with our owners and our sporting director, but you know that these kinds of transfers are not easy to accomplish. The good thing is you will train with Virgil, Robbo and Trent and they will make you so much stronger. Our idea is to create and score; you will have to tear these guys apart each day in training, which will make you better’.
“His agent translated Jurgen’s message and Julian Ward said ‘these two will make you a better player’. I told him there were not many clubs with more history and culture than Porto but Liverpool was one of them and he would feel this. Julian then walked with his phone to the trophy cabinet at AXA and finished with ‘we want to add to this and that’s why we want you’.
“If the boy wasn’t convinced, he would be now.”
Tottenham had come awfully close to signing Luis Diaz who turned out to be a great signing for Liverpool but it didn’t end up that bad for Spurs either. After missing out on the Colombian, Antonio Conte signed Dejan Kulusevski on an 18-month loan and he turned out to be an exceptional signing as well. He settled in with the team immediately scoring 5 and assisting 8 goals in 18 games playing a vital role in helping Spurs qualify for the Champions League.
No way do we sign Bentancur, Kulu, AND Diaz in the January window. Nobody goes that big
When you’re picking between two clubs so close to each other in the football pyramid it’s it absolutely about personal terms. It’s a short career and our wage structure is much smaller than those around us, which is why we rarely end up getting the level of player that improves us.
You made the point before about Dempsey and Siggy only coming to us because we were a more attractive club at the time. Then why did we miss out on Mane and Wjinaldum shortly after? Liverpool were no better than us at the time…
Why don’t you get my point? We needed him regardless of those signings, which is why we’ve ended up with Richarlison instead…
Not about the size of the wages, or the level of player – it is about the status of the clubs.
At that time both clubs would be looking at these players as first team starters, or to challenge the starters.
We were a better proposition than Liverpool, so they picked Spurs. In January, the opposite was true.
I doubt their wages were particularly high, with them coming from Fulham and Swansea respectively. It’s the more elite level players we always ‘miss out’ on…
I think it has been a valid point in the past, albeit with mitigating circumstances. I honestly don’t see anything wrong here though – we got beaten to the signing because Liverpool were a better proposition in January.
In the past the opposite has been true. We beat them for Siggy and Dempsey to name a couple, mainly because we were higher status at that time.
If he’s a top player he will want the going rate, and besides what is our ‘highest earner’ level compared to other clubs we are supposed to be competing with? We pay about 60m a year less in player salaries than Arsenal for example.
Here lies the heart of the problem, for the eighth richest club in the world. I respect your opinion mate, but all you’re doing is excusing cheap-skatery…
So it would have been a bidding war for his services. One that we lost at the first hurdle, as Levy never goes toe to toe with anyone else when signing players. He only seems interested when he gets a free hit.
One trophy in 23 years, it’s not worth getting one’s keys in a twist about though. Even though things like this are the main reason. We lost out with Mane for the same reason apparently, if you don’t pay the going rate then you can’t compete at the top level. Generally we don’t do either…
We offered enough that he accepted it in principle. Liverpool then made him an offer and he accepted it in full. If we upped our wage offer i’m sure Liverpool would just do the same. What do you suggest – just upping the wages until he is the highest earner?
Getting your kecks in a twist over nothing.
We bought two players days after this who significantly improved us. I really don’t get your point.
I understand all that and I agree it probably played a part but there’s no reason why we didn’t get it done other than we didn’t offer him enough. So it’s on Levy, yet again…
Ah well, best not to be to ambitious, we are Spurs after all!
Until you’re prepared to give the players you need to improve the team better terms you won’t ever improve significantly or win much. 23 years so far, Diaz the latest example…
#1 target for the Summer I said. This was January. We just sped it up. They got it done within 2 days of our bid being accepted.
The agents would agree terms with us for a few reasons. Firstly, it is their duty to their client and they are under no obligation to take it. Secondly, if Liverpool decide against it they have a deal ready to go. Thirdly, it gives them a bar.gaining figure with Liverpool re wages
Maybe they offered more. They can, they are a bigger club currently.
Maybe they matched what we offered. It would make sense.
Who knows? Either way he picks Liverpool. Like a player would choose us over West Ham.
Diaz is a very good player, how could it be a ‘lucky escape’? He’s way better than both Stevie B and his replacement Richarlison, for my money…
Diaz played 20 scored 4 with 3 assists…
KoolioJetSki played 18 scored 5 with 8 assists…
Definitely could be a blessing in disguise like you say….. Personally I wouldn’t swap Koolio for Diaz now… Some of his goals and assists were mint. He’s very much a team player too. Diaz not so much.
So, Liverpool offered him better terms. Which is why we didn’t get him, nothing to do with him being stolen from beneath our noses…
That doesn’t really add up does it? If he was Liverpool’s number one target why did they not a; get the deal done with them straight away? And b; if they were in ‘constant’ contact with Liverpool why on earth do they agree everything with Spurs before Liverpool come in?
I’m not outraged at all, I’m used to 23 years of failure, like the rest of us…
This all happened within 48hrs. The club had two offers, both accepted.
This isn’t football manager though, the player has the final say after bids have been accepted. He chose Liverpool. What is there to be outraged about?
We agreed a fee on the afternoon of 26th Jan, Liverpool had ageeed a fee by the 28th.
It is very little time, less than 48hrs. Time enough for us to discuss terms, agree in principle, and for the player to see if he gets a better offer.
By all accounts Liverpool had him earmarked long before this, and if his agents would be fully aware.
He was Liverpool’s #1 target for the Summer. These players are not in a vacuum – his agents will have been in constant contact with Liverpool. He isn’t going to make a life-changing decision in hours, he is going to wait and see what else is on the table.
Porto accepted our bid, his agents listened to what we had to say. Liverpool matched our bid. This isn’t a difficult decision for the player really, is it.
Not withstanding Liverpool being able to match what we offer him in salary, and being a better team, they probably knew Mane was off and could offer him the pretty much guaranteed LW berth we can’t.
We got Kulusevski instead. A better fit for us team-wise, as Diaz was for Liverpool
Yup,
Sure. It was a classic Levy situation, there have been countless examples…
I’m talking about his personal terms…
That’s my point. It’s Harry who started this nonsense.
Exactly, why on earth did Diaz and his father get that far down the line with Spurs if there was some pre-existing ‘arrangement’ with Liverpool and that’s the only club he wanted to go to? It just doesn’t make sense.
It’s fabrication in an attempt to spare Levy’s blushes, to me it was like Grealish all over again. Levy seeing if by f*cking around a bit at the 11th hour he might shave a few percent off the outlay.
Levy and ENIC are property people and this is a classic tactic by investors. They get everything in place and ready to complete and then throw in a reason to lower their offer right at the end. The seller often just goes with it to avoid having to re-market and months of having to wait to get another deal done (depending on their situation).
However, if another buyer comes in at that time and agrees a deal, the seller just tells the original buyer them to either improve their offer or f*ck off. It’s really that simple, and I suspect what happened here…
walob this may or may not have happened but from the player’s old man we were agreed and then we hesitated. It could have been wrapped up before this bit of nonsense came into play
He most certainly would have signed for us had we offered better terms than Liverpool and had he spoken to Conte. The reason Liverpool scuppered it was because Diaz had a choice over the best financial package I would imagine, and Levy wasn’t going to raise his offer once he had to compete with Liverpool…
A ‘lucky escape’ from signing a player that Liverpool saw fit to succeed the likes of Salah and Mane? What terrible situation have we escaped exactly?
Are you suggesting Diaz wouldn’t have improved our starting lineup to the same degree as Kulusevski or even more? Also, we haven’t signed him at all, he’s on loan. In fact we haven’t even signed Romero yet!
Don Paratici and Conte couldn’t log into the Spurs zoom account in time, so we didn’t sign him? Here’s me thinking Paratici was brought in to get the players the club wants through the door…
I wouldn’t say missing out on Diaz was a lucky escape. Someone beating us to Ndom on the other hand before shelling out £10m a year in wages and £60m transfer might have constituted something near one!
Agree
Spurs landed Kulu, a player that improved their team and is arguably a better player for their squad. Lucky escape to miss out on Diaz.
From what I gather, Liverpool had been chasing him for some time, with a view to signing him this Summer, and had an agreement with Porto that they would be informed if anyone made a bid and given the chance to match it.
His agent would be fully aware of Liverpool’s interest, and it doesn’t matter if Paratici had the SAS drop him in to Portugal in the dead of the night with a suitcase full of cash, the only way we would have signed him is if Liveroool withdrew.