Tldr: 利維嬲豬 想向享利告recruitment team狀 但享利覺得班staff做得好
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.
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.
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.