It’s been something of a strange and uncertain summer on the Luis Diaz front. The fleet-footed 28-year-old Liverpool and Colombia winger has become a source of regular transfer chatter despite the club insisting they would rather prefer not to sell.
That has led to a very high valuation being placed on the forward, reportedly in the region of £70M (which works out to just around €80M). For fans of Bayern Munich and Barcelona, both of whom have been linked, it’s a fee that has led to incredulousness.
That, though, rather seems the point. If Bayern and Barcelona see Diaz as the best plausibly available winger on the market, and if he’s under contract for two more years with the Reds, Liverpool aren’t going to be eager now to have to source a replacement.
Liverpool are already down a forward after the tragic death of Diogo Jota. Darwin Nuñez and Federico Chiesa are still expected to leave. Selling Diaz means having to replace him—in a market where Bayern and Barcelona consider him the best option.
Still, the stories keep coming. The latest have mostly been out of Germany, and again today the talk is of Bayern, said to be willing to bid up to €60M (or about £52M, converted back into Pounds) for the player. It seems rather short of what’s required.
For Diaz’ part, the player had reportedly been seeking a new contract only for the club to signal they would prefer to see him run down his £140-150K per week deal and depart on a free in two years. An intensification of transfer rumours followed.
Along with the continuing rumours of Bayern and, following their recent failure to sign Nico Williams from Bilbao, Barcelona interest, there has been increasing talk that Diaz is unhappy about that contract situation and may now be actively seeking a transfer.
From the outside, it’s perhaps hard to understand why a four-year deal with a modest raise that wouldn’t prevent the club and Diaz parting ways in two years—with the Reds receiving a transfer fee—wouldn’t make sense for everyone, yet here we are.