Speaking on The Transfer Window Podcast, Duncan Castles has been chatting about Luis Diaz and just how close he came to joining Tottenham Hotspur.
The Colombian had been strongly linked with a move to Spurs this week. That was before Liverpool swooped in and hijacked the deal.
Now Diaz looks set for Anfield, but at one point, it seemed as though he was headed to north London.
Indeed, Spurs were so advanced in these talks that at one point they were even telling people that personal terms had been agreed with the player.
What’s been said about Diaz?
Castles shared what he knows about Diaz.
“The conversations Liverpool were having with Porto this window were that they would not go above €40m as a guaranteed fee for Diaz during this transfer window. This allowed Tottenham to work on a deal separately, Tottenham thought they had the player tied down. In fact, they told people involved in the deal that they had the agreement of the player to come to the Premier League, and they were just trying to negotiate an acceptable fee for Porto,” Castles said.
Don’t count your chickens
Tottenham have fallen foul of the golden rule in football. Don’t take anything in the transfer window for granted.
Spurs were confident that they’d signed Diaz, but as Tottenham should know better than anyone else, anything can happen in football.
Tottenham were telling people that personal terms had been agreed, which allowed leaks to happen and stories to emerge, and perhaps if they’d been a bit more secretive, Liverpool wouldn’t have been alerted to their interest in this ‘sensational’ player and they’d have been able to sign him.
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