​REVEALED: Liverpool beat Tottenham to Luis Diaz after last-minute Klopp chat

 


Liverpool secured winger Luis Diaz from Tottenham in January after back and forth discussions.

Assistant boss Pep Lijnders has spoken about the phone call that eventually led to the Colombian choosing the Reds over Spurs.

A deal to Tottenham was all but done with FC Porto, but Liverpool swooped in to get their man at the last minute.

"I was on a skiing trip with my wife Danielle when, during dinner, our sporting director called me: 'You and Jürgen have to speak with Luis Diaz in five minutes. We've just agreed with Porto but Tottenham are all-in as well,'" wrote Lijnders in his new book Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity.

"I joined the call and Jürgen 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."

He continued on his message to Diaz: "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 Jürgen's message and [sporting director] 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."

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