How Liverpool could still bank £87m from Diaz sale as Bayern insider details Hughes masterclass | OneFootball

Luis Diaz completed his transfer from Liverpool to Bayern Munich for a reported £65.5m last week, although the Reds could yet earn significantly more from the deal that Richard Hughes brokered.

While it might’ve seemed peculiar to sell the Reds’ third-highest scorer from last season, they’ve still managed to turn a tidy profit on a player who cost an initial £37.5m from Porto in January 2022 (£50m including add-ons) and who’ll turn 29 at the start of next year.

Some might argue that the transaction made business sense, and that view will be amplified by sensational reports coming out of Germany.

Liverpool bossed negotiations over Diaz transfer to Bayern

Bayern Space on X – an independent channel covering the Munich club, and who had been quite accurate with their reporting on Florian Wirtz’s transfer to Liverpool this summer – detailed how LFC sporting director Hughes effectively had the Bundesliga champions on strings over the sale of Diaz.

The Anfield chief ‘controlled the negotiations from start to finish’ and brokered a ‘significant’ sell-on clause, having received ‘clear signals’ that the Colombian would be open to a Saudi Pro League move in the near future.

(Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)

The final agreement reportedly came to an initial €72m plus €9m in add-ons which are ‘so easily achievable’ that it’s considered a ‘formality’ that they’ll be paid, and the sell-on clause could yet see the Reds bank as much as €100m (£87m) from the transfer to Bayern.

It’s added that Liverpool ‘dictated the terms, protected their future interests and extracted maximum value’ from selling Diaz, while the Munich club ‘paid heavily, agreed to a structure they did not design and came away with a player who may already be positioned for resale’, with the deal being ‘done on Liverpool’s terms’.

Hughes played a blinder with Diaz transfer

These reports may be best taken with a pinch of salt until corroborated elsewhere, but if indeed they are accurate, then Richard Hughes has played an absolute blinder!

That’s not any slight on Diaz whatsoever – the Colombian was a tremendous player for Liverpool and a crucial figure in our Premier League title triumph last season – but to potentially bank £87m from selling him to Bayern this summer must go down as exceptional work from the Reds’ sporting director.

It also reflects very poorly on the Bundesliga champions, who seemed to be remarkable submissive in the negotiations, but we’re definitely not complaining from a Merseyside perspective!

The 28-year-old could well have a hugely prolific spell with Vincent Kompany’s side and fire them to major silverware, although the emergence of Rio Ngumoha in pre-season hints that we could already have a readymade deputy for Cody Gakpo on the left flank.

All in all, it appears that Hughes has done brilliantly to secure the best possible deal for Liverpool, one we couldn’t realistically have envisaged when the negotiations started.