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Luis Diaz of Liverpool(Image: Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)

If the situation around Luis Diaz’s future started as something of a transfer subplot last month, the advance of Bayern Munich has turned the issue into the major storyline at Liverpool now.

The Colombia international had spoken effusively about his current employers in May when speaking to South American publication Telemundo, fresh from winning the Premier League title.

We’ll be talking about it, we’ll talk about it (about the renewal),” Diaz said.



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“For me, I would stay however many years it takes, it also depends on the club, everything.

For Diaz, if maybe not Liverpool.

The 28-year-old believes promises have broken over plans to offer improved terms and while he admitted on international duty in June that he would ideally like to stay on Merseyside, where he is settled with his partner Gera and their children, the lack of progress on a new deal has frustrated the wideman to the point where he was openly revealing he was also in dialogue with other clubs while on international duty last month.

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He said: “We are currently in contact with Liverpool, because we are talking to clubs, and that’s normal given the transfer market that’s opening.

“We’re trying to arrange what’s best for us.

Now it’s up to them.”

While Barcelona, to quote one source, would be “Lucho’s dream”, there has always been skepticism at Anfield over their ability to pay anything near like what would be required for the decision makers to relent on their current hardline stance that Diaz is not for sale this summer.

Sporting director Deco, who is friends with Diaz’s agent, has spoken a number of times about his admiration for the player but their now almost annual financial issues have seen them make a loan move for Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford instead, meaning the Reds star has had to look elsewhere for what he is seeking.

With two years remaining on his contract at the age of 28, Liverpool have always radiated relaxation, even when the attacker turned in his best campaign as a Reds player last term to help them win the title.

Such performances are likely why Diaz and his team feel they are entitled to sit down and thrash out a better, more lucrative bottom line.

But with 24 months left for a player who will be 30 by the time the contract expires, sporting director Richard Hughes believes there is no rush to step up talks, particularly given the extra saddling of one of the biggest wage bills in world football that has come from both a historic summer outlay of nearly £300m and the April agreements for Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, two players who are unimpeachable in the pecking order.

So this is where Diaz finds himself, unable to sit down and gain a better contract for himself on the back of an impressive, 17-goal campaign where he straddled between the left wing and striker positions, but being denied a move due to offers being below his value at Anfield.

There is much conjecture online over the sum Diaz earns but the idea that it is £55,000-a-week was robustly rejected by Anfield sources last season and it is believed he takes home around £140,000, which was largely the going rate for new arrivals who were seen as important first-team members when he joined at the turn of 2022.

How much an increase is ‘deserved’ however depends entirely on your view of his output since his time at Liverpool.

The German giants are believed to be readying a second bid, having seen an offer just shy of £60m turned away this month before picking up the phone once more last week.

Liverpool were baffled by the speculation around Diaz’s future at the beginning of June, but clearly there was no smoke without fire and his entourage, led by the Colombian agent Carlos van Strahlen and Portuguese advisor Raul Pais da Costa, have been in contact behind the scenes with Barca and now Bayern.

Saudi Arabian interest has also been reported but Al-Hilal’s £100m pursuit of Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes - prior to his public declaration that he would remain at Old Trafford in June - has privately set the going rate for a deal for Diaz, who is two years junior of the the Red Devils’ captain.

It is Bayern who undoubtedly lead the chase now, though, and despite a previous insistence that there were no plans to offload the player, the decision to leave him out of Saturday’s friendly defeat to AC Milan felt like a critical moment of this saga.

“In Lucho's situation it was [linked to his future], yeah," Slot said after the game in Hong Kong.
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