Liverpool have a new player in their ranks following the arrival of Luis Diaz.
The Reds have swooped in to bring the Colombia international to Anfield after agreeing a £49million deal with Porto.
Tottenham Hotspur expressed an interest in signing Diaz but Liverpool stole a march on their Premier League rivals to acquire the forward’s services.
Despite having a £67m release clause in his contract, Porto’s financial situation enabled The Reds to do a cut-price deal.
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Liverpool made an initial bid worth £37m, with a further £12m in add-ons, which was accepted by the Portuguese outfit.
And after the transfer was officially announced, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com : “I also must make clear my appreciation to our ownership and football operations team for how they have managed to act so decisively to get this done.
“Luis is a player we believe will make us better now and in the future. He is the player we really wanted and they’ve made it happen, so I am very happy.”
Klopp will always make a statement to the club website after Liverpool make a signing.
He did the same thing when Ibrahima Konate joined the club last summer - and it has been the case with every other major capture brought in since the German manager's arrival in 2015.
However, what’s interesting about the comments Klopp made after the Diaz deal was confirmed was that he took the time to praise the club's owners FSG for their commitment and for being willing to pay the money now rather than wait until the summer.
Tottenham may have signed Diaz themselves had Liverpool not acted - and that they were able to so quickly is testament to the way the club is run from top to bottom.
Many Liverpool supporters have been craving for FSG to dip their hands into their pockets to sanction the signing of a new forward.
After all, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino will all be 30 by the summer, and it's inevitable at some stage in the near future there will be a changing of the guard, even though the trio still have key roles to play.
So sections of the fan base have been critical of John Henry and Co for not spending the same amount of money compared to the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea or Manchester United.
The summer of 2018 has always been quoted as the year that FSG and Liverpool spent big in the transfer market and made statement signings - Alisson Becker and Fabinho, most notably, which came just six months after Virgil van Dijk’s arrival.
But what shouldn’t be forgotten is some of the deals that Liverpool have sanctioned in the past 18 months.
Fresh from winning the Premier League title in 2019-20, three senior players were added.
Thiago Alcantara was signed for £25m, Kostas Tsimikas for £12m and Diogo Jota for £41m. Add to that Konate’s arrival for £36m last summer, and FSG have quietly been adding plenty of fresh talent to the ranks.
Now that Liverpool have agreed to pay £49m for Diaz, that's around £163m spent since the summer of 2020, which highlights that the owners are committed to making sure Klopp has the best squad available to challenge on all fronts.
