Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy ‘threatened to report’ Liverpool’s recruitment department over the club’s capture of Porto winger Luis Diaz ahead of Spurs.
Liverpool completed a widely lauded £50m deal for Diaz on Sunday, with the Colombia international handed a long-term contract and the club’s number 23 shirt.
In time, there is an expectation that the 25-year-old will come to replace Sadio Mane as the starting left forward, with Diogo Jota already thriving as a long-term replacement for Roberto Firmino.
To make Diaz a Liverpool player, the Reds had to see off competition from Tottenham. An agreement was secured relatively quickly, with Liverpool’s initial idea to wait until summer, but the danger that Spurs might beat them to the punch this month mobilised the recruitment department.
Spurs were seemingly hopeful of wrapping up a deal, but the The Telegraph has revealed that Levy discovered towards the end of last week how deep Liverpool were into their own negotiations. He is said to have been so ‘furious’ that he ‘threatened to report’ the Reds…to themselves.
Levy wanted Liverpool’s FSG chiefs John W. Henry and Mike Gordon to be informed about what their club’s recruitment department had done. But the American owners were fully behind the strategy.
The report goes on to explain that Liverpool’s interest in Diaz was not sudden. They had already asked Porto to be kept informed of any developments on the player’s future and were aware first-hand of the Portuguese club’s financial concerns that made a sale a possibility.
Porto kept Liverpool in the loop with regard to rival interest in Diaz and the Reds’ recruitment department made the player’s camp aware they would take any Spurs offer to FSG’s top officials for consideration.
In the end, they matched Spurs’ agreement with Porto with an initial €45m (£37.5m) plus €15m (£12.5m), but the key factors appeared to be the player’s preference for Liverpool and a willingness from the Reds to meet Porto’s request of the first €8m to be paid within a few days.
For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!