Barcelona boss CONFIRMS significant Liverpool talks

Barcelona sporting director Deco has confirmed talks with Liverpool. Held over the summer, the Reds played hard ball.

Barcelona did indeed hold talks with Liverpool over the summer. That's been confirmed by the Catalonians' sporting director, Deco.

The former playmaker has given an interview to Mundo Deportivo where he discussed plans for the past, present and future. And that included one Liverpool transfer that got away.

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Deco says there were indeed talks with the Reds this summer as they hunted for a new winger. They tried to sign Luis Diaz from Anfield, but found Liverpool too difficult to negotiate with.

"With Díaz, Liverpool from the first minute got quite firm with not wanting to sell and so it became more complicated," he explained. "Luis's thing ended up seeing that it would be impossible."

Of course, it didn't actually end up being impossible to buy Diaz. Bayern Munich found a way, swooping in to sign the Colombian for around £65m.

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Luis Diaz left Liverpool

Diaz had been linked with Barcelona for a long, long time. Dating back to 2023, in fact. It was long thought that he would head there if they found the money.

That never happened, of course. Or at least, they could never justify the kind of money Liverpool were eventually asking for.

£65m for a 28-year-old is a significant price but one Bayern didn’t find too difficult to match. After all, they’d had incredible success paying £100m for Harry Kane even when he was near 30.

Instead, Barcelona loaned Marcus Rashford from Manchester United after seeing a move for Nico Williams fall apart. A difficult summer for them, then - but one they appear to be decently happy with in the end.

And Diaz, too, is enjoying life at Bayern while Liverpool invest their time in Rio Ngumoha on their left flank. That’s a move that should ultimately pay dividends as Arne Slot tries to develop one of the most exciting young talents we’ve seen come through.

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