Did Hughes also have his hand in bringing him to Bournemouth? Either way, dealing with Bournemouth might work well given Hughes history there.
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He needs to wait till the last 6 months.
From Saturdayās BBC gossip column:
Manchester United , Liverpool and Chelsea all want to hijack Real Madridās summer move for RB Leipzig and France defender Castello Lukeba, who has a 90m euros (Ā£74.5m) release clause. (Daily Briefing by Christian Falk - subscription required)
In other ānewsā, we are apparently going to sell Diaz (cue @Nikola dancing) to help pay for a striker, but it wonāt be Isak as Newcastle are asking Ā£150m for him.
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I wanted us to buy him ages ago when he was in France along with Barcola shame he is going to cost 10 times what Leipzig paid for him.
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I donāt understand why we have stopped being linked to Tcherki and Akliouche
Both play for the French U23 team
Whatās the source? Itās not that Iām desperate for him leave - that would suggest I quite dislike him, which I donāt - but heās one of the players that need upgrading next summer, in my opinion, because I donāt see him making any significant improvement to his game and numbers.
Heāll also have two years left on his contract at the age of 28, so he either extends or leaves. In my opinion, if Barcelona want to pay a pretty penny for him, he should be sold to fund an upgrade because this attack looks pretty average without Salah and is in need of an overhaul of sorts.
Iām still not seeing it as a priority area unless the player is wanting out (or the club with all the transfer movement expected over the next couple of years is not willing to risk him leaving on a free).
First of all we already have Gakpo in that space too and neither are poor options.
Secondly, we appear to be looking to upgrade on Nunez and at Left Back, that in itself might improve the impact that both Diaz and Gakpo have from that flank.
Finally, there is a question around capacity to make the changes the squad needs, particularly if we lose any or all of Mo, Virg and Trent on freeās this summer. Assuming Nunez and Endo are likely to be replaced, along with at least one of the left backs, Diazās situation just feels like one that can be kicked down the road until the following summer.
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Iām getting the feeling that weāve been losing quite a few players on free transfers (that said, itās includes those who have served their purpose here), so Iām concerned that Diaz might be another one. Club could probably use some money for that summer ārebuildā and I think that Nunez and Diaz are the ones who should raise the most.
I fully agree with your observation about the left back, though. One of my best mates (who also isnāt big on Diaz) keeps saying that the biggest mitigating factor he can think of for Diaz and Gakpo is not the absence of prime Firmino next to them but prime Robertson behind them.
I could accept them being the options for that left flank for another year (I am a fan of Gakpo after all) if club brought in a proper, top class left back and one such centre forward and Salah stayed an played out another quality season or two. However, I donāt really think that club would turn down an offer upwards of 50 million pounds for a player like Diaz.
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Is the reason that we had ālostā them was that no-one would offer a fee for them, let alone match their wages?
I think itās also highly relevant that the club also factors these into decisions when giving contracts out or signing players to begin with. Iām not sure residual market value matters as much as the amortisation and their wages.
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True but you had people like Can who ran their contracts down, or Lallana, Wijnaldum and Firminoā¦ I wouldnāt have been surprised had Henderson and Fabinho followed down the same route but for Saudi intervention. Iām not going to comment on The Contract Three but they might also leave on a free, which makes getting top dollar out of certain players a priority.
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TBH, Can is the last one that I can remember running his contract down that we would have wanted to keep long term. We may have offered a couple of the others extentions, but we basically got lucky with the Saudi moves for Henderson and Fabinho because they looked spent on high wages and long contracts.
In fact, the fact we got a fee for those two was a bonus.
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Apparently Barca are interested in signing Diaz.
Barcelona have made Liverpoolās 28-year-old Colombia forward Luis Diaz a transfer priority this summer. (Diario AS - in Spanish)
Woahā¦
That oneās out of the blueā¦ 
Iād say if he wasnāt linked to Barca Iād be concerned.
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I imagine they may not allocate enough money to buy him, register him or pay his wages.
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I think theyāve got a few players they could sell to raise some dosh. There may be a willing buyer not too far from Liverpool. About 30 miles down the M62.
Might not be able to afford them though.
I find it utterly unlikely that the top guys that we have hired in data analytics and our finance guys, who along with Slot have the club punching far above its weights, are utterly unable to figure out whether our current strategy of letting players leave on frees is in our economic interest.
These guys have all the known information and we have like 5% of it. Yet, we are second guessing them so often when they show up the likes of everyone else.
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I still find it bizarre that, even with their history of not being able to register players and literally stagnating players due to their mis-management, players still sign for them.
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Itās Barcelona, mate. They can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of.
Or am I mixing that up with another basket case?
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