Liverpool star will be ‘Flick’s first signing’ at Barcelona as Reds ‘lead’ race for Mbappe ‘victim’
Liverpool winger Luis Diaz will be Hansi Flick’s first new signing at Barcelona in the summer but the Reds have his replacement lined up, according to reports.
The Reds are set for a summer of change after Jurgen Klopp left the club and was replaced by Feyenoord boss Arne Slot ahead of next season.
Michael Edwards also returned to the Premier League club as FSG’s CEO of football, while Richard Hughes has arrived as sporting director from Bournemouth.
Liverpool have made Slot their head coach with Edwards and Hughes likely to make most of the transfer decisions and one of those choices could be to sell Diaz in the summer.
Reports in Spain are claiming that the Colombian winger will be ‘Flick’s first signing’ as new Barcelona manager with Diaz a ‘priority request’ from the German.
Flick wants ‘to completely change’ Barcelona’s attack ahead of next season and Liverpool winger Diaz ‘is a footballer who is ‘completely liked by the German coach, as well as by Joan Laporta and Deco’.
It is understood that the Slot project at Liverpool ‘does not completely convince him’ and that Diaz ‘does not rule out a change of scenery at all’.
Flick has ‘asked the board of directors to do everything possible to get him out of the Premier League’ but it ‘will require a significant financial investment’.
Despite that, Barcelona now view the signing of Diaz as a ‘risk-free bet’ because of his talent with Flick said to be ‘obsessed’ with the Colombia international.
And Liverpool could already have his replacement lined up with more reports in Spain indicating that the Reds are ‘leading’ the race to sign Real Madrid forward Rodrygo.
Speaking about his future recently, Rodrygo said: “Yes. Well… anything can happen. I have a contract here, but I don’t know. The years I’ve been here have been a pleasure for me. I’ve always said I want to be at this club, but let’s see.”
It is claimed that the Brazilian will be Kylian Mbappe’s ‘first victim’ at Real Madrid when he joins with the Frenchman set to ’cause important changes’.
The report carries on by claiming that Rodrygo ‘could be forced to leave’ over a lack of playing time as he ‘could be left without a place as a starter’ after Mbappe’s arrival.
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With Flick officially confirmed as the new Barcelona boss, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has revealed whether he was close to joining Chelsea.
Romano wrote in his Caught Offside column: “We’ve also had manager news at both Bayern Munich and Barcelona, with the clubs officially announcing Vincent Kompany and Hansi Flick, respectively, as their choices to take over from the 2024/25 season.
“Flick attracted speculation for some time before finally ending up at Barca, so I wanted to clarify some details here. It’s true that he was a concrete option for Bayern, they decided to go for different kind of coach in the end, going for a younger manager with Kompany, but Flick was on the list.
“However, there was never any contact with Chelsea – despite rumours, Flick and Tuchel were never in negotiations. Flick really wanted the Barcelona job, it was his dream and so talks with English clubs were never concrete as he was really hoping and waiting for a call from Barca president Joan Laporta.”
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