Liverpool could make Tottenham regret not acting quicker on £50m transfer after ski trip hijack
If Daniel Levy's plan had come to fruition in January 2022, Liverpool's preparations for Saturday's trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would have looked considerably different.
Such practices would have likely centred around how Jurgen Klopp's side would go about thwarting the threat of Luis Diaz, with Trent Alexander-Arnold set for another significant test of his defensive credentials.
Instead, Liverpool have Klopp and Pep Lijnders' intervention to thank, with the Colombian set to be handed his sixth start of the Premier League season in London on Saturday.
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Indeed, as Tottenham aimed to iron out the fine details of a swoop for the then Porto wideman, it was while on a mid-season skiing holiday with his wife that Lijnders was given a five-minute warning by the former sporting director Julian Ward that he and Klopp would be tasked with selling the Anfield dream to Diaz.
Conversing with the forward alongside Klopp and Ward, the Reds' assistant manager outlined his vision to improve Diaz's game and quickly referenced how training with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Alexander-Arnold would ensure the forward would continue his exponential rise.
Perhaps most influential of all in convincing Diaz to ditch talks with Tottenham in favour of a potential £50 million switch to Anfield was the moment Ward, who was dialling in on the call from the AXA Training Centre, gave the 26-year-old a virtual tour of the Reds' on-site trophy cabinet and explained his vision for Diaz to etch his name into the club's illustrious history.
Around 18 months after signing on the
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