Luis Díaz absent: Transfer rumors in the air
Liverpool manager Arne Slot confirmed that forward Luis Díaz did not participate in the club’s friendly defeat to AC Milan on Saturday, due to ongoing speculation linking him with a possible exit from Anfield this summer.
A source close to the matter has revealed that the Colombian international is determined to leave Liverpool in the current transfer market and hopes that Bayern Munich will return with an improved offer after a bid of 67.5 million euros (79.2 million dollars) was rejected by the club.
Despite being included in Liverpool’s 29-player squad for their pre-season tour of Asia, Díaz did not play in Saturday’s first match, a 4-2 defeat to Milan in Hong Kong.
- “There are many rumors about him lately and I can’t get into that,” Slot said at a press conference.
- “He is training very well with us, but for now we have decided not to field him.”
Slot confirmed that he has spoken with Díaz about the situation, and added: “I am used to speaking with most of my players regularly. As I said, Lucho is training very well and we have decided that he will not play in the matches at this moment. I cannot comment much more on that.”
Regarding whether Díaz wants to leave Liverpool, Slot said: “That’s not the person to ask, me.”
Díaz enjoyed his most prolific season with Liverpool last year, scoring 17 goals to help them win the Premier League title. However, according to a source, the 28-year-old player has made it clear to Liverpool officials that he wants to move on.
Liverpool also rejected an offer from Barcelona earlier this summer, according to sources.
Darwin Núñez, also the subject of speculation linking him with a transfer this summer, also missed Saturday’s match. However, Slot said that the absence of the Uruguayan striker and midfielder Wataru Endo was a matter of physical condition.
“In Darwin’s situation, he has also trained very well and has already played some good matches for us this season,” Slot said. “But he was injured, so we didn’t want to take the risk.”
“It was a bit the same with Wata: he trained with us all week, but we didn’t want to take any risks with him either. In this situation, we thought it was smarter for Darwin and Wata not to be here today, but I guess they will be with us when we are in Japan playing the next match.”
Liverpool will face Yokohama F. Marinos on Wednesday.
