Liverpool’s move for Porto winger Luis Diaz is a pleasant surprise for Reds fans at the end of a month filled with them.
Aside from the unique year of 2020 when Jurgen Klopp’s side were motoring inexorably towards the club’s long-awaited 19th league title, Januarys have often proved something of a struggle for Liverpool under the German coach.
Ahead of the 2022 iteration, many Liverpudlians had real concerns what the season’s prospects may look like by the start of February given the departures of stars Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita on AFCON duty and the impact their absence could have on a squad of sometimes-questionable depth given the busy fixture programme which would include two Carabao Cup semi-finals as well as the FA Cup in addition to important Premier League matches.
Although there was frustration a two-goal lead was squandered at Chelsea in the month’s opening match and in the initially-postponed first leg Carabao Cup semi final against Arsenal, the Reds now have a Wembley trip to look forward to in February as well as a fourth round FA Cup tie against Cardiff City, while two Premier League win against Brentford and Crystal Palace coupled with Manchester City’s first dropped points since October mean Liverpool are still fighting on four fronts.
The January transfer window, with some notable exceptions, has generally not been the Reds’ preferred time to conduct business and the noises coming out of Anfield this year indicated that would most likely be the case again so the news emerging as deadline day draws into view that Liverpool are closing in on a deal for the 25-year-old Colombian feels the cherry on the cake of a month some fans admitted they were dreading.
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Liverpool are looking to pay an initial fee of £37m with a further £12m in add-ons for a player who Jurgen Klopp had identified as a first-choice option for the summer of 2022, with Diaz - joint-top scorer in last year's Copa America with Lionel Messi and with an impressive 14 goals in 18 league starts for Porto this season - believed to have had a £67m release clause within his contract.
Tottenham’s interest in the player however, with the north London club reported to have also made a £37m bid with add-ons, along with Porto’s financial situation given their early exit from this season’s Champions League (where they were beaten home and away by Liverpool) has prompted the Reds into action with Anfield sources now believing an early move for Diaz presents better value.
With the player away on international duty, a Liverpool delegation was despatched to Argentina - where Colombia play on Tuesday - to conduct a medical and, with sources suggesting Diaz favours a move to Anfield, Tottenham face the unpleasant prospect of history repeating itself.
Because less than ten years ago, the Lilywhites believed they had a deal lined up for another highly-rated south American only to find themselves gazumped late on and, given the north London club had initially pushed Liverpool out of the way to take up pole position in the race to get a signature on paper, recalling it now may raise a few wry smiles at Anfield.
The summer window of 2013 is often looked back on with some degree of regret by Liverpudlians given the season it preceded, with the Reds’ producing the most credible (and unexpected) title challenge of the modern era, eleven straight wins between February and April bringing a first Premier League triumph within touching distance until Steven Gerrard’s heartbreaking slip against Chelsea meant Manchester City ultimately finished two points clear at the top.
Given Liverpool’s business the previous summer had only seen the fairly understated arrivals of Mamadou Sakho, Simon Mignolet, Iago Aspas, Luis Alberto and Kolo Toure - with no arrivals at all in January 2014 despite a failed last-ditch move to Russian winger Yehven Konoplyanka - there was always a wistful wondering among some fans whether one more quality addition could have made the difference, especially when the South American winger Liverpool were edged out for initially by Spurs ended up at Chelsea and proved to be an impressive Premier League performer.
Willian had made his breakthrough in senior football with Corinthians in Brazil after coming through their youth system before following the well-trod path to Europe and increasingly the eastern fringes of it taken by many of his compatriots by joining Shakhtar Donetsk for €14m at the age of 19 in 2007.
A successful six year-spell in Ukraine saw him feature regularly in the Champions League while helping Donetsk win four league titles, three Ukrainian Cups and the UEFA Cup in 2009, and make his full international debut in November 2011 in a friendly match against Gabon.
A €35m move to Anzhi Makhachkala followed in January 2013, the Russian club purchased by billionaire Suleyman Kermiov in January 2011 who briefly made waves by splashing the cash to bring in high-profile signings like Samuel Eto’o and Roberto Carlos.
Severe budgets cuts however following their failure to qualify for the Champions League in 2012/13, with manager Guus Hiddink also resigning his post, meant Willian’s stay in Makhachkala was destined to be a short one and, with Brendan Rodgers having earlier in the summer been thwarted by reported number one target Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s decision to join Jurgen Klopp’s Champions League runners up Borussia Dortmund from Shakhtar, Willian came firmly onto the Reds’ radar.
A £30m bid was said to be in the offing but interest from Tottenham received a more receptive response from the player’s representatives, much to Rodgers’s frustration.
"It’s disappointing because this was a player who would have been perfect for us," Rodgers admitted.
"It wasn’t a football [decision] and I don’t really want to go into it…that’s for us as a club really.
"The bottom line is he hasn’t come here for whatever reason and we move on.
"We identify the targets and then try and get the deal done financially. That’s how it was.
"The club has pushed financially as hard as they felt they could but it wasn’t to be."
With Spurs in the process of finalising Gareth Bales’s world record £85.3m to Real Madrid, they were obviously keen to bolster their squad before letting their star player leave and would have been delighted to have seemingly pushed the main competitors for the Brazilian’s signature out of the way.
Having seemingly agreed a £30m fee, a medical was conducted and everything appeared set for the transfer to be completed but they had reckoned without the shrewdness of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who made a personal call to fellow Russian oligarch Kerimov, the Anzhi owner.
Suddenly Chelsea had agreed a slightly higher fee, £32m, for the player, and to Spurs’ fury a deal they believed was in the bag had been hijacked.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy was reportedly incandescent with Spurs said to be of the view Chelsea had only moved for the player to stop their London rivals from getting him, which Chelsea denied insisting they had always held an interest in the talented Brazilian.
The gloating from Jose Mourinho, newly-installed for his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge, would have done little to sooth Spurs’ anger.
Even before the deal was confirmed, he was initially vague saying he believed the player had already made his decision but when pressed if that meant he had chosen Chelsea, he laughed and nodded.
The Portuguese added the situation merely highlighted the pitfalls of clubs conducting medicals before contracts had been signed and the need for secrecy over deals, saying: "That's the danger of medicals before contracts but, at the same time, if the contract and the medical after sometimes you can have a problem before signing a player so you have to do the medical before.
"The best thing you can do is do the medical in secret. The player is fine, you can sign him. The player is not fine, you don't destroy his career by saying the player has problems, so you do it in secret and after that sign the contract with the club and the player. Sometimes you don't make it. Sometimes you guys have great sources, find everything, but that's the risk."
Asked whether he now expected Chelsea to complete the deal for Willian, he replied with a mischievous grin: “We have to do the medical.”
Speaking about his controversial arrival into English football years later, Willian himself claimed it had always been his intention to join Chelsea but admitted Tottenham did not make it easy and claimed to have been stuck in a Spurs club office for eight hours.
He told Brazilian TV show Resenha in 2018, “You know my objective was to go to Chelsea, but since Chelsea don’t want, then we’re going to Tottenham. I said ‘Oh, I’m going to sign with Tottenham, anyway, there’s no other option'.
“Then we’re going in the van, on the way, get to the training centre, Kia, my agent, is already down there, waiting. I thought it was weird, he was already at the door. Then I got out of the van, he said, ‘we have problems’. I said ‘oh, what happened?’ Then he said ‘Chelsea made an offer’. I said, ‘So make do, I’ll get back in the van, you’ll make do and I’ll go to Chelsea, I will not sign with Tottenham'.
“I stayed there for eight hours in the training centre. Tottenham’s director said ‘I’m going to report you to FIFA, this and that, fans here in England will boo you, this and that’.
“They made up a lot of things. I got stuck there for eight hours. Then I left and I went straight to meet Chelsea people to sort the details and sign.”
Willian won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and a Europa League with Chelsea in a seven-year spell at Stamford Bridge before leaving to join Tottenham’s north London rivals, Arsenal, on a free transfer and is now back in Brazil with Corinthians.
From an ironic Liverpool perspective he came close to scoring one of the key goals that ended the 2013/14 title dream, running clear in the final moments of Chelsea’s win at Anfield before setting up former Red Fernando Torres to tap in the clinching second goal for the visitors.
Then in June 2020, he scored the penalty at Stamford Bridge that clinched Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City which finally confirmed Liverpool’s thirty-year wait for a league title was over.
