Liverpool Transfer News: Richard Hughes delivers €45m masterclass

Yahoo

3 days ago

The Reds have become known for their spending habits this summer, after last season's limited transfer business meant that a substantial budget could be arranged for a mini-rebuild.
And despite the £300m spent, you'd be hard pushed to think Liverpool hadn't made some really impressive deals, getting Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike signed.
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But that's not the half of it, because the outgoing departures have been just as remarkable, dragging the club's net spent down to just over £100m, making it a particularly reasonable transfer window.
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However, we've just been given an added piece of context for one deal that makes it look even better than we first thought and it's all down to the brilliance of Richard Hughes in the negotiations.
Liverpool leave Bayern €45m worse off
It had previously been reported that Liverpool pulled off a sensational deal when Luis Diaz joined Bayern Munich for €75m (£65m), with the German club being forced into agreeing our conditions.
Bayern Space, a reliable social media outlet during the Florian Wirtz, revealed that a sell-on clause was embedded in the Colombian's contract as he has ambitions of later moving to Saudi Arabia.
In their report, it said: "Richard Hughes controlled the negotiations from start to finish, setting the framework early and never letting go of the upper hand... With the sell-on clause factored in, the total fee Liverpool could receive may rise to 95 or 100 million euros if a high-value transfer occurs, which is viewed internally as a likely outcome."
That update alone suggested that Liverpool had faired pretty well in the proceedings.
But now we've been given a bit more insight into just have successful a negotiation it was, as Bayern Munich have made an outgoing transfer that is incredibly similar to when Liverpool sold Diaz.
On Monday afternoon, Fabrizio Romano gave the 'Here we Go' to confirm Kingsley Coman's move to Saudi club Al Nassr, in a deal with just less than €30m (£26m) for the 29-year-old French winger.
Given our agreement for Diaz - another 29-year-old winger - was €45m more expensive, it appears as though Hughes delivered a masterclass on the fee as well as the unconfirmed sell-on clause.
The slight caveat, of course, is that Diaz has more goal contributions last season (22) than Coman had delivered in his last two campaigns combined, the players are delivering at different standards.
However, it cannot be said that Liverpool didn't get the most they possibly could out of the Colombian's departure. We're yet to replace him properly, but the transfer was a clear success.
It is negotiation feats like as this which are exactly why Liverpool can afford to spend what they have done this summer and why more incoming moves could still be sanctioned over the next few weeks.