Things are going from bad to worse for Daniel Levy, Antonio Conte and Tottenham Hotspur.
The North Londoners seemed on course to land Adama Traore from Wolverhampton Wanderers, however, they appear to have been beaten to the punch by Barcelona, where Traore began his career.
Another player believed to have been targeted by the club is Porto’s exciting 25-year-old winger, Luis Diaz.
The Colombian has seemingly been on Spurs’ radar for a while now, and it’s believed that the club were negotiating with the Portuguese outfit.
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However, just like with Traore, the club have dragged their heels and now appear certain to lose out on another one of their major targets.
According to tweets from both The Athletic’s David Ornstein and Neil Jones from Goal, though Diaz hasn’t yet signed on the dotted line, that is the expectation.
Liverpool are trying to sign Luis Diaz from Porto ahead of transfer deadline. Nothing agreed yet but they’re in.
Strong interest in both Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino, who may be moved on should suitable offers arrive.#LFC
— Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) January 28, 2022
? Liverpool on course to sign Luis Diaz from Porto before transfer window shuts. Sources expect fee of around €60m including add-ons to be agreed. 25yo Colombia winger also targeted by Tottenham but is believed to have opted for #LFC @TheAthleticUK #THFC https://t.co/AS1rWMP4KB
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) January 28, 2022
That will surely come as a devastating blow to Conte, who is every inch a winner but is stewarding a ship where clearly the same mentality isn’t a thread that runs right through the club from top to bottom.
Although it’s unlikely the manager would walk out on the club halfway through his expected tenure, for a man that’s used to steering clubs to the tops of their leagues, who is a serial winner wherever he’s managed, this simply isn’t good enough.
There isn’t really any need to pore over the why’s and wherefores, other than to look at how, with both Traore and now Diaz, clubs that were seemingly well out of the picture can come in at the 11th hour and get something agreed before Spurs, who will have already been negotiating at length, can formulate something concrete.
Same old Tottenham…