Tim Vickery raves about ‘sensational’ Luis Diaz as Everton open talks for deal
Sky Sports’ South American football expert Tim Vickery has been raving about Porto winger Luis Diaz as Everton aim to sign the Colombia international.
According to Sky Sports, the Blues are in talks to sign Diaz, 24, from Porto and as part of the deal, James Rodriguez could return to the Portuguese giants on loan.
Speaking about the potential late summer deal, Vickery waxed lyrical about Diaz’s form with Colombia at Copa America and also discussed Porto’s transfer strategy.
“It’s the classic Portuguese business model,” Vickery told Sky Sports News on Friday, as shown on Football Daily’s Twitter account.
“[Porto] brought Luis Diaz in from Colombia and paid less than £10million for him a couple of years ago.
“They’ve fattened the calf, got good service out of him and then you sell him on at a huge profit. It’s something Porto did a few years ago with James Rodriguez.
“There’s been a fair bit of Premier League interest in Luis Diaz over the last couple of years from Liverpool and, more recently I’m led to understand, from Tottenham and Chelsea.
“He’s a winger who usually plays wide-left, cutting onto his right foot.
“There’s a goal in him. He had a fantastic Copa America, he scored four goals and each of them were better than the last – they were sensational goals.”
Real deal
Everton have already added to their winger options this summer by signing Demarai Gray and Andros Townsend.
However, Rafa Benitez and Marcel Brands clearly aren’t finished yet with adding that area of the squad.
Diaz already has two goals in three league appearances for Porto this season.
Last term, the former Junior FC attacker scored 11 times and supplied six assists in 47 appearances across all competitions.
He grabbed two of those goals in the Champions League group stages against Manchester City at the Etihad and at home against Marseille.
Diaz can play both on the right and the left because, as Vickery says, he’s right-footed and is known for cutting inside and getting shots off at goal.
It remains to be seen whether Everton will pull off this deal but if Rodriguez goes the other way, it’ll at least reduce our wagebill.
Rodriguez simply needs to go but he’s not the only one and we need to raise funds to make new signings.
In other Everton news, the Toffees have set their sights on this in-form Premier League striker.
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