Steven Gerrard wants Luis Diaz back at Liverpool. Not a complicated take — but a revealing one, given that Liverpool sold the Colombian to Bayern Munich for £65m just last summer and are now watching him dismantle Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Diaz was part of Liverpool's extraordinary £450m summer rebuild that also brought in Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike. The theory was sound. The execution has been messy. Liverpool are now heading into another transitional summer with Arne Slot's future uncertain and the small matter of replacing Mo Salah still unresolved.
Gerrard's transfer wishlist — and why it's complicated
Asked on TNT Sports about Bayern's Michael Olise, Gerrard didn't hesitate: "All day long." Then came the reality check. "The problem is, why would he leave Bayern Munich? Big club, they're challenging for the big honours, probably the strongest Bayern Munich team we've seen for a while. He's about to take the World Cup by storm... I don't think he's going anywhere."
Fair point. Olise is 23, thriving, and playing for a Bayern side that currently leads Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final. The idea that he'd swap that for a Liverpool project in flux is a stretch.
Which brings Gerrard back to Diaz. "I wouldn't mind Diaz back as well," he said. Given the Colombian's form — lighting up the Bundesliga and now the biggest stage in European football — the market for him would be fierce. Liverpool buying him back at a premium after selling him last summer would be an uncomfortable conversation for the board.
On talkSPORT, Gerrard addressed the Salah situation more directly: "I think there's very few out there that you can go and grab" as a like-for-like. He pointed to how the club have historically navigated similar exits — replacing Suarez differently, bringing in Diaz when Mane left — suggesting Liverpool's recruitment team won't necessarily chase a carbon copy. That's the right framing. It's also cold comfort when the player leaving is a 30-goal-a-season machine.
Salah's departure will reshape Liverpool's attacking identity. Their odds across multiple markets — top-four finish, title challenge, European progression — will need revisiting once he's formally out the door.
Klopp's honest goodbye
Elsewhere, Jurgen Klopp appeared on the That Peter Crouch Podcast and said something that actually landed. Asked about the gratitude Liverpool fans show him, he flipped it: "I have to say thank you for the exact same reasons."
It's not false modesty. Klopp delivered a league title that had taken 30 years to arrive, a sixth Champions League, and nearly everything else in between. His recent return to Anfield for a Legends match — now head of global soccer at Red Bull — was received like a homecoming. He's earned that.
"Nobody can think back to these nine years without a smile on their face," he said. "Everything about it, how connected we were."
Nine years. Every major trophy. A fanbase that still stops him in the street. The reunion tour is over — but for Liverpool fans watching this summer's rebuild stumble, Klopp's era looks a little more golden with every passing week.
