If Bayern Munich’s approach for Luis Diaz came with Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager, the German may have flipped his lid.
The Reds have instantly rejected a £58.6million offer for their Colombian star, maintaining that he’s not for sale this summer.
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Yet some reports claim Diaz has told the club he wants to leave for Bayern, which may bring a dose of deja vu, just not for Arne Slot.
In 2022, it was Klopp who had to deal with the Bundesliga giants coming for one of his key players, and it was a frustratingly familiar feeling for the former Borussia Dortmund man.
The current Red Bull Head of Global Soccer was formerly a breath of fresh air when he arrived in the German top flight with Mainz back in 2004, but too fresh in Bayern’s eyes.
Klopp threatened to derail the record champions’ Bundesliga domination with two titles for Dortmund in 2011 and 2012, so when he aimed to beat them in the following year’s Champions League final, Bayern decided to teach their new enemy a lesson.
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The Bavarians launched an attack for Klopp’s key man Mario Gotze, and announced the deal while they were trouncing Real Madrid in the semi-finals.
It proved to be a perfect unsettling tactic as Bayern would beat Dortmund in the Wembley final, and then come back for Robert Lewandowski the following summer, comprehensively ending any chance of a new BVB era in Germany.
Klopp would later depart in 2015 with Bayern in the midst of an 11-year title-winning streak, but it wasn’t until 2022 that he had to deal with their underhand tactics again.
This time at Liverpool, Klopp was on top of the world aiming for a treble, but ahead of the Champions League final against Real Madrid, Bayern’s timing left him reeling once more.
His pre-game press conference was dominated by questions about Sadio Mane, with very strong reports that he was heading to Bayern the following season.
With a deep breath out through his nose and his eyes sharpened in frustration, Klopp unconvincingly responded: “The Bayern rumours, I couldn’t care less.
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“We are all fully focused on this game. Sadio is completely focused and he knows how important it is to him and us. So, no concerns, completely normal.”
However, Klopp then showed why it may have been getting to him, alluding to the move maybe being personal.
“It’s not the first time in my career that before a decisive game Bayern Munich rumours are coming up,” he said with a snarl.
“I don’t know exactly what I did, why that happens, but no problem at all.”
There was a problem though – the rumours were true.
Liverpool would lose the final and Mane would depart, with his famous attacking trident that included Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino now a thing of the past.
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In some senses, like with Gotze, Liverpool had the last laugh, as Mane was equally terrible, if not more than the 2014 German World Cup winner.
The Senegal captain lasted just a season in Munich with Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting forcing him out of the team and essentially ending his time as an elite level footballer.
For Klopp, though, he never got revenge, although his old side definitely did.
Bayern spent the entirety of the 2024/25 season using their Mane and Gotze tactic on Florian Wirtz, openly flirting with the Bayer Leverkusen star who dethroned them the previous season.
Yet despite public displays of love from executives Uli Hoeness, Herbert Hainer and Jan-Christian Dreesen, Wirtz chose Liverpool, and Bayern are now very short up top.
Nico Williams dealt them another blow by staying at Athletic Bilbao, while Leroy Sane rejected a contract extension to join Galatasaray.
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Thomas Muller has also left, while Jamal Musiala will be out for much of the season with a broken leg and top target from Stuttgart, Nick Woltemade, appears to be staying put.
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That means the move for Diaz is far more of a necessity than any sort of tactic.
Yet the real irony with Bayern down and hurt could be Klopp’s Leipzig beating them to the title for a piece of revenge 13 years in the making.
