Reports: Everton 'in talks' with Porto's Diaz

The right-back situation is worrying – we need someone very fast and powerful on that side to eliminate an obvious weakness. If we can do that and get this Diaz guy in, I would be comfortable about being competitive in the Premier League.

That's a reasonable record but the Portuguese league is much weaker than the Premier League – and he's playing for a side which is streets ahead of all opposition bar two other teams.

So you would expect inferior goal contributions from him for us – which means maybe not really of materially superior quality to the likes of Gray and Townsend.

So really not a Richarlison replacement by any stretch – but a decent option at left wing (if indeed we need such an option).

If it is true, he's likely to be a replacement for Richarlison.

Raphinha is a better player.

I haven't seen him for Porto and don't know how good he is on a week-to-week basis, but he sure is fun for Colombia.

Usually, when someone talks of rumors, it isn't rumors. It's a single rumor from somewhere and all other mentions of it are copy and paste from the original one.

With that, the "copy and pasters" include attribution directly to or leading to that original, single rumor.

The two oldest references to the Club and Diaz are from the Echo and BBC. The other references are from one of those two. Yet, neither the Echo or BBC attribute the talk to some other source. They just report it.

And the two reporters are Kirkbride and McNulty, who as far as I can tell are considered reputable.

All considered, and having never heard of Diaz, I'm guessing this one has legs.

Sky Sports is really a parody at such times as this. Classic stuff.

Ahh, just repeated Mike there for the most part. Sorry Mike, got excited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTdLQ5iN4uw

1:25 - A flying side volley similar to the one he scored on against Brazil, but the Peru keeper saves it.
1:55 - A great speed goal off his keeper's long pass.
2:35 - A gamewinner from heaven.

I've seen him five or six times this year for Colombia, and he's been this much fun every time. But again, I have no idea what he's like with Porto.

Dale #22, no worries, picturing this guy in blue can definitely raise your excitement level.

Old YouTube shows a left winger that likes to score with his right. Doesn't look like having express pace like a Maxim or Traore (Everton wingers never do - sigh Andre Kanchelskis...).

Has a trick, but uses his body a bit too.
Doesn't look massively different to a Richarlison in likeness - but I doubt the aerial ability or workrate (when not stropping).

Without the obvious pace, he will need to be massively up for the physical challenge of the English league. Playing Lisbon and Benfica, and then nothing much else ain't going to go too far.

I'd like to say impressed, but not so much.

Diaz will score more in the Prem for us, that Rahinha will form Leeds. There's not a shred of doubt.

And France is a pub league. It has 1 team. Then a couple of Ok ones then the drop of is stark. The vast majority of the french league would struggle in the championship.

Taking nothing away from Raphinha, a fantastic players, easy on the eye. Diaz is suited to the English game and in my opinion, he'll be an excellent signing. I used Raphinha because they remind me of each other but I have no doubts about who I prefer. Diaz does it for his country as well. He's a gem.

He certainly turns up for Colombia but then so too does Shaqiri for Switzerland. International football can be misleading.

If we get him for circa £20m in addition to Richarlison then looks decent business - although I'd be wondering why not a right back.

For what it's worth, I watched quite a bit of Diaz over the summer playing for Colombia and remember thinking how wasteful he was with the ball in one of the early games but by the end he had emerged as one of the tournament's stand-out players.

If we do lose Richarlison this week, Diaz would at least provide that dribbling talent and ability to beat a man that we thought Richarlison would bring to the team but actually doesn't. Wouldn't replace his instincts and aerial presence in the box though – those will be sorely missed.

It's why we've focused on the new stadium and different sponsorships etc.

I'd imagine a RB will deffo be one of the signings Rafa hinted at in his press conference. He confirmed we're actively looking and anything can happen. Richarlison going no where according to the gaffa. A right back is an absolute must, you're spot on. Coleman is the cover. We need a first choice RB.

Soren,

Wrong Raphinha, the Leeds on is same age as Diaz. Might you he thinking of Rafinha alacantara? Thiago's brother? He's getting in for 29.

If we could sneak in some decent competition for DCL too I'd be over the moon.

Haha. Take your own advice.

By accident, I hit "Submit Your Comment" instead of "Top of the Page" at the bottom.

Unless you're brand new to the site, this, "Type or paste your comments here. Please use grammatical terms properly, including capitalization. Posts solely in lower case or text speak are likely to be deleted" used to be right at the comment box.

Been there for years. Hadn't notice Lyndon removed it. Apparently, it still appears when you hit "Submit Your Comment" with the comment box empty.

Mick#47. Not sure you're understanding fully, just as I don't understand a word of your post.

Maybe going a tad deep for a fansite mate.

Benn (40), You're right mate. He is 24. Mixed him up with of another Brazilian lol.

Diaz would be an exciting signing and is the perfect age and level I'd say. Hopefully he's not Richarlisons replacement bad they can play together.

Can we loan out Mick to another fansite?

The script is supposed to prevent that from happening but it's never worked and I've not tried to address it until today. I think it now works, though.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.

Outstanding at Copa, goals against Brazil and Argentina and not too many tap ins

Link

So, at age 24, it might make sense for him after all.

Diaz will find it tougher so it will depend if the player has the mental strength and can raise his game. Having Yerry here will be a massive help. It is one of the more exciting rumours of late.

But the profile is exactly what we should be targeting. And if it does mean Richarlison is leaving, it's exactly the way I'd hope we'd work: sell high, sign replacement for ¼ of the fee.

All 3 nice. That 3rd one, though? More please.

Hope we sign him.

And don't get me started on pressing buttons!
See you both at the Live Forum for three points and some banter tomorrow.

Even if it was just James out maybe the books would balance given his mega wages and our ability to amortise the Ruiz fee over his contract term.

I still think he is one of our top targets, possibly why we did not push harder for Dumfries.

With Ronaldo moving on, chances are Mpappe May do as well, causing a domino effect for the likes of James and Kean, even dare I say it Richarlison.

See Juventus are interested in Kean. Rodriguez looks a possibility on loan.

Either that, or a Flux Capacitor and a bargain De Lorean, where we can set the time to go back to Moshiri's arrival and spend more wisely. Who knows... we may even sign Biff and that McFly guy! :-)

Why do you have to involve the Yanks? A perfectly good British Tardis could do the job.

Isn't it the case that many brilliant players currently playing in the Premier League were from "weaker" leagues? Or the incredible players from seasons past...

Bruno Fernandes wasn't exactly tearing up trees when he was with Sporting Lisbon? (If I remember my facts correctly...) Yet, he has come up a few notches since joining Man Utd.

It's the legacy of people like Gary Hooper with an average of 2 goals in every 3 games at Celtic. Millions wasted later he's playing in a reserve team in New Zealand by 30. Or indeed “player of the year” Niasse in Russia. You might expect someone to be a standout in a weak league if they're good enough for the Premier League. That being said… Seamus Coleman.

The Brazilian coach Tite has called up nine replacements – nearly half a squad.

Interestingly, one of those is an alleged target of ours, the still uncapped Mateus Nunes of Sporting.

A good block of fixtures for Richarlison to miss following his non-stop summer. Brazil are due to play three, not two, World Cup qualifiers.

Shame to lose Rodriguez though it didn't look like Benitez was going to play him much. And Diaz could be a very exciting player, certainly has a spectacular goal in him.

"Bruno Fernandez wasn't exactly tearing up trees when he was with Sporting Lisbon?"

Err... yes, he was, bud, he most definitely was.

If big money comes in for Richarlison, he will be gone. The movement of big names may put him into play, as Brian (#88) says. He would probably do well on the continent.

I would like to see an out-and-out striker signed, maybe Kean may go to accommodate him. A right-back on loan looks a possibility.

I know they are capable of switching but Richarlison, Gray, Iwobi and even Gordon prefer to play off the left. I would have thought if we were bidding bigger that it would be for a player known for playing off the right.

On the subject of goals, it looks historically that Diaz scores somewhere around 1 in 4, which is okay but not stellar for a winger. However, this season (including the Copa America) he has 6 in 10, so perhaps his finishing is improving and we might be the beneficiary!

I had not thought of the possibility of a loan fee.

This guy will contribute more than Kean and as much as Rodriguez, maybe more seeing as he should be available for more games than his fellow countryman.

It's the wages that are screwing Everton in FFP, but just shows you have only £109 million to play with, over three years for losses, but debt elsewhere like £443 Million does not matter.

Fair play my arse.

When he explained he was a Sporting fan it all made sense. There aren't many good teams in that league but Sporting are one of them, if he gives them problems it bodes well for us.

He's a really interesting player but I wouldn't mind a left-footed winger to add some balance.

I don't know if it's 10 or 20%.

Even if we gave him away, who would take him? Unless he takes a 50% wage cut, he's going nowhere. I hope I'm wrong, but if Porto don't want him. Having been there for 3 years, I can see the Diaz transfer collapsing.

Why hasn't Carlo come calling! I can't see Rafa making a compromise, unless James knuckles down, there's more chance of snow in hell. A very talented mercenary methinks. Tell me I'm wrong.

It's seemed pretty clear for a few seasons we need a (ideally) left footed right winger. In terms of what's left and might be available for the same or less than Diaz, it looks like maybe Brooks, McNeill, Neres or Malcom - but I bet you can come up with a few others.

Maybe even Faivre even though, like Brooks, he's not really a winger but a classy player cutting in from the right flank nonetheless.

Nice if Juve could give us the loan of Kulusevski for a season as a sweetener to the Kean deal but seems too much to hope for.

As it happens, Townsend seems a breath of fresh air generally even if not very glamorous!

Walk away... and if James is still here in 2 days, then bring him back into the fold to compete with Andros for that place on the right.

I'm 99% sure that, when he hears the Old Lady roar, we'll get a full and good season from him, and we can all part as friends next summer.

If we have dough to spend in the meantime, get the right-back position sorted, and a couple of loans to pad out the team.

Diaz to Everton, financially, would just be another routine player deal.

James's salary, image rights, commercial opportunities, the sheer volume of his world-wide popularity are all waaaaay beyond "Everton sign Diaz".

What does he bring to the table?

Rafa doesn't want him. What effort has he made to ingratiate himself into the fold? Get rid ASAP, unless he buckles down, which isn't going to happen.

Not a Rolls-Royce, but a quality player that keeps breaking down. Get rid ASAP.