Liverpool's Ambitious Summer Signings: Munoz and Diomande
Liverpool have ripped up the script of their summer rebuild. Victor Munoz is through the door. Yan Diomande is firmly in their sights. And the numbers involved show just how serious the club are about life after Mohamed Salah.
Munoz hijack stuns Newcastle
Newcastle thought Victor Munoz was theirs. Fee agreed with Osasuna: £33.3m, structured as an initial £29m plus £4.3m in add-ons. Personal terms sorted. Agent fees in place. A medical in the United States already being lined up.
Then the deal stalled.
In the final 24 hours, Munoz’s camp told Newcastle to wait. Liverpool, who had never left the table, stepped through the gap. The result: a six-year contract at Anfield for the 22-year-old Spain international and another bitter taste for Newcastle, still smarting from previous near-misses with Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.
Liverpool will pay £34.5m for Munoz, a winger polished in the academies of Barcelona and Real Madrid and handed his LaLiga debut by Carlo Ancelotti for Real Madrid in May 2025, when he replaced Vinicius Junior in El Clásico against Barca. A year later he joined Osasuna on a five-year deal and last season delivered 34 league appearances, six goals and two assists.
That body of work, and his World Cup involvement with Spain, made him one of the most intriguing wide options in LaLiga. Liverpool moved when it mattered.
Iraola’s new weapon
Munoz is not a vanity signing. He is a tactical tool for Andoni Iraola.
Predominantly a left winger, he can operate off either flank and through the middle. He runs directly, carries pace, and stretches games in a way Liverpool felt they lacked when injuries piled up last season. The club wanted flexibility in the forward line; Munoz ticks that box and a few more.
His arrival gives Iraola extra cover and sharper competition for places, but Liverpool also believe his versatility will not choke the pathway for highly rated youngster Rio Ngumoha. Munoz can shift zones, fill gaps and allow Iraola to rotate without ripping up his attacking structure.
The deal accelerated once Iraola’s appointment was confirmed. His deep knowledge of LaLiga and familiarity with Munoz’s profile pushed Liverpool to act quickly. The medical was conducted in the United States with Liverpool staff, another sign of how rapidly the club closed in once they decided to move.
Diomande chase: £86m on the table
If Munoz is the first piece of the post-Salah puzzle, Yan Diomande is the centrepiece Liverpool want to build around.
Liverpool have indicated a willingness to pay £86m for the RB Leipzig winger, according to Sky in Germany. For a 19-year-old, that is a statement. That figure would smash the Premier League record transfer for a teenager, eclipsing the £58.9m Manchester United agreed to pay Lille for Leny Yoro in the summer of 2024.
It still might not be enough.
Leipzig are expected to demand significantly more to even consider a sale. They signed Diomande from Leganes for £17.3m last summer on wages of around £33,000 per week and have watched his value explode over a single, electric season. The German club would prefer to keep him for at least one more year and are prepared to offer a new contract with improved terms.
From half a dozen senior starts at a relegated Leganes side to one of the most coveted wide forwards in Europe, Diomande’s rise has been violent in its speed. He scored in two of those six LaLiga games, against Espanyol and Valladolid, and even in a struggling team he looked like he was playing a different sport.
At Leipzig, he has been something else. Lightning quick, unpredictable, and fearless in one-on-one situations, he carries the kind of raw, uncoachable talent that clubs at the very top of the game pay premiums for. The biggest sides want him. Most of the rest simply cannot afford to join the conversation.
Liverpool, though, are in that conversation. And they are speaking loudly.
Salah succession plan in full swing
Crucially, Munoz’s arrival does not end Liverpool’s pursuit of Diomande. Internally, Diomande remains the top winger target this summer. The plan has always been to make multiple signings to replace Salah, not to find a single like-for-like successor.
Munoz’s £34.5m fee, paid in two instalments, is sizeable but still dwarfed by what Diomande is expected to cost. Paris Saint-Germain are among the heavyweights circling, and the race for his signature could define the upper end of this window.
Liverpool’s willingness to go to £86m shows how far they are prepared to go. Whether Leipzig budge, and whether Diomande chooses Anfield over the other giants in pursuit, will shape the club’s attacking landscape for years.
Chiesa squeezed by new reality
All of this has sharp consequences for Federico Chiesa.
The Italy winger entered the summer with his future already clouded. Game time under former head coach Arne Slot was scarce; he started only one Premier League match last season. Iraola, by contrast, wants to wipe the slate clean and there is a feeling inside the club that Chiesa is better suited to the Spaniard’s aggressive, vertical style.
Yet the numbers in his position are stacking up against him. Munoz is in. Another winger – potentially Diomande – is likely to follow. That combination makes it far harder to promise Chiesa the regular minutes he craves.
At 28, with two years left on his contract and interest from Italy, Chiesa wants to be a guaranteed starter. Right now, that looks a distant prospect at Anfield.
A new front line, or a missed opportunity?
Liverpool have moved decisively to wound a rival and secure Munoz. They are ready to shatter records for Diomande. Iraola is being handed pace, flexibility and youth across the front line.
If they land Diomande on top of Munoz, Liverpool’s attack will look radically different – and potentially terrifying – by the time the new season settles into rhythm. If they miss out, and Salah’s goals walk out the door without that marquee replacement, how long before the questions start to bite?
