Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has singled out Luis Diaz as he praised Liverpool’s transfer strategy in recent years.

Speaking after the Reds’ 3-1 win over Benfica last night, the 72-year-old listed a number of the club’s most successful signings and credited the recruitment department for getting so many right:

“I would give 10 out of 10 to the scouts. Nothing was wrong there, from [Mohamed] Salah and Mane to [Virgl] Van Dijk. Now Diaz – Diaz looks special. Unbelievable what they’ve done. The only guy who didn’t integrate as well as we expected from the start on was Thiago, a little bit [Naby] Keita. It took them some time to adjust to the Premier League pace. They’ve done extremely well, Liverpool.”

Diaz was excellent against Benfica, scoring and providing an assist with Liverpool now firmly in control of the Champions League quarter-final tie.

As Wenger points out, the Colombian has certainly not been the only success story, and it will be hoped that Julian Ward, the man succeeding Michael Edwards as sporting director at the end of the season, will be just as successful in charge of transfers.

Considering it was reported that Ward was the driving force behind bringing Diaz to Merseyside, along with manager Jurgen Klopp, it does look as though the future of the team is in safe hands.