Oh no…
BREAKING: Napoli have decided to no longer proceed and attempt to sign Darwin Nunez due to the high cost.
[@SkySportsNews]
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Off to the sand with him then.
If it is a proper break, and not a negotiating tactic, I like the clarity. Napoli are out of the picture. Good, the cheapskate time-wasters!
Darwin has 3 years left on his deal. Now then, what’s what?
Another European club? We aren’t demanding a ridiculous price, given his age, talent, and what other players are going for.
Will it be a move to the Saudis? It will give him a fresh start, boost his bank account, and as we’ve seen, there is a way back to big-time football from Saudi Arabia.
Or will we end up finding him a suitable loan, taking a loan fee, seeing the player get regular football and score goals, and then move next summer for the fee we want, with 2 years left on his deal?
I’m chilled. For a while I thought he might possibly stay, but I think that ship has sailed and Slot is building a new forward line, without Nunez.
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I don’t want a loan. We need to reinvest the cash in at least 1 forward this summer.
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Fuck the Italian clubs. All fart and no shit. Too much mozarella.
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Agreed. All I’m saying is that if a permanent move does not materialize this summer and it comes to a loan, which is definitely not the preferred option; with 3 years left on his deal we still have some wiggle room.
I also think that the Nunez fee will be very useful and will be reinvested, but if the fee is not forthcoming this summer and we have, say, a €60M ‘hole’ in the finances, it won’t stop us from signing the striker we need.
It’s not ideal, but we have a credit facility we will dip into to sign Ekitike or whoever, and the team won’t be hindered.
All this assumes a worst case scenario where Nunez is not sold. I think he will be sold, this summer.
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I doubt he gets sold, at least not at the current asking price. We’ll probably end up keeping him and giving him another chance.
Who knows, maybe it works out for the best.
I have been a defender of Darwin, but it’s clear he utterly failed to respond to the challenges Slot presented him with to change his perspective on him. He heaped praise on him he probably didnt deserve and didnt the response he hoped for. He then publicly called him out on the things he needed to do better and got less of a response resulting in his presence being largely decorative by the end of the season.
There are possibly some multiverse universes out there where there is a path back from there for a player in that situation, but I dont see why a club in our position would put ourselves in the position to see if we live in one of those. He has had his moments, but it’s time to cut losses and help him find a move that can kick start a career that should still have a lot of exciting chapters to write
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Not disagreeing with any of this, but from
the outside looking in, I don’t think that the club is as willing to cut losses as we are.
Napoli’s bid was low, but it somewhat reflects where Nunez is valued now. The fact that we want to recuperate as much as possible of the investment we made on him, has no bearing on their or anyone else’s valuation.
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I don’t know that there is an extra credit facility that we will dip into to sign an extra expensive striker. And I don’t know where you get that confidence from either - if we don’t get a fee.
We might get that CB and pretty much leave it at that (which I would be satisfied with btw if we keep Nunez, Elliott and maybe even Danns). That is a heck of a lot of spending if we don’t recoup a big portion from sales.
I have lost faith in Nunez being a star player for us but not as a serviceable backup to Gakpo.
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Yup CB is the most important.
Well, at least this explains why we hire so many physicists.
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It’s Graham’s next professional project - find the one where Sturridge was able to stay fit and bring him back here
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Lucky fella, Nunez, if he gets another season here, without much merit, but because of very tragic circumstances. I mean, he’s had his good patches here, it wasn’t all bad and last autumn/winter I thought with his 6-year deal, he might get 4 years (thinking about it now, mate, 4 years of chances at Liverpool is more than enough!). I do like the Rodrygo rumours though.
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I don’t think he’d be lucky to spend another year wasting his time with us.
We certainly wouldn’t be.
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I don’t see us leaving ourselves short of a striker if that’s what Slot needs. Our plans won’t stop even if we don’t manage to sell Nunez this summer (I think we will).
Without going too far into accounting, as that’s boring and we don’t know all the details, we do know that unless it is a buyout clause, most deals are amortized over the length of the contract. If we bought, say, Ekitike for £75M on a five year deal, this year we would only need to pay £15M of that amount.
If Slot wants a striker I am confident we will be able to back him in that.
I completely agree we also need a central defender.
If no other club wants, or is willing to pay the going rate for Nunez, he may have no other choice but to buckle down and accept the cameo appearances that come his way when the game needs closing out…
If he wants away from Anfield, he needs to show other clubs he is worth their investment… If he stays, I personally hope he becomes like a striker possessed, and starts to slot these easy chances away that land at his feet…
The fans will forgive his past ‘open goal-sitter’ misdemeanours if he starts to score regularly
The point is less about what he will accept and more about what Slot wants.
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Yeah that’s right… but if he has to hang about with the squad for next season because there are no buyers… I’m sure he will get opportunities to play at some point next season… These are the opportunities he has to grab with both hands.
As much as I think it’s best for ourselves and Darwin for him to move on this summer. Italian teams are such a pain to deal with for selling players to them, I can’t say I’m sorry if Napoli have really given up. Hopefully someone else will still come in for him, pleanty of time left.