£46 million is a fair price. I hope he thrives there.
Jeez… Nunez is a fine player, I love his workrate and generally, I still think he could do well for us if he stays, but if he does indeed accept that move to Al-Hilal… he isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, is he?
Oh, and LFC take a hit of more than £30m compared to what was layed out for him when he came to us. Peanuts, eh?
There has ended up being a better than expected market for younger players who move to Saudi or Qatar and then try to come back within a year or so. If he’s being asked to find himself a move and there arent currently good options for him in Europe then what avenues does he have?
That’s assuming we had to pay all the add ons that were structured into that deal , right?
The fee is again, like with Lucho, more or less what I would accept (gonna be even a bit higher) and what I thought it would be. Good to get this finally sorted. 3 years is more than enough time of chances at Liverpool. In the end, I also think he’s had enough and is ready for something else.
Those in the know reported that his final fee wasn’t close to 85 million pounds, it was somewhere in the region between 70 and 75 million pounds. So, the absolute loss on his transfer fee is about 30 million pounds but I hope he’ll trigger those clauses for Al-Hilal and reduce that loss.
From Sky:
Darwin Nunez transfer news: Liverpool agree £56.6m deal to sell Uruguayan striker to Al Hilal
“Darwin Nunez set to end three-year stay at Liverpool after club agree deal with Al Hilal worth up to £56.6m; Uruguayan forward scored 40 goals in 143 appearances at Anfield; Reds set to make eight-figure loss on player who signed for initial £64m plus significant add-ons”
“The Saudi Pro League club have offered a fixed fee of £46.2m (€53m) plus add-ons that could take the deal to £56.6m (€65m)”
Not sure how we make an absolute loss of 30 million with the figures quoted. It can’t be assumed all add ons were met and I think they weren’t, in all honesty
According to this we’ve paid 76.8m until this point (64m upfront, and the rest in bonuses etc.).
Bonuses aren’t transfer fees
Im sad. His highlight reel with us has some absolutely devastating stuff in it. A lot of our best football over the last few years has come from him and Mo on a 2 man warpath laying waste to defenses. But it was clear that there was not enough of it and the longer it went on the further he got from where he needed to be.
The club had still to pay them! Btw, I should have written ‘appearance-related fees, payable to Benfica’, rather than bonuses.
I think Slot broke his confidence completely, for whatever reason. Just like with Quansah.
With Klopp, he scored 18 goals in his second season with us. Last season, just seven. You are right, he has to move on now, but while Slot has done incredibly well with us until now, he doesn’t seem to be the best of motivators for this kind of player, who obviously thrives on confidence.
There are those aspects and also one very, very simple and important…
Quality.
I’d have put it down more to Darwin not suiting what Slot wants from a center forward for his system. No amount of improving his confidence is going to make him a player like Ekitike.
I liked him because he was capable of making things happen. The agent of chaos. He destabilised defences. He may not have benefited directly from that influence but there were many occasions in which the team as a whole did.
Darwin had two seasons under Klopp - the manager who bought and staked a lot of his reputation on him - and he still couldn’t perform.
I don’t understand why you think this was Slot’s fault. The fact is he has three years, loads of chances, insane backing from the support, and he was massively disappointing.
I made the point early in his time he would be a scorer of great goals but would never be a great goalscorer and thats what was shown.
As for the agent of chaos that disappeared as time went on. Times last year after Christmas he was the agent of hinderance.
I wish him best and he becomes the player we thought he would do.
Did you miss Klopp pushing him out on left to try get more out of him at times.
I’ll miss him. Fun player, very hard worker, cult hero at times. As a few others have said, he ultimately wasn’t good enough. He was bought in response to City buying Haaland and us needing more from a center forward than we were getting with Bobby.
He scored some great goals, but will always be remembered for some of the mindblowing misses he’s had for us over the last few years, and for spending the majority of his time in an offside position.
The “taking a seven-figure loss” thing is a bit misleading, by the way. From a PSR perspective this will actually be a net positive for us, and while he was here we got some value out of him, so I don’t see it as a loss necessarily.
Hope he does well for himself and his family over in Saudi, and hope that he finds his way back to Europe because I do think he’s a great player on his day.
Nope I didn’t miss that, still I felt he suited Klopp better then he does Slot. I’d have been okay for him being the backup under Klopp. While with Slot I think it’s better for all of us for him to move on.