If Darwin Nunez is to leave Liverpool this summer, it looks as though he’ll have an extensive choice of suitors.
Al-Nassr had wanted to bring him to the Saudi Pro League in January (Fabrizio Romano), while he’d also been linked with a potential move to Atletico Madrid (CaughtOffside) as speculation over his future rumbles on.
The reliable James Pearce has said that he’d be ‘amazed’ if the 25-year-old remains at Anfield for the start of next season, and two more suitors now appear to have joined the chase for the Uruguay international.
Premier League duo monitoring Nunez
According to TEAMtalk, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest are both believed to be monitoring Nunez as those two clubs seek centre-forward reinforcements for the viable possibility of Champions League football next season.
They sit sixth and third respectively in the current Premier League table, and it looks a near-certainty that England will be granted five places in Europe’s primary club competition for 2025/26, leaving the Magpies and the Garibaldi with realistic aspirations of securing such a golden ticket.
The report claims that Liverpool’s number 9 is ‘increasingly likely to leave’ this summer, having purportedly failed to convince Arne Slot of his long-term worth to the team.
It’s added that while the Reds are prepared to sell Nunez, they’d only accept a ‘sizeable transfer fee’ for the striker who cost an initial £64m from Benfica three years ago.
Liverpool should be able to get good money for Nunez if they cash in on him
Even with Newcastle and Forest both having prolific strikers in Alexander Isak and Chris Wood, who’ve hit 19 and 18 goals respectively in this season’s Premier League, their reported interest in the Uruguay international is telling.
The Magpies could struggle to hold onto their Swedish hitman, who of course has been strongly linked with a move to Liverpool, while the Midlands outfit appear keen on supplementing the New Zealand striker, who’s now 33 and has had injury problems over the past couple of years.
Another curious coincidence is that the English top-flight duo have both suffered at the hands of stoppage time goals from Nunez, who struck dramatic late winners at St James’ Park and the City Ground last season.
If the Reds are to cash in on the Uruguayan this summer, they should be able to reap a healthy fee for him despite his struggles during the current campaign (just seven goals in 40 appearances).
He’s proven that he can score at Premier League and Champions League level, and at 25 he’s accrued plenty of elite experience while still having the bulk of his career ahead of him. Also, even if we’re unlikely to recoup the full fee that we paid to Benfica in 2022, we shouldn’t be duped into taking a substantial loss on him.
It certainly seems as though Nunez is attracting sufficiently widespread interest to warrant something of a bidding war, if indeed Liverpool decide to sell him in the coming months.
