Man Utd would have ‘overpaid’ with £85m for Darwin Nunez, but Liverpool haven’t

Manchester United backed out of the race to sign Darwin Nunez as they didn’t think he was worth £85m. He wasn’t, to them, but he is to Liverpool.

It wasn’t his first howler in a Liverpool shirt, but it might have been his worst. Darwin Nunez side-footed a shot over the bar from three yards against Luton on Sunday. There was no pace on Mohamed Salah’s unintentional assist, the goalkeeper had no chance; on this occasion it was indeed ‘easier to score than to miss’. It will be haunting him.

Nunez has enjoyed a very good season up to now. His brace off the bench against Newcastle was wonderful, there’s clearly a growing understanding between him and Salah, and as Klopp said recently, what makes him different to Liverpool’s other forward options is that “he’s involved in pretty much everything”. He’s got seven goals and five assists this season – a goal contribution every 63 minutes.

“I am a bit afraid of the highs he could reach because there is so much there it is crazy,” Klopp said last week, verbalising a scenario that pop psychologists may suggest goes some way to explaining the consistent jibes and put-downs from rival fans, who perhaps take so much joy in the bad of Nunez for fear of how dangerous he could become. Or, they think £85m (with add-ons) is too much for a striker who misses from three yards out.

A timely report on Monday claimed Manchester United pulled out of the race for Nunez because they ‘calculated that the forward wasn’t worth such a fee at the time’. United believing Liverpool ‘overpaid’ for the striker in the very same summer they bought Antony for £82m is irony at its best, made even funnier by the fact they were apparently ‘calculating’ such things at the time, but they were right to steer clear of Nunez.

Manchester United would absolutely have ‘overpaid’ had they spent £85m on the 24-year-old. Imagine the poor b*stard toiling up front at Old Trafford over the last season and a bit, feeding off scraps, missing chances with nowhere to hide, a charisma vacuum for a manager, joining the ranks of post-Fergie flops at a club broken to the extent where players with far more experience get chewed up and spat out. Instead, he’s at Liverpool.

“I am a manager who can help a player but I need contact for that, it can speed up a process by talking a lot with the player,” Klopp said, before explaining the language barrier is no longer such an issue. Nunez has one of the best man-managers around to bat away criticism, take the pressure off and coddle what appears to be a fragile ego.

Klopp has always said that Nunez needs time, like the vast majority of young new arrivals to the Premier League. Unlike so many though, he’s in the perfect place to be given it.

He’s started five of 11 Premier League games this season and 19 of 38 in his debut campaign. As one of five very good forward options at Anfield, it’s not all about Nunez. If he’s having a tough time, he doesn’t need to play. If he doesn’t score, one or more of the others probably will. If they don’t, the blame is shared. And crucially, when he’s not playing, there won’t be endless questions as to why not.

Darwin Nunez celebrates his winning goal.

He wouldn’t have had that luxury at United, where Antony Martial would have offered the greatest, and thus very little, competition for a starting spot last season. The spotlight would always have been on him, and it has consistently blinded more confident and complete players. While we’re excited by what’s to come from Nunez at Liverpool, had he gone to United we may instead be thinking about how soon it can end.

Nunez is still raw, much like Didier Drogba when he first arrived at Chelsea. He’s missing simple chances like Drogba did, but has the same scary potential that became terrifying dominance of defenders and the contribution of massive goals in massive games in the Ivorian’s case.

He might not realise that potential at Liverpool, but the chance of him turning into a £150m striker is worth £85m in an environment which makes the possible probable, rather than at United, where the odds would have been massively stacked against him.

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