Al-Hilal saw an $85 million bid for Darwin Nunez rejected by Liverpool, with director Michael Edwards keen to extract as much value as possible from the 25-year-old.
Nunez has failed to impress head coach Arne Slot since replacing Jurgen Klopp in the summer, with the Uruguayan striker struggling for consistency. Nunez was signed by Klopp in the summer of 2022 for $78 million, and although he is a popular figure among fans, he has not progressed at the rate Liverpool expected.
According to Anfield Watch, Al-Hilal are keen to bring Nunez to the Saudi Pro League and see him as a replacement for Neymar, who could leave the club this month. Liverpool rejected the first offer for Nunez, but are not opposed to selling the player in January.
Liverpool are believed to be expecting a fee of around $103 million for Nunez, but could settle for $91.5 million if the striker agrees to leave the club. Nunez’s relationship with fans begins to deteriorate and Slot appears to have lost confidence in himself as well.
Nunez remains an exciting talent and often finds himself in the right positions, but he lacks the ruthless streak that world-class strikers boast. Slot made it clear via his team selection that Diogo Jota was his preferred number 9 when fit, and even when the Portuguese striker was injured, the head coach turned to Luis Diaz.
In December, Slot accused Nunez of “wanting too much” which was disrupting his performance on the field. “For me, he’s impactful,” Slot said. “If you just look at the goals, he hasn’t scored the number of goals he wants to score, or we want our number 9 to score, but it’s impacting his work rate.
“He’s part of a team that scores a lot of goals and wins a lot. But of course as a number 9 you want to score goals and that’s certainly what he wants too. I’m not just judging Mo (Salah) on his objectives, I do not only judge Darwin on his objectives.
(Image: 2024 Catherine Ivill – AMA)
“I judge them on their work rate and what they bring to the team and that has been positive so far. Maybe also because the fans support him so much, maybe he almost wants score too much for himself and also for the team because they supported him a lot.
One Liverpool fan and former player who has not supported Nunez is Robbie Fowler, who questioned his future at the club on Saturday. Nunez failed to score in a 4–0 win over Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third round, despite playing the full 90 minutes.
After the match, Fowler said live on ITV: “We’re saying the same things now as we were two or three years ago. He’s raw, he’s this, he’s that, and we can’t keep saying that The more I see him, the more I think he’s not a Liverpool player.”
Nunez’s inconsistency saw him drop to third pick at 9th, and while he is capable of playing on the left wing, Cody Gakpo has earned that role as well. Liverpool will now wait to see how Al-Hilal react and whether other Saudi clubs will consider a bidding war.