Darwin Nunez is either ‘simply too expensive’ for Liverpool to pursue or they will SMASH record

Liverpool do not seem daunted by the prospect of spending loads on Darwin Nunez. Unless you need to paint them as a paragon of transfer virtue.

Spiral fracture
Dave Kidd of The Sun suggests that Harry Kane – sorry, that should be ‘our future Sir Harry’ – prevented England from ‘heading into a potential spiral of negativity five months out from the World Cup’ with his equaliser against Germany.

By the very next paragraph, Kidd is writing that ‘England seem to have regressed individually and collectively since they defeated Germany at last summer’s Euros’. Thank f*** Sir Harry kept that ‘spiral of negativity’ away, eh?

‘Few of Southgate’s players had great seasons at club level and they haven’t looked convincing too often as a team, since that penalty shoot-out defeat by Wembley.’

Kyle Walker, John Stones and Raheem Sterling won the Premier League title. Declan Rice reached a major European semi-final. Bukayo Saka was excellent for Arsenal. Mason Mount reached double figures for goals and assists at Chelsea. Sir Harry did alright in the end, too.

As for England as a whole, their 11 games since the Euro 2020 final have included a 1-0 win, two 5-0 wins, two 4-0 wins and a 3-0 win. All without looking ‘convincing too often as a team’, of course.

Tenuous Lineker
Mediawatch is entertained by the idea that Folarin Balogun can score two tap-ins for England U21s and the nation’s best-selling newspaper’s only reference point is an entirely unrelated striker who retired almost three decades ago. But yes, The Sun, that was obviously the Arsenal striker’s ‘best Gary Lineker impression’ and a performance ‘reminiscent of our nation’s greatest fox-in-the-box’. Balogun and Lineker are the only English players ever to score goals from a matter of yards.

Darwin’s theory
Darwin Nunez has handily reenergised the most international break of international breaks ever. The Benfica forward was always likely to dominate headlines in the transfer market but news of Liverpool’s solidified interest was somewhat surprising.

He would undoubtedly cost a fair whack, though. Are the Reds really prepared to enter the bidding considering they have generally avoided such lavish spending over the past few years?

‘Liverpool have targeted Darwin Nunez to be the new striker to light up Anfield and are prepared to smash their transfer record to sign him,’ writes Dominic King of the Daily Mail. His exclusive adds that the club is ‘determined’ to complete a deal which ‘could reach as much as £85million’. The headline explicitly states that the Reds are ‘ready to SMASH’ their previous transfer record of £75m. There are no grey areas here: the price will not be a problem.

But in the Liverpool Echo, the club’s venerated transfer market approach is held as the specific reason Nunez won’t be signed for such a fee. Ian Doyle tells us:

‘While a player greatly admired by Klopp and the recruitment team, the reported price tag of £85m is simply too expensive. Manchester United and Newcastle United, thought to both be considering a move for the 22-year-old, can afford to pay over the odds for the forward. Liverpool will not, sticking to the principles that have served them so well in the transfer market under Klopp and Fenway Sports Group. If Benfica want to do business at a price the Reds feel is approaching more realistic, things could change.’

So either Liverpool ‘are prepared to smash their transfer record’ for Nunez, as the original story claimed, or they will only ‘do business’ at a ‘more realistic’ price than £85m, as an outlet rehashing that article is weirdly suggesting.

It seems the Liverpool Echo are more bothered about ‘sticking to’ those revered ‘principles’ than Liverpool themselves. Imagine how difficult it would be to keep selling the club as a paragon of virtue battling against the superclub elite if they complete a transfer you have already denigrated as ‘simply too expensive’.

Win-win
And then you back out of that story and onto the Liverpool Echo homepage to find the following headline:

‘Liverpool ‘prepared to smash transfer record’ for Darwin Nunez as price tag set’

An absolute art form in having your cake and eating it.

The truth shall set you free
Elsewhere in the Liverpool Echo, ‘Liverpool and Bayern Munich must face £100million truth in Sadio Mane transfer’. They must. That sounds ‘simply too expensive’ and hardly a ‘realistic’ price but still. They must.

The piece revolves around the derisory £25m offer made by Bayern Munich for Mane this week. Liverpool received similar figures for both Rhian Brewster and Dominic Solanke so ‘in that light, it’s fair to ask if Mane is worth far, far more than what Bayern have offered’.

‘Football club makes lowball opening offer for target’ is hardly ground-breaking stuff and that much is acknowledged in the piece, which says Bayern were ‘merely setting out their stall with a ballpark figure’. Quite right.

But further examples are brought to the fore to labour the point that Mane will come at a substantially higher cost: Liverpool signed Thiago – in the final year of his contract, like Mane – for £25m but his injury record helped drag that fee down. And then comes the case of Eden Hazard:

‘He left Chelsea for Real Madrid when down to the final 12 months of his deal for a fee believed to be at least £89million plus add-ons.’

And of Robin van Persie, signed by Manchester United at 29 in the final year of his Arsenal contract for £22.5m. Using the famed Transfer Price Index established by a Liverpool fanzine writer a while back, we obviously know that ‘in 2021/22, a Premier League transfer cost 4.45 times what it did in 2012/13’, so Van Persie’s deal was basically equivalent to a £100m one. Hence the £100m ‘truth’ that both Liverpool and Bayern Munich ‘must face’.

A couple of other truths: Mane is 30 and thus older than every player mentioned; and none of those transfers were completed in the financial uncertainty of a post-pandemic world. Aside from that, feel free to randomly multiply Van Persie’s fee from almost a decade ago by about four and a half to prove something everyone already agrees with – Mane is probably worth more than £25m.

Domo arigato
Credit to The Sun for treating the latest update on the semi -utomated offside system – that it is expected to be used for the World Cup after successful trials – with the utmost respect and gravitas.

Alternatively, they refer to ‘ROBOT LINESMEN’ in the headline and ‘robo linesmen’ in the first paragraph, with the only subsequent quote fitting either description coming from ‘Fifa referee chief, former Italian whistler Pierluigi Collina,’ who ‘bristles at the use of the term “robot offside”.’

Great second mention, but still.

The picture The Sun website uses to illustrate the story obviously includes RoboCop and C-3PO, and the accompanying poll asks ‘Do you fear robot linesmen could take over the world?’.

Absolutely vital journalism, that.