Suarez claims he ‘recommended’ Chelsea target to Barcelona

Luis Suarez has suggested that he “recommended” reported Chelsea target Darwin Nunez to Barcelona before he joined Benfica last year.

Nunez scored 16 times for Almeria from his 30 outings in the Spanish second division during the 2019/20 season.

This form temped Benfica to sign him for around £21m last year. He has netted 20 times from his 52 appearances for the Portuguese side.

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This includes six goals from his eight games for Benfica this season. It was reported earlier this week that Chelsea were among the teams interested in Nunez.

Suarez spent six years at Barcelona before he joined Atletico Madrid last year.

As reported by The Metro, Suarez has revealed that he attempted to persuade Barcelona to sign Nunez before he joined Benfica:

“I recommended Darwin to Barcelona when he was at Almeria,” Suarez said.

“I have 15 years of international experience. I know a thing or two about forwards.

“And I told them, ‘pay attention to this one, he’s very good, he shows interesting things’.

“They told me he was at Almeria and that he was too young.

“But instead of paying now €80 million, €90m or €100m, they would’ve paid €15m or €20m and have him there as a substitute, a player needs to be empowered.

“But we [supposedly] were the ones who picked players. I never heard a teammate trying to block a transfer, not Messi, Iniesta, Busquets.”

Elsewhere, Chris Sutton believes Chelsea are in a three-horse race for the Premier League title:

“It’s a three-horse race in my book, between Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

“Had Man City signed a striker in the summer, they’d probably have walked this Premier League. Blindfolds and cigarettes may as well have been handed out to their rivals.

“But the fact that Manchester City did not get themselves a [Romelu] Lukaku is where it gets interesting.

“Chelsea did and they are completely in this race. As are Liverpool with Salah, Mane and Jota singing from the same hymn sheet.

“But I don’t consider United to be title contenders this season. They’re guaranteed goals from [Cristiano] Ronaldo but concede too many and Solskjaer still hasn’t got his tactics right.”