Darwin Nunez drops five-word hint over Liverpool future after transfer admission

“I couldn’t take it anymore and I wanted to leave.”

You’d be forgiven for fearing Darwin Nunez uttered such words in regards to his Liverpool future, given the rollercoaster nature of his Reds career to date. It is inescapable that he has faced increased scrutiny in recent months following a poor end to the season which saw him lose his starting berth and have to deal with growing backlash.

After missing a glaring chance in Liverpool’s win over Tottenham Hotspur at the start of May, he set tongues wagging when, amid online criticism, he deleted all his Reds-related pictures on Instagram, limited who can comment, and blocked some accounts on Twitter. Meanwhile, he’d later open up on dealing with the abuse he suffers.

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There has been an added uncertainty about his future at Anfield ever since, especially given a managerial change, even if Liverpool reportedly have no desire to move him on and new head coach Arne Slot, who already boasts a strong track-record when it comes to transforming the fortunes of his forwards, is said to be keen to work with the striker.

Fortunately the aforementioned quote, uttered in the Premier League’s latest episode of ‘Ask Me Anything’, is historical in nature. Rather than being in reference to his Liverpool woes, it is actually looking back to when he injured his ACL as a teenager when with Penerol back in his native Uruguay, having already struggled with homesickness after joining the Montevideo-based club.

“It happened to me when I was 19,” he recalled to Reds team-mates Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz. “I thought I would never be able to carry on playing football.

“My knee, I was injured for a year and a half. I couldn’t take it anymore and I wanted to leave.”

His injury came up as the trio discussed their greatest fears when answers submitted questions from supporters, after Mac Allister shared that his would be ‘not being able to play football anymore, be it due to an accident or an injury.’

Yet Nunez’s own answer to the same question perhaps offers a fresh hint about his Liverpool future.

“Failure really hurts, doesn’t it?” he said, agreeing with Diaz’s sentiment that ‘failing at some point at what you do, at what you want to do or dream about doing,’ was his own greatest fear.

Such an admission does make you wonder how Nunez perceives his Reds career to date and how it could impact any decision about his future.

The Uruguayan has faced scrutiny from the first moment he joined Liverpool in a deal worth up to a club-record £85m in the summer of 2022. Such a hefty fee ultimately ensured he has always had a target on his back through no fault of his own.

Over the last two seasons, the Uruguayan has been unplayable at times, returning 33 goals and 17 assists from 96 appearances. But he also suffered from niggling injuries at times and been particularly wasteful in front of goal.

He has missed 46 big chances in the Premier League during his Reds career to date, with only Erling Haaland spurning more (62 big chances missed). Yet the Norwegian’s squandered chances are accompanied by 63 Premier League goals from just 66 appearances (compared to Nunez’s own return of 20 goals from 65 games) and two league titles.

Following a poor finish to the season, where he lost his starting berth and his only goal from his final 13 appearances of the campaign went in off his backside when chasing down the goalkeeper, every man and his dog has had an opinion on Nunez’s talents and his future.

Unsurprisingly, there is mass debate regarding whether he can live up to his potential at Liverpool, or if it’s time for the Reds to consider cutting their losses. After all, misfiring strikers don’t get more than two seasons at Anfield to rewrite the narrative, despite big-money transfer fees, with many departing even sooner.

In the Premier League era, Christian Benteke, Mario Balotelli, Andy Carroll, Robbie Keane, Djibril Cisse, El Hadji Diouf and Stan Collymore are all members of the swiftly discarded club. Rickie Lambert, Iago Aspas, Milan Jovanovic and Fernando Morientes are also members for more meagre fees, while the likes of Andriy Voronin and Fabio Borini were belatedly offloaded after initially leaving on loan.

From such a list, only Collymore and Cisse managed more than 15 goals for the club and more than 10 in the Premier league, with the Reds having little patience for an under-performing forward.

For the record, Nunez has already outscored all but Collymore (35 goals, 26 in Premier League) to ensure that, despite what some critics might think, he is no big-money flop. Yet it could still be a sliding doors summer for the striker.

Currently away with Uruguay at Copa America, he will miss the bulk of new head coach Slot’s first pre-season at Liverpool. But while that could leave him playing catch-up under the Dutchman heading into the new campaign, he could also return high on confidence and in strong form - having already ended his lengthy drought, dating back to the mid-March if we include only intentional goals, by netting a hat-trick in a warm-up friendly win over Mexico.

Nunez is no Liverpool failure, though if his Reds career was cut short prematurely, that is perhaps how he would be remembered.

The 24-year-old is hurting and has a point to prove. And he is a fighter, made of different stuff. If he had given in to homesickness or injury at Penerol, he would have followed through on his early desire to leave. If he had quit Benfica after a difficult first season, he would never have earned his big-money move to Liverpool.

While it might be easy to walk away now, that would be conceding defeat and giving in to the striker’s biggest fear. Only Nunez can answer if that is a decision he is prepared to make, but his own personal history very much suggests otherwise.