Record-breaking Liverpool star emerges as a ‘shock target’ for Euro giants as Reds consider brutal sale

Darwin Nunez joined Liverpool for a club-record fee of £85m in 2022 but is yet to live up to his price tag and could be sold this summer, per reports.

The Uruguay international has missed the second-most big chances (26) of all Premier League players this season and has only scored 11 goals.

The Liverpool supporters know Nunez has talent but are beginning to become frustrated by his lack of output.

According to journalist Phil Thomas, Nunez has emerged as a ‘shock target’ for Barcelona for the upcoming transfer window.

The Catalans are looking to bring in a long-term replacement for Robert Lewandowski, who is an important player for them but is past his best at 35 years old.

Barcelona’s salary cap has been ‘slashed to just over £174million by LaLiga, meaning they will have to offload their highest earners to press on with a planned squad rebuild.’

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With wages that will rocket to £27m next season, Lewandowski is the ‘biggest earner of all’ — and almost certain to leave this summer.

Barcelona boss Xavi sees Nunez as an ideal replacement for the Polish international.

Barcelona plot summer move for Darwin Nunez

The report states that Nunez is among the best-paid players at Anfield but is on a quarter of what Lewandowski earns with Barcelona.

With the Catalans set to offload several players this summer, club chiefs believe that they’ll be able to match the Liverpool striker’s price tag.

It’s claimed that Liverpool are keen to give their prospective new manager Arne Slot a decent transfer kitty and offloading Nunez could help them do so.

Although if they sell Mohamed Salah to a Saudi Pro League club for a huge fee, that will solve that problem.

However, if there is no bid from the Gulf State, as some outlets have suggested, then Liverpool are ‘more likely’ to listen to offers for Nunez, which comes as a boost for Barcelona.

Nunez has made 93 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool, scoring a total of 33 goals in the process. His chances-missed stats suggest those numbers should be considerably better, though.

It will be interesting to see how much Barcelona are willing to put on the table for the 24-year-old centre-forward.

Liverpool will no doubt look to receive as much of the £85m they spent on Nunez as possible. If they don’t receive an offer of that size, they’ll likely give him one more season to prove his worth.

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