CEO responds to Darwin Nunez transfer question | OneFootball

Darwin Nunez is heavily linked with a move away from Liverpool. Now a CEO has been directly asked if he's heading there.

It's three years ago now that Liverpool paid Benfica a potential club-record fee to sign Darwin Nunez. The Uruguayan had just scored 34 goals in 41 games as a 22-year-old and looked like one of the most promising forwards in Europe.

Now, that club-record fee will never come to pass. Nunez is certain to leave Liverpool this summer without triggering all the add-ons in the deal and that's simply the story of his time at Anfield.

Nunez is turning 26 this month, entering the prime of his career but not quite as the player we all hoped. He's never proven to have the consistency needed for the very top level, even if there have been times where he looked genuinely world class.

It just hasn't been frequent enough. Nunez has 25 Premier League goals in three seasons of football - that's a number Liverpool hoped he'd hit in a single campaign.

And so he will move on this summer and the only question is 'where'.

Darwin Nunez to leave Liverpool

The strongest links to Nunez come from Italy and Spain right now, with AC Milan, Napoli and Atletico Madrid all supposedly looking at him. But there's one other major option: Saudi Arabia.

Anfield Watch exclusively revealed back in January that Al-Hilal tried to sign Nunez for around £70m. Liverpool rejected the offer, believing they couldn't afford to lose a first-team regular while competing for trophies.

Al-Hilal then returned this summer to attempt a deal before the FIFA Club World Cup only for Nunez to reject them. So is a deal there still possible?

Esteve Calzada is the CEO of Al-Hilal and was recently asked about the prospect of signing Nunez and Victor Osimhen. He refused to give a direct response to the deal but gave an answer.

"We are targeting the biggest players," he said, per the BBC.

"We are very ambitious, but we need to see hunger from the player himself and the transaction needs to work out both ways.

"The only thing we've been trying to remind players and agents is that yes, we are from Saudi, but we don't print notes here!

"My role as CEO is to make sure we run the club efficiently, so that we can have the biggest budget possible to have big players, but not at any cost.

"That's why sometimes we basically walk away from negotiations, because we still want players extremely keen on coming, and not only looking for the money."

Now, for us, the quotes that certain players aren't 'hungry' for the move there and that they want players 'extremely keen on coming' suggests they have indeed been rejected. Reports claim both Nunez and Osimhen have said no within the last month.

The quotes here back that up and we imagine the chances of Nunez accepting a move to Saudi Arabia at this point are incredibly slim. That will cost Liverpool money, given none of the European options will come close to the £70m figure from January.