With the record signing of Darwin Nunez looking all but done for Liverpool, what fascinates me is the presence of Manchester United amid the negotiations.
I can guarantee the Anfield people would have been uneasy with that, as it has the potential to push up not only the price, but the wages too. No agent worth his salt wouldn’t use it to get a bigger contract, let’s be clear.
But United being there in the background - for me - highlights just why this could so easily be another masterstroke for Liverpool in the transfer market, and it’s a point that is so often overlooked in the desperation to see new faces, new signings, new excitement.
I don’t want to be cruel, but United could have written a book on how not to do transfers in recent seasons. Signing players just because you don’t want them to go to a rival? Check and double check.
Cristiano has done his job well enough, but signing him because he could have gone to City? That just had disaster written all over it. And the same with Alexis Sanchez. No, not the same, 10 times worse.
That deal highlights everything that has been wrong at Old Trafford. How much did it cost? About 500 grand a week in wages, which I saw somewhere cost them about 20 million quid a goal…!
Much, much worse though, was that it didn’t just break United’s pay structure, it shattered it. That’s how a goalkeeper can end up on £400,000 a week, and a midfielder like Pogba who couldn’t even get in the team half the time on even more.
And that’s where I think Liverpool have got it right. I can understand there are many, many people questioning why they’re letting Sadio Mane go, asking ‘why not give him the wages he wants?’
It’s the same with Salah too. But what impresses me about the thinking at Anfield, is nothing is done in haste. Everything is analysed, decisions are made with planning over years, not months.
There was clearly a calculation they could get Mane and Salah to play this season without agreeing new contracts and NOT down tools. It worked, it has been one of their best ever seasons.
But there have been calculations. If they give Mane the money they have to give it to Salah, and then van Dijk and Alisson and everyone else too.
You can see the thinking with Darwin Nunez. Mane is 30, he’s 22. Selling Mane could raise around £40m, and Nunez cost £80m. BUT. And this is a significant but.
He’ll most likely be on less than half the wages Mane was asking for. Which over the course of a five year contract could save them ALL of that extra £40m. On top of that, it doesn’t break the wage structure.
Looking at it that way, replacing a 30 year old with a 22 year old whilst keeping your financial house in order is a bloody good win for Liverpool…and it’s something United must follow.
You look at their pursuit of Nunez, and the only chance they have of getting him is by smashing Liverpool’s offer. Tempting him with huge amounts of cash. But again, that is following the Sanchez plan and it doesn’t work.
What they should do is follow Klopp’s plan when he first arrived at Anfield. He knew he couldn’t compete with the likes of City, United and Chelsea in the market, so he found players they didn’t want - at the right price and wages - and turned them into stars.
Ten Hag definitely has the qualities as a manager to do that. It takes time, but it’s the right way to go…and he should be given all the time he needs, even if it takes five years like Klopp, or Sir Alex Ferguson.
On Nunez, yes it seems like a sensible plan to replace Mane with him. But OF COURSE it’s a gamble. Any player coming into the Premier League is a gamble. Timo Werner was a gamble, hell, even Romelu Lukaku was a gamble for Chelsea, and he’d spent half his life in the Premier League.
What I will say is, he’s scored a few goals in big games, scored in the Champions League, and even though he’s raw, there is clearly goalscoring quality within his play.
And that is what Liverpool need. They’ve been brilliant this past year, but you look at the biggest games, and they didn’t always have that goalscoring edge. The Champions League final against Madrid was a game they should have won, but didn’t because of missed chances.
Nunez could eventually be that striker to convert those chances. And if any manager is going to get it out of him, then it’s Klopp. You’ve seen him do it with Salah and Mane, definitely with Lewandowski at Dortmund.
That, for Liverpool fans with the raw quality Nunez has, should be very exciting indeed.
