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

It is inescapable that Nunez has faced increased scrutiny in recent months following a poor end to the season

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

Nunez deleted all his Reds-related pictures on Instagram, limited who can comment, and blocked some accounts

Meanwhile, he’d later open up on dealing with the abuse he suffers.

There has been an added uncertainty about his future at Anfield ever since, especially given a managerial change

Nunez is quoted as saying:

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

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

Nunez said

“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

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?” Nunez 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.

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)

Unsurprisingly, there is mass debate regarding whether he can live up to his potential at Liverpool

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