Arne Slot pays grateful Darwin Nunez tribute as rumours swirl about Saudi-linked Liverpool striker

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Darwin Nunez’s time at Premier League champions-elect Liverpool looks destined to end with a bit of a whimper.

Only five league goals all season, just one top-flight start since Boxing Day, and an ill-advised, albeit now-deleted social media post which had the Liverpool fans flocking to support Arne Slot rather than their embattled centre-forward.

Darwin Nunez is alleged to have hit out at the Anfield boss regarding his lack of match action in recent months.

Though when you consider that Slot has Liverpool one game away from the Premier League title – and that Nunez has far fewer goals than Danny Welbeck, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Liam Delap and Jacob Murphy – it is understandable that the much-maligned Uruguayan would find few willing to stand in his corner.

Fabrizio Romano, meanwhile, believes Darwin Nunez is almost certain to leave Liverpool in the summer transfer window. Al-Hilal have not given up on signing a striker they have targeted since the turn of the year.

Though, while his role in a title-winning drama has been more of an extra than one of the leading men, Nunez did provide one vital piece of plot development.

Arne Slot names Darwin Nunez Brentford heroics as a favourite Liverpool moment

Introduced off the bench with Liverpool struggling to break down a disciplined Brentford outfit in mid-January, Darwin Nunez struck not once but twice in stoppage time.

He turned in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross to spark wild, shirt-tearing celebrations with 91 minutes on the clock. Almost immediately afterwards, Nunez then collected a Harvey Elliott pass, stepped inside and lashed a 93rd minute clincher into the roof of the Brentford net.

In a season with plenty of late drama, Nunez’s West London brace was the moment when Liverpool really started to feel like champions-in-waiting.

“Big players always show up in big moments,” Slot says misty-eyed when asked to recall his favourite moments of the season, also mentioning Virgil van Dijk’s thumping header against West Ham and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s volleyed winner at Leicester last weekend.

“Virgil just before the end against West Ham, Trent [scoring] 10 minutes before the end against Leicester. Brentford away, 90 minutes played, 0-0, Darwin Nunez scoring a goal…

“I think Trent assisted that one as well!”

Slot reacts to speculation over Nunez’s lack of Premier League starts

Slot signs off by expressing his belief that ‘the most beautiful [moment] is still to come’.

And wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Darwin Nunez who secured Liverpool their second Premier League title against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon. Then again, after some pretty foolish social media activity, Nunez might just have poured petrol and thrown a lit match onto the last remaining bridge between himself and his manager.

And if Gary Neville is right – the Man United legend predicts Liverpool will batter Spurs 4-1 at Anfield – Slot may not need to turn to Nunez in search of more last-gasp heroics.

Reports from Portuguese outlet A Bola, meanwhile, suggest Liverpool will need to pay £4.2 million if Darwin Nunez starts another Premier League match, taking the overall tally handed over to Benfica to £77 million.

Some have suggested, then, that Nunez’s ongoing omission may be a financial decision. Not that Slot was having any of that in his Friday press conference.

“Do you always believe what journalists say?” he smiled. “Sometimes you should, but sometimes it’s better not to believe everything that’s written about players. [Those reports are] completely new to me.

“I’ve said many times I’m at a club where it’s really nice to work. It’s very important to have a great working environment and I have that with Richard [Hughes, director]. So, the last, last, last, last thing he would do is tell me; ‘If you play him, it would cost us this much’.

“That, he would never, never, never do!

“I don’t even think if it’s true because we never talked about it. [Hughes] never interferes with a line up. It might be true, but if a journalist says it, we have to balance it.”