Darwin Nunez has been heavily linked with a move away from Liverpool this summer
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 06: Darwin Nunez of Liverpool FC during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Liverpool FC at Craven Cottage on April 06, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Darwin nunez has seen his future at Anfield questioned(Image: undefined via Getty Images)
This summer, Liverpool look set to break not only their own transfer record, but the British transfer record, with the pursuit of Bayer Leverkusen ace Florian Wirtz heading down the final stretch to a deal that has been pegged at some £125m. It’s three years since the current holder of record of Liverpool’s most expensive player, Darwin Nunez, arrived at the club in a deal that was worth up to £85m, his signing from Benfica generating enormous excitement among the red half of Merseyside.
The 25-year-old Uruguayan had become something of a cult hero at Anfield, his unpredictable yet exciting style of play and high work rate often compensating for elements of his game that were lacking.
But as Liverpool seek to build and be better with each passing season, looking to improve on a stellar first year under Arne Slot where they cantered to the Premier League title in some style, the parts of Nunez’s game that had been not at the level they should be, namely his ability to find the back of the net with regularity.
READ MORE: What Liverpool financial picture looks like as £700m figure likely exceededREAD MORE: Liverpool tipped to complete five transfers with Darwin Nunez replacement and £60m attacker
Five Premier League goals last season was all he could muster, with his total in all competitions since his arrival being 40 goals in 143 games. That’s not a pitiful record by any stretch of the imagination, but with a price tag of £85m including add-ons, many of which have been met, and playing for one of world football’s best sides, it isn’t at the level expected or required.
An exit for Nunez this summer has been expected if the right interest came along, and this week saw Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal come to the table. The details of any potential deal haven’t been made public as yet, although some reports have placed a £70m price tag upon his head, one that seems rather steep given the current transfer market sentiment around him and his statistics from the past season. However, age and still having three years on his Anfield deal means that he could hold better value than the £39m that Transfermarkt peg his value at.
Liverpool want to realise some kind of profit on Nunez so that they can offset some of the Wirtz cost and put more money back into play in the market.
The Nunez fee was an initial £64m sum guaranteed. That sum is what is accounted for when we talk about amortisation, which is the spreading of a fee paid across the life of the player’s contract in the books. Nunez’s deal was six years.
The add-ons are booked as exceptional items in the accounts as and when the clauses are triggered. Some have already been triggered in the case of Nunez, with few left to activate.
Using the £64m figure, Liverpool, by this summer, will have cleared three years of Nunez’s fee for accounting purposes (it isn’t the same as actually paying the instalments to the clubs owed). With an amortisation charge of £10.6m per year, Liverpool will have seen £31.8m drop off his book value, leaving a sum of £32.2m remaining. The ability for clubs to amortise deals for longer than five years was in effect when Nunez signed for Liverpool, it has since been closed and capped at five years but not done retrospectively.
What that means is that any guaranteed fee over and above that book value will count as profit for the Reds.
A sale for the £70m suggested in reports would be represent £37.8m of profit which could be booked in its entirety in the current financial year, which has now clicked over into 2025/26 for the Reds, with their financial year end being May 31.
From a financial point of view it will aid matters in the summer if he were to move on for a good price, and positively impact the kind of money that Liverpool may be willing to shell out on a replacement or additions in other areas, as that remaining book value would have dropped off the liabilities for the football club. For context, at the £118m guaranteed fee for Wirtz mooted in German media before add-ons, that comes to £23.6m in annual amortisation charges. That is less than the book value remaining on Nunez, limiting the impact of the Wirtz deal in this current financial year.
A deal for £70m seems somewhat ambitious maybe, albeit not beyond the realms of possibility when the Saudi Pro League is involved. A sum closer to £50m plus some add-ons may seem more realistic, but either way it would represent profit on Nunez and the removal of his book value from amortisation costs, meaning that there would be no impairment charges, which happens when clubs sell players at a loss on their book value.
Player trading is something that Liverpool will engage in this summer, with goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher having already sealed an £18m move to Brentford. Nunez offers up the chance to create some greater financial flexibility, but the decision will be centred on whether or not he gets one more go around to finally find his Liverpool groove. That ship may have sailed, though.