Liverpool paid ‘too much’ for ‘disappointment’ Darwin Nunez – who should move to Leicester…

£30million would have been ‘too much’ for Darwin Nunez, let alone the ‘ridiculous’ fee Liverpool actually paid. Also: Reds fans are criticised for their booing and Man City fans are called ‘plastic’.

Send your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

No evolution
Hey when talking number 9s what’s that line they like to say…  You want your striker to be cool don’t you ?  Fire in the belly and head in the freezer, right

All season long a great many in football have voiced some sentiment along the lines of Darwin Nunez eventually coming good.  Privately, in my own headspace, I’ve scoffed hard at this, especially some of the comparisons being made to Luis Suarez who apart from being his countryman shares nothing remotely similar in profile, ability, tendencies or class.  They may share in abundance that fire in the belly, but the finishing coolness suarez has up top makes a mockery of the decapitated headless chicken storming the Anfield corner flags.  Yet there is this extremely glass-full, feel-good sentiment that appears to prevail, and quite loudly at times.

We keep hearing different mindless cliches coming from all far corners proclaiming that at some point, any point now, Darwin’s goals will come in bunches, that he just needs another full and proper preseason and some time with an English tutor and he’ll be banging them in left right centre and blindfolded.  It’s very possible he will come good, but I can’t see it happening, and I can’t see it happening at Liverpool.

This player’s story arc could be of the infuriating and meandering journeyman’s variety, where he flops, shows a spell, maybe flops again, shows another spell, maybe in his late 20s / early 30s he finds a sustainable foothold towards the top of the game but by then I don’t know if hes at Anfield.  Yes I know it’s early and I full well see he’s got some spectacular attributes, but I’d also known a few birds in my time who had spectacular attributes yet early on, somewhere deep in my gut I knew I just wouldn’t find enough there when it really mattered.

Honestly I feel a bit negative and somewhat guilty putting these thoughts to paper b/c part of me feels they’ll no longer be within just the mental domain I’ve been kicking round my head and will now somehow officially manifest. What stupid thoughts football supporters live with eh.

I hope I am wrong and wrong a thousand times over.  Yet I feel i’ve seen enough to convince he just doesn’t have it, and either he never will or by the time he does he will be long gone, maybe in Germany or back in Portugal, otherwise here but playing for somebody else (that said, Darwin would be money at a club like Leicester or Spurs where a side sit back, drop deep, don’t possess and play off every back foot for 70+ min but will go and spring 5-6 counters a game; he’s got pace to burn and can win you a fair few fixtures solely off what everyone’s saying is the “chaos” he brings, whatever that means). Digressing…

Listen, Darwin Nunez has some truly exceptional attributes required for some truly devastating forward play.  But I just cannot shake the feeling that he will (continue to) disappoint at Liverpool, that we don’t really actually need what he does provide, and all the hollow hopes and praises about the potential and the chaos are simply too far a cry from a real product on the field.  Over the course of rhe season he’s not improved, he’s actually getting worse.  Unless something changes massively (and miraculously ) in his development over the summer I reckon this player will be buried deep deep on the bench maybe trotted out for some of those exotic Thurs evening matches wes got coming

One other thing:  Some have said hey what were liverpool doing going and getting Darwin in the first place, Jurgen and their recruitment didn’t know if they were coming or going with that transfer, they couldnt figure out whether they wanted to continue to play false 9 with wingers / strikers circling or if they were phasing out transitioning to a new era with a true central threat to lead the line.  But honestly all this is put to bed if Nunez has any half semblance being a proper goalscorer.  If he’s on half what Haaland scores we are challenging the top places for Europe and this so-called experiment gone awry looks that much more for the lustre.  Instead it’ s now all about the potential. That’s how it works.

We bend the story to what we see, on pitch, and it makes the club look caught in two minds b/c there’s now a big expensive conspicuous lad up front who can’t find the net.  I’d have said 30mil was too much for a dice roll on “potential” nevermind the 64-climbing-to-85 ridiculousness we spilled to get him
Eric, Los Angeles  CA

Anthem United F.C.
I’m taking a wild guess at what topic will dominate the upcoming mailbox…

To the people of Liverpool (red and blue), I can only say: thank you for caring as little as possible about what the perfect populace of a batsh*t world dictates you should do. How many of them would be able to say anything meaningful about sovereign grants and secret shell companies?

Regardless of that — I should add that I have nothing to do with the British Isles, and that therefore I wouldn’t have booed another’s anthem myself — if people can’t express differing views at a football stadium, then where can they? We have, of course, seen people write that those who don’t like a country should move elsewhere. Many (who already enjoy every other comfort of life) have magnanimously made the allowance for Liverpool supporters to remain silent instead.

So, are you allowed to criticize your government or aren’t you? Is the problem in the manner or the timing; must you never do it in public (in your own city, at your own stadium, at an event that has no relation to any coronation)? Some imply that this sort of act isn’t an expression of disapproval towards the government, but a direct attack on the nation. Doesn’t that only stress the problem of conflating the two?

I, for one, am simply glad that something like this gets people to talk about it. Now, I appreciate that the people on the other side of this debate are loyal citizens who never make a fuss about the monarchy, or taxes, or healthcare, or…Well, hang on…Could it be… that they will always dislike Liverpool, no matter what the supporters do?At least it seems football, indeed — and more so than any anthem — unites!

But, tell you what: if none of your self-elected opponents would do so much as genuinely wonder why it is you have the objections you do (I have seen some attribute it entirely to the Hillsborough disaster alone), continuing to go against them certainly earns you a great deal of respect in my little, ever-transgressive nook of the (batsh*t) world.
Danilo (new kit looks terrific – reckon I’ll be able to afford it in a few years), LFC, Bosnia

Classless
After laughing all season at the Chelsea Circus act, after yesterdays classless display by the Liverpool crowd I am praying they do not reach champions league qualification.

Freedom of speech yes, dignity and silence would have shown you all in a different light.

Maybe hand in those British passports you all have to travel to European games.
Sarn Smith

Scousers
How lovely to hear the Scousers booing the National Anthem on the day of King Charles’ coronation as it delayed the braying of their own anthem by a minute.

What a bunch of tw*ts. Continually moaning about the lack of respect, but having none themselves.

Sh*theads, one and all.
Bladey Mick (Come on the Bees)

No outrage over no apology
I hope everyone who had the knives out for Qatar and Saudi implore their new king (brith based btw, talk about discrimination!) to apologise to the common wealth countries for colonizing them. If the argument goes it happened so long back in time and UK has moved on since then and become a good boy, the only way the rest of us can see that you have recognized your misdeeds is when you apologise for it.

If the middle east is involved in sports washing, what is London involved in? Money laundromats?
Anon

Plastic Support
Earlier today I was sitting in a pub with my wife in Clapham. There were a number of Citeh fans here. Clapham and Citeh ? Non comprehend?

I spoke to one who was from Stockport so fine and we had a nice chat.

My wife started speaking to a Spanish Citeh fan…a Spanish Citeh fan? She mentioned that Pep and Arteta went to the same academy and he rudely dissed her.

My wife kept telling me to calm down when that weird Viking missed sitters.

Leeds pulled one back and I went mental! People looked at me and Chelsea and Liverpool fans said good on you with your passion.

Close down on those smug t*ssers!
Chris, Croydon

The miracle of Man Utd
Ah…the miracle of Man Utd, the little horse who could (after spending £250m) elevate itself from 6th to maybe 4th.
Simon, London.

Football Journalism
RE Ian King. I can’t think of a journalist who’s work I most look forward to reading. From non league to EPL the quality is exceptional. Unbiased and informative. Keep it up Sir.
CK

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