Liverpool rejected Chelsea ‘enquiry’ for £64m striker amid loan swap deal speculation

Liverpool duo Nunez and Jota

According to reports, Liverpool rejected an ‘enquiry’ from Chelsea for £64m striker Darwin Nunez during last summer’s transfer window.

Liverpool paid an initial fee of around £64m to sign Nunez from Benfica during the 2022 summer transfer window.

The Uraguay international was criticised during his debut season at Anfield as he was often wasteful in front of goal. He was always box-office viewing but he certainly should have ended his debut campaign with more than nine Premier League goals.

After last summer’s transfer window closed, it was claimed that Liverpool offered Nunez in a part-exchange deal for former Chelsea loanee Joao Felix.

Liverpool will be glad that Nunez stuck around heading into this season as he has been in superb form for the Premier League leaders. He has nine goals and seven assists in his 24 league appearances.

The 24-year-old is still pretty raw but he is moving in the right direction as he attempts to establish himself as a world-class forward.

Yet according to Paul Joyce of The Times, Chelsea ‘enquired’ about Nunez last year.

Chelsea managed to beat Liverpool to sign Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia but the Blues ‘endured a spot of transfer frustration of their own during that same window at the hands of their rivals’. This comes as the Reds rejected their advances for Nunez.

It is noted that Chelsea co-sporting director Paul Winstanley thought a deal was possible as ‘there was speculation within the football industry that Liverpool were considering offloading Nunez after only one entertaining, if inefficient, season’ with ‘the gossip suggesting that the club were mulling over a loan-swap deal for Felix’.

This ended up not being the case and Nunez is now in fine form for Liverpool. Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano insisted earlier this week that club chiefs are “very happy with his recent improvement”.

“Darwin Nunez scored again for Liverpool at the weekend, putting away a beautifully-executed lob in the win over Brentford, and he’s really starting to show his best form for the Reds after a difficult start,” Romano told Caught Offside.

“I personally feel that Nunez deserves credit because he was at times heavily criticised by some fans and pundits, but I think it’s been absolutely a normal process.

“He’s a young guy, it takes time to adapt to new life, new city, new club… it’s absolutely ‘human’ to take some time for that. Nunez is a great striker but still has big potential to improve.

“Liverpool are very happy with his recent improvement and he’s doing great. If he carries on playing like this I’m sure he can be one of the key players in this season’s title race.”