Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Ian Doyle

Darwin Nunez must avoid falling into Liverpool transfer trap after £20m mistake

The deal has been confirmed, paperworks completed and medical sorted. Darwin Nunez is a Liverpool player.

And with the transfer potentially costing the Reds a whopping £85million in total, it could end up being a club record-breaking move for the 22-year-old Uruguay international.

Nunez is only the sixth player Liverpool have signed directly from a Portuguese club, a switch helped by the Reds presently having strong links with country in their backroom staff through assistant manager Pep Lijnders, elite development coach Vitor Matos and sporting director Julian Ward.

READ MORE: Liverpool's next big signing after Darwin Nunez could be worth the wait

DARWIN NUNEZ SIGNING: Wages, contract clauses and Liverpool transfer fee explained

Liverpool, though, have had mixed fortunes with their previous purchases from Portugal.

Luis Diaz (£50m from Porto, January 2022)

Early days for a definitive view, of course. But few if any players have hit the ground running midway through a season at Liverpool quite like the Colombian. Impressive in the League Cup and FA Cup final wins over Chelsea, Diaz came off the bench to turn the Champions League semi-final second leg at Villarreal back in the Reds' favour and already has six goals and four assists in 26 outings. Jurgen Klopp will hope it's just the start.

Lazar Markovic (£19.8m from Benfica, July 2014)

By contrast, the Serbian was one of the most expensive failures in Liverpool's history. In retrospect, it was a case of too much too soon for Markovic, who was only 20 when he took on the challenge of helping the Reds negotiate a post-Luis Suarez era. He made only 34 appearances - 23 as a starter - and scored three goals, all in his debut season. Markovic was dogged by bad fortune and poor timing, but rarely looked convincing. More than three-and-a-half years after his last Liverpool outing - and four loan moves later - he joined Fulham for free in January 2019. Markovic has spent the last three seasons back home at Partizan Belgrade.

Tiago Ilori (£3.5m from Sporting Lisbon, September 2013)

The centre-back, then only 20, was signed by Brendan Rodgers on the same day as Mamadou Sakho. Only one, though, had any semblance of success, with Ilori restricted to just three appearances - all of which came under Jurgen Klopp in the FA Cup in the 2015/16 season, when he started both games against Exeter City and the home draw with West Ham United. That came after loan spells at Granada, Bordeaux and Aston Villa before he moved to Reading for £3.75m. Ilori spent last year on loan at Boavista from Sporting.

Joao Carlos Teixeira (£830,000 from Sporting Lisbon, January 2012)

Big things were expected of the creative midfielder when he was snapped up as a teenager. It didn't quite happen, though. After a loan spell at Brentford he made his Liverpool debut as a late substitute at Fulham in the Premier League in February 2014. The came a temporary stop at Brighton, after which Teixeira was given seven appearances by new boss Klopp in 2015/16 including five starts and a goal in the FA Cup. However, he failed to appear in the final three months of the season and left for Porto that summer for a compensation fee. Teixeira signed a short-team deal with Portuguese side Famalicao in January.

Raul Meireles (£11.5m from Porto, August 2010)

Meireles was signed during Roy Hodgson's sole transfer window, and lasted barely 12 months at the club. However, he was a qualified success in the 2011/12 campaign, making 41 appearances and scoring five goals including a winner at Chelsea, a strike in the Anfield derby and a cracker at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Meireles, though, was gone within three games of the next campaign, sold by Kenny Dalglish to Chelsea for a small profit. The midfielder won the FA Cup against Liverpool that season but was suspended for the Londoners' Champions League final win at Bayern Munich before moving on to Fenerbahce, where he stayed for four years before retiring.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.