Amid transfer speculation linking Liverpool with Alexander Isak, the reason behind the Reds’ decision to sign Darwin Nunez over the Newcastle star in 2022 has been revealed.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were linked with both men that summer but eventually opted for Nunez, signing the striker from Benfica for a then-club record fee, leaving Newcastle free to break their own transfer record by bringing Isak from Real Sociedad to St James’ Park for a similar price.
But while Nunez’s progress has stalled somewhat in the seasons since then, leading to repeated rumours of a cut-price move away from Anfield this summer, Isak has grown into one of the Premier League’s best strikers.
Isak is now thought to be on Liverpool’s summer wish list as Arne Slot looks to make a new world-class centre forward the latest addition to his Premier League-winning squad.
Given the two strikers’ contrasting fortunes, particularly last season when Isak’s league goals tally of 23 was more than quadruple that of Nunez, Liverpool’s detractors may view the decision to sign the streaky Uruguayan over his Swedish counterpart as a mistake.
In an interview with the Financial Times, former Liverpool director of research Ian Graham has suggested it was then-Reds manager Klopp who made the call to pursue Nunez over Isak thanks to the German manager gaining increasing power over transfer decisions.
“Jurgen created a lot of success for the club, so it’s understandable why it moved in that direction,” Graham said. “In 2022, he signed Darwin Nunez instead of Alexander Isak.
“Both players, if you look at top young centre-forwards in Europe, they would be number one and two (at the time), or two and three but [Erling] Haaland was going to [Manchester] City and out of our price range. Jurgen preferred Nunez.”
The ex-Liverpool staffer, who between 2012 and 2023 worked to implement data analysis into the club’s transfer policy, continued: “It would be very churlish of me to say, ‘It’s terrible that Jurgen had his choice’, when in the past Jurgen had been persuaded by me and my colleagues of a different choice. And it was still the case that we signed good players - in Nunez’s case, one of the best young strikers in Europe.”
Graham, now chief executive of sports advisory firm Ludonautics, also claimed that Klopp was persuaded by his recruitment team to sign Mohamed Salah from Roma instead of Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Brandt in the summer of 2017.
“I’m happy to talk about my colleagues persuading Jurgen [in 2017] that Mo Salah was the player to buy instead of Julian Brandt,” he added.
That momentous move to acquire Salah’s services would, of course, shape much of Liverpool’s success in the years that followed.
Discussing the influence of managers in club transfers, Graham said he believes the role of “coach as dictator” is specific to England and is also “something that is dying off”.
