Report: Barcelona plans to include Liverpool striker Nunez and exclude Lewandowski

  

English press reports stated that the Spanish Football Club Barcelona is planning to include Uruguayan Darwin Nunez, the English Liverpool striker, to strengthen its ranks in the summer transfer market.

 According to the English newspaper The Sun, the Spanish club sees Nunez as a potential and suitable alternative to Polish Robert Lewandowski.

 The newspaper added that Barcelona is ready to sign Darwin during the summer Mercato, in light of the turmoil that Liverpool is experiencing during this period.

 Barcelona could benefit from the uncertainty on Merseyside, especially if they offload top scorer Lewandowski in the coming months.

 Liverpool is preparing to make some big changes behind the scenes in the coming months, with the return of Richard Hughes as sporting director and transfer engineer Michael Edwards to Anfield, and the expected departure of German coach Jurgen Klopp.

 Financial hurdle

 Barcelona is suffering from financial hardship, and the Spanish League has reduced Barcelona’s salary cap to just over 202 million euros, which will force the Catalan club to get rid of players with high incomes, to move forward with the club’s planned rebuilding, and to complete the Nunez deal.

 Lewandowski is the highest-earner ever at the Camp Nou (salary is more than 31 million euros next season), which makes him one of the options that will be sacrificed.

 On the other hand, Nunez is among the highest paid players in Liverpool, but he earns about a quarter of what the Polish striker earns, which makes him within Barcelona’s capabilities.

 Nunez signed for Liverpool FC from Portuguese club Benfica in a transfer deal amounting to 100 million euros in 2022. The current market value of the player is estimated at 70 million euros, according to the “Transfermarkt” website for player statistics, and he is linked to a contract with Liverpool until 2028.

 With a group of other players preparing to leave at the end of the season, Barca's management believes it will be able to meet the asking price to buy the Uruguayan.

 Darwin has scored 23 goals in 52 games for the Reds this season, and provided a further 13 assists, but has not scored in any of his last seven Premier League matches.

 Matters reached their peak following the Uruguayan's poor performance as a substitute during Liverpool's 4-2 Premier League win over Tottenham at Anfield.

 After the match, some fans posted severe and unjustified abuse towards Nunez on social media, and then the striker decided to remove all posts related to Liverpool from his account on the Instagram platform.

 It is believed that the move reveals that the player is very unhappy in his current surroundings, and it would not be surprising if the former Benfica star sought to leave the club this summer.