Benfica boss Nelson Verissimo has claimed that he will expect a fee close to what Atletico Madrid paid for Joao Felix to allow Darwin Nunez to leave the club, a player linked with Arsenal.
The Gunners are yet to spend close to £100 Million on a single player, with Nicolas Pepe’s £72 Million currently standing as our current club record signing, but with a strong investment expected this summer to bring in a new striker to lead the line, it would be no shock if that record was broken.
While we have been linked with a number of potential options to take over from Alexandre Lacazette as our main man up top next season, Nunez is one name that continues to pop up as he continues to thrive in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
The star has 34 goals in 34 league outings this term, as well as scoring five times in the Champions League, so it is no shock to realise that we are unlikely to be alone in taking not of his potential availability come the summer, but how much our club is willing to pay is another story.
When asked if Nunez could leave this summer, and how much he would expect clubs to have to pay, Verissimo said (as quoted by MEN): “What do you think? Darwin is an excellent player, he has shown all his quality. He has helped the team a lot, it is true that the team has also helped him a lot.
“It will be at the end of this season or the following season, depending on what it has shown. It is natural that it will arouse interest from other clubs and naturally there may be the timing in which it goes.
“Now regarding numbers, I hope as a Benfica fan that it will go for numbers close to those that were João Félix’s numbers. Now it’s not for me to enter numbers on that field.”
Nunez is certainly an exciting prospect to potentially have leading our line in attack, but at such a price, I would expect the club to back away.
Any signing brings an element of risk, especially when we have seen so many fail to deliver when arriving in the Premier League previously, and with the club potentially needing to bring in two strikers with both Laca and Nketiah into the final months of their contracts, that sort of fee may not be possible.
Do you think we should break the bank to try to sign Nunez?
Patrick
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