Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp stopped Chelsea from signing one player last summer.
The Reds and the Blues made a lot of headlines in last summer’s transfer window.
Both Liverpool and Chelsea wanted to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton and Romeo Lavia from Southampton last year.
It was a tense transfer battle, but Chelsea came out on top in both deals and Liverpool missed out.
After Caicedo and Lavia, Chelsea wanted to sign another player – one at Liverpool – but Klopp personally intervened and rejected that move.
Romano has shared some more details regarding what happened.
Darwin Nunez has had a decent season, but the Uruguay international has missed so many chances in front of goal and that has cost his side.
At Chelsea, Nicolas Jackson has been similar. The former Villarreal man just can’t seem to finish off simple chances, and he has come under immense criticism as a result.
Mauricio Pochettino knew towards the end of last summer’s transfer window that he needed a new striker, and he surprisingly targeted Liverpool star Nunez.
Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Chelsea tried really hard to sign the Uruguayan, whom the Reds had signed for a club-record £85 million (Sky Sports) just 12 months prior.
However, Jurgen Klopp caught wind of this, and Romano has claimed that the German personally ‘said no’ and dismissed the idea of losing Nunez to Chelsea.
The journalist wrote in his Daily Briefing: “What I wanted to tell you guys is to remind you and to let you enter into the details of the story that Chelsea, at the end of the last summer transfer window, in the final weeks where they were looking for a striker, they really tried to bring in Darwin Núñez.
“They really had conversations to make it happen but for Liverpool it was a clear ‘No.’ What I heard is that Jürgen Klopp said no to that move, and really wanted to keep a crucial player for the present and future of Liverpool, but Chelsea were super keen on Darwin Núñez.
“Let’s see if some clubs will approach Liverpool this summer or if Darwin will end up staying at Liverpool where he remains an important player.”
Darwin Nunez or Nicolas Jackson – who has been worse?
Darwin Nunez and Nicolas Jackson have arguably been two of the most criticised strikers in the Premier League this season.
Both players’ movement is really good and they have the capacity to cause problems to the opposition with their runs in behind.
However, in front of goal, for one reason or another, they seem to miss more chances than they end up taking. That has been really frustrating to see.
In 32 games in the Premier League this season, Nunez has scored 11 goals and provided eight assists. He averages 3.3 shots per game but has missed a total of 26 big chances already (SofaScore).
Jackson, on the other hand, has played 29 matches in the league so far and has scored 10 goals and provided four assists. He only averages 2.1 shots per game, which is less than Nunez, and has missed 20 big chances so far (SofaScore).
When you break it down, Jackson misses one big chance every 113.1 minutes, while Nunez misses one every 76.3 minutes.
In our opinion, the Uruguayan has had a worse season in front of goal, especially considering Liverpool create a lot more big chances (1037) than Chelsea (884).
