Darwin Nunez’s time at Premier League champions-elect Liverpool looks destined to end with a bit of a whimper.

Only five league goals all season, just one top-flight start since Boxing Day, and an ill-advised, albeit now-deleted social media post which had the Liverpool fans flocking to support Arne Slot rather than their embattled centre-forward.

Darwin Nunez is alleged to have hit out at the Anfield boss regarding his lack of match action in recent months.

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Though when you consider that Slot has Liverpool one game away from the Premier League title – and that Nunez has far fewer goals than Danny Welbeck, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Liam Delap and Jacob Murphy – it is understandable that the much-maligned Uruguayan would find few willing to stand in his corner.

Fabrizio Romano, meanwhile, believes Darwin Nunez is almost certain to leave Liverpool in the summer transfer window.

Though, while his role in a title-winning drama has been more of an extra than one of the leading men, Nunez did provide one vital piece of plot development.

Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Introduced off the bench with Liverpool struggling to break down a disciplined Brentford outfit in mid-January, Darwin Nunez struck not once but twice in stoppage time.

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In a season with plenty of late drama, Nunez’s West London brace was the moment when Liverpool really started to feel like champions-in-waiting.

“Big players always show up in big moments,” Slot says misty-eyed when asked to recall his favourite moments of the season, also mentioning Virgil van Dijk’s thumping header against West Ham and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s volleyed winner at Leicester last weekend.

“Virgil just before the end against West Ham, Trent [scoring] 10 minutes before the end against Leicester.

Brentford away, 90 minutes played, 0-0, Darwin Nunez scoring a goal…

“I think Trent assisted that one as well!”

Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images

Slot signs off by expressing his belief that ‘the most beautiful [moment] is still to come’.

And wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Darwin Nunez who secured Liverpool their second Premier League title against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

Then again, after some pretty foolish social media activity, Nunez might just have poured petrol and thrown a lit match onto the last remaining bridge between himself and his manager.

And if Gary Neville is right – the Man United legend predicts Liverpool will batter Spurs 4-1 at Anfield – Slot may not need to turn to Nunez in search of more last-gasp heroics.

Reports from Portuguese outlet A Bola, meanwhile, suggest Liverpool will need to pay £4.2 million if Darwin Nunez starts another Premier League match, taking the overall tally handed over to Benfica to £77 million.

Some have suggested, then, that Nunez’s ongoing omission may be a financial decision.
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