The Times - UK (2022-06-13)

the times | Monday June 13 2022 59

Sport

Núñez set for medical as

Liverpool agree £64m fee

Paul Joyce, Duncan Castles That is now on the cusp of being

achieved, with Núñez’s desire to play

for Jürgen Klopp meaning an auction

did not develop, with Manchester

United having also been keen on

the player.

Personal terms on a six-year contract

will not be a problem and the fact that

Núñez will not be one of the highest

earners at the club is a reason why

Liverpool will pay such a significant

transfer fee.

It is understood that Klopp and

Van Dijk played important roles in

persuading Núñez to join, including

direct conversations during April’s

Champions League quarter-final

between Benfica and Liverpool, in

which he scored twice.

Núñez is said to consider Klopp to

be “the best coach in the world”,

and Van Dijk was so impressed with the

Uruguayan that he named him

alongside Sergio Agüero, Lionel Messi,

Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland as

one of the most difficult strikers he had

played against.

Núñez’s former club Almeria, for

whom he played between 2019 and

2020, are due to receive 20 per cent of

any profit above the £20.4 million Ben-

fica paid for him nearly two years ago.

Liverpool expect to finalise a deal with

Benfica worth an initial £64 million for

Darwin Núñez, with the forward set to

begin a medical today.

Julian Ward, Liverpool’s director of

football, was in Portugal over the week-

end to thrash out the transfer, which

could make the 22-year-old the most

expensive player in the club’s history.

Liverpool will pay an initial €75 mil-

lion (£64 million), with a further

£12.8 million potentially linked to

appearances and £8.5 million based on

Núñez performing in a successful team.

Virgil van Dijk is the club’s record

signing, at £75 million, after his move

from Southampton in 2018.

Núñez, who did not feature in the

Uruguay squad for Saturday’s victory

over Panama, is in Madrid, and Liver-

pool are preparing for medical tests to

start today. These could continue until

Wednesday.

Ward has been holding talks with Rui

Costa, the Benfica president, and Rui

Pedro Braz, the sporting director, in an

attempt to persuade the Portuguese

club to lower their guaranteed asking

price of €80 million and restructure the

add-ons.

Clarke needs

to arrest slide

Michael Grant

Pressure is growing on Steve Clarke,

the Scotland manager, who admitted

tomorrow’s Nations League game in

Armenia had become a must-win

match even if the three points are se-

cured with another ugly performance.

Scotland stayed in Dublin yesterday

and will fly to Yerevan this afternoon,

attempting to pick up the pieces after

Saturday’s horrendous performance

and 3-0 defeat by Ireland in the Aviva

Stadium. Armenia are the weakest side

in group B1 but the heat and travelling

time mean it is still an awkward game

for a Scotland squad stripped of confi-

dence and belief after two defeats in the

space of 11 days, to Ukraine in the World

Cup play-off semi-final and then the

Irish in the Nations League.

“We have to win in Armenia,” Clarke

said. “It might be an ugly one or it might

be a pretty one but we need to win. We

have to bounce back from what’s been

another disappointment.”

Criticism of Clarke is mounting after

his failure to inspire strong performan-

ces in big games against Ukraine and at

Euro 2020, but he said: “People can pull

it apart if they want. If they think that

[the team selection] is what was wrong I

would say that maybe they’re not right.”

England, again, had not registered
sufficiently on the scoresheet. As he
says, he has twin goals: to work on
ideas that will assist his team five
months’ hence in Qatar and to win
games in Wolverhampton now.
At this point, it is hard to argue that
he is achieving either. Yet he doesn’t
attempt to kid anyone. A spade is a
spade; a hard day against Italy is a
hard day against Italy. Southgate
wears it all, and with such decency.
“I didn’t want to keep rolling out the
same team because a win might take
pressure off my shoulders,” he said,
which is how it should be. Yet it shows
he is so conscious of that pressure.

Six years in,

Southgate’s

patience

could

be

fading

still a leader with rare gifts

England manager: he doesn’t pretend

to always be right, so he searches for

how to be.

He registers that he doesn’t always

have all the answers, which not only

makes him human but is particularly

applicable to a high-profile coaching

job where a group of players will

regularly need fresh ideas. Southgate

seems mature enough to know that.

Beyond argument is the fact that

the England team have been blessed

to have had him. For everything he

has done for the team, you hope that

the outstaying of his welcome will not

dawn in Qatar. Maybe, though, post-

Qatar would be the right time to

allow a different mind to solve the

conundrum of final-third penetration.

Until then, let’s get

him out of this

Nations League

torture, on to a

beach and as

confident and

positive as,

well, Declan

Rice.

And this: “If you don’t score, you

end up open to criticism, as I’m sure

we will be.” That, of course, is the deal

with his occupation. Saturday seemed

to be another case of grin-and-bear-it,

but you wonder how long he will

want to do so.

In an unusually frank moment last

week, he reflected on how he was

performing as England manager and

said: “I won’t outstay my welcome.”

For a manager soon to lead a team to

a World Cup, that was a strange thing

to say — that sowing of uncertainty.

It was also very Southgate: the

acknowledging of his own limitations,

the lack of arrogance, the refusal to

slip into self-aggrandisement, all

qualities so significantly lacking in

prominent leadership elsewhere in

the country.

They are

qualities

that have

served

Southgate

well as

Most days as

England manager

Sir Walter Winterbottom

5,898

Sir Alf Ramsey

4,081

Sir Bobby Robson

2,922

Gareth Southgate

2,084

Sven-Göran Eriksson

2,026

ars in,

gate’s

ce

untry.

are

es

ave

gate

U t t e , et s get

him out of this

Nations League

torture, on to a

beach and as

confident and

positive as,

well, Declan

Rice.

2016

2022

injury and fatigue

ALEX LIVESEY/GETTY IMAGES

EFL to play bigger role in

Derby’s delayed takeover

The English Football League (EFL)

has demanded a more active role in

Derby County’s takeover as the

drawn-out process threatens to

jeopardise the club’s place in the

league (Charlotte Duncker writes).

Trevor Birch, the EFL chief

executive, will liaise with Quantuma,

the administrators, over the sale

because of concerns the delays could

risk the integrity of next season’s

competition, with the Sky Bet League

One fixture list set to be announced

in less than two weeks’ time.

Chris Kirchner, the administrators’

preferred bidder, failed to meet a 5pm

deadline on Friday when he had to

show evidence that he had the means

to complete the purchase of the club.

Johnson proud to take on

Noble’s cleaning tradition

Ben Johnson has revealed that he has

inherited Mark Noble’s role as

designated “sweeper” at West Ham

(Ian Whittell writes).

Noble, a club legend who retired

this summer, explained last season

that he cleaned the visitors’ dressing

room after every away fixture, out of

respect for their hosts. It was a gesture

that Johnson, the 22-year-old full

back, says he is proud to continue.

“As an academy product myself,

I’ve seen what Nobes has done,” he

said. “It’s something I’m going to

take on board, maybe because no

one else wants to do it... It will be an

honour for me to do it and keep the

tradition of that. Nobes will be happy

about that.”

Pre-World Cup pile-up

2021-22 2022-23

Tottenham

Chelsea

Man City

Liverpool

West Ham

Man United

Other PL clubs

Arsenal

The final club match involving

England players before the World

Cup is scheduled for November 13.

For many of the squad, the maximum

number of club games they could

play by then is far higher than the

equivalent figure at the same stage

of last year.

14

23

14

18

16

23

17

25

17

24

18

24

18

23

19

23

Sterling misses

a good chance

during

England’s

stalemate

against Italy

Jonny Evans struck in stoppage time to

rescue a draw for Northern Ireland at

home to Cyprus, but only after some

fans had repeated their calls for Ian

Baraclough, the manager, to resign.

Evans bundled the ball home in the

third minute of added time as Northern

Ireland came back from 2-0 down,

having trailed to goals from Androni-

kos Kakoullis before Paddy McNair

offered hope in the 72nd minute.

There were chants of “We want Bara

out” on the hour mark, and though the

late fightback raised spirits, a draw left

Northern Ireland bottom of Nations

League group C2 and facing the possi-

bility of relegation to the bottom tier.

“I think the majority of fans know

where we are... and [that] we are build-

ing to be a better team in two or three

years’ time,” Baraclough said. “We are

giving the players that experience of

what it is like to play international foot-

ball. And some of them haven’t played

senior football for their clubs, so it is a

big ask.”

No respite for

Baraclough

0

2

1

Northern Ireland

McNair 71, Evans 90+3

Cyprus

Kakoullis 32, 51

2

2