Liverpool Consider Darwin Núñez Reunion as Iraola Rebuilds

Anfield has seen plenty of emotional goodbyes. This summer, they have come thick and fast. Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson have already walked away as champions at the end of the 2025/26 season. Ibrahima Konaté now looks set to follow, seemingly bound for Real Madrid.

Into that turbulence steps Andoni Iraola, tasked with cleaning up the mess left behind by Arne Slot and stitching together a new Liverpool side from a squad full of gaps. He needs defenders, he needs control in midfield, he needs goals.

And one of those goalscoring solutions might be a very familiar face.

Núñez on the market – and on Liverpool’s radar

Darwin Núñez, once the headline signing of Jurgen Klopp’s 2022 summer, is back on the carousel. The Uruguayan never fully justified that hefty fee in his first spell at Anfield, even if his time there ultimately ended with a Premier League winner’s medal.

Now, according to TEAMtalk, he is available as a free agent and has been offered to a select group of clubs. Liverpool are among them and, crucially, they are not just a token name in the conversation. They are “firmly at the table”.

Núñez’s post-Liverpool adventure has been brief and bruising. He joined Al-Hilal at the start of the 2025/26 campaign and produced a respectable, if not spectacular, return: nine goals in 24 appearances. Then the door shut. Saudi Arabia’s foreign player limits forced Al-Hilal to cut him from their squad, and his contract has now been mutually terminated.

His last outing for the Saudi giants came in February, a reminder of both his chaos and his potential. Two goals in a 2-1 AFC Champions League Elite win over Al-Wahda, a match that underlined exactly what he brings: relentless movement, constant threat, and a finishing streak that veers between ruthless and erratic.

Since that night, he has been in limbo, weighing up his next move.

Benfica interest, Spanish whispers, Anfield pull

Núñez will not be short of options. Benfica, the club that turned him into a €100m forward in the first place, are expected to challenge strongly for his signature. A return to Lisbon would make sense on many levels.

Yet the report suggests something more intriguing: quiet talk in Spain that the 26-year-old has already given the green light to a Liverpool comeback. If that proves accurate, he would walk back through the Shankly Gates as a free agent, no transfer fee required.

For a club trying to rebuild after losing cornerstone figures and potentially Konaté, that financial detail matters. Iraola has a squad to reshape and a budget that will be stretched by the need for reinforcements in several areas. Getting a proven Premier League forward for nothing changes the equation.

The same old Darwin – and why that still tempts Liverpool

No one at Anfield will be under any illusions about what they would be getting. Núñez’s time in Saudi Arabia did not magically sharpen his finishing. He scored six league goals from a hefty 11.48 xG, a familiar gap between promise and payoff.

The numbers from his Liverpool stint under Klopp remain stark. In 2023/24, he hit 11 Premier League goals but missed 27 Big Chances. The season before, his debut campaign, he scored nine league goals and passed up 20 Big Chances.

Those statistics infuriated some supporters and fascinated analysts. They also underline why Liverpool might still be tempted. Núñez is an xG magnet. He drags defences around, makes aggressive runs, and lives in the most dangerous zones of the pitch. Even when he misfires, the volume of opportunities he generates is rare.

For a coach like Iraola, who favours front-foot, high-energy football, that profile is not a problem to hide. It is a weapon to harness.

Iraola’s dilemma: risk, reward and a second act

Liverpool head into Iraola’s first season with a glaring lack of attacking depth. The departures of Salah and the uncertainty around other forwards leave the new manager short of reliable options in the final third.

That is where a free transfer for Núñez becomes more than a romantic notion. Used as a rotational option, he would not need to carry the attack every week. He could stretch tired defences, offer a direct outlet, and give Iraola a different type of threat without the pressure that came with his original price tag.

There is risk, of course. The erratic finishing that defined his first spell has not gone away. The question for Liverpool is simple: does the sheer volume of chances he creates outweigh the frustration of the ones he misses?

For a club in transition, staring at a long list of needs, the answer may come down to cost and opportunity. A flawed but familiar forward, available for free, who already knows the league, the stadium, and the expectation.

Liverpool once paid big money for the idea of Darwin Núñez. This time, they might just get the same chaos and the same constant danger for nothing at all.

And in a summer when Anfield is saying goodbye to its icons, perhaps the most telling move of all will be the one that dares to rewind the story.