Hindsight is a wonderful thing in football but it can also bring about depressing stories of what might have been, which seems to be the case with Sheffield United and Darwin Nunez.
Back in the summer of 2020 and with United having secured a ninth place finish in the Premier League, reports suggested the Blades were looking at Nunez, who is now starring with Benfica. At the time, La Voz de Almeria was claiming United were preparing to pay around £13.5m for Nunez.
Of course, as we all know, a move for Nunez never actually happened and he would later join Benfica. Since then, Nunez has built a reputation as one of the hottest properties in Europe. Nunez has scored 45 in 80 games for the Portuguese giants, including 31 this season.
And now, 18 months on from that initial Blades interest, Nunez is apparently ready to join Tottenham or Arsenal in a deal that could be worth a whopping £65m.
It’s pretty safe to say, then, that United missed the boat with this one. Obviously, it was just a rumour from Spain at the time and a lot would have had to fall into place for the deal to happen. But as mentioned, hindsight is a wonderful thing and it’s simply interesting to see a player we were linked with now doing so well.
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We might see more of this with the club’s new ‘strategic vision’. The Blades are looking to develop youngsters and be smarter in the transfer market. The United World model is likely to see the club explore more deals from abroad, such as the signing of Filip Uremovic has shown last month.
In terms of Darwin Nunez – who has actually been branded as ‘world class‘ -, it just looks like one of those that got away. We can’t predict what might have happened and we can’t even say Nunez would have been as good as he is now at Benfica.
But it does show that the foreign market can be explored by United. And one day, we are likely to drop on a gem or two.