Santiago Gimenez, top goalscorer of Arne Slot‘s career as a coach, has now left Feyenoord – in a deal which could rule out a summer transfer for Darwin Nunez.
Gimenez netted 49 goals in 85 appearances for Slot at Feyenoord which, up to now, is the most of any player in the Dutchman’s coaching career.
While Mohamed Salah is the next closest with 25 in 33 games, there is no guarantee the Egyptian will overtake that tally unless he signs a new contract at Liverpool.
Slot’s move to Merseyside in the summer led to links with a number of his former players including Gimenez, and the Mexican fuelled speculation with comments last month.
“Yes, absolutely,” he told Fox Sports when asked if he expects to play under Slot again in the future.
But any suggestion that Gimenez could do so at Liverpool has taken a turn, with AC Milan finalising a deal worth up to £29 million on deadline day.
Gimenez signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with the Italian club, who still have Divock Origi on the books though the Belgian has been frozen out of the first-team picture.
It continues an exodus of Slot’s former players from Feyenoord, with Lutsharel Geertruida (RB Leipzig), Mats Wieffer (Brighton), Marcus Pedersen (Torino) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Heerenveen) all finding new clubs.
Slot’s work with Gimenez was held up as the model for him to get Nunez firing consistently at Liverpool, having seen the 23-year-old’s record considerably improve in Rotterdam.
That is yet to bear fruit with Nunez, of course, with the Uruguayan struggling to establish himself as a reliable starter, losing his place to Luis Diaz.
While a move for Gimenez may now be out of the question – and it certainly was not expected despite his recent claims – there could be a change in Liverpool’s attacking ranks in the summer.
But interestingly, his deadine-day switch may have blocked one potential route out of Anfield for Nunez himself, with the Liverpool Echo‘s Paul Gorst reporting on AC Milan‘s interest the No. 9.
Gorst has claimed that Milan’s pursuit of Nunez “won’t formalise until the summer transfer window” as Liverpool are adamant they will not sell mid-season.
With Gimenez now in place at the San Siro, however, it is doubtful that Sergio Conceicao will now target another striker in the summer either way.
Nunez is known to have suitors in Saudi Arabia, with Al-Hilal said to have been willing to offer the striker a contract worth £558,000 a week, but there have been no developments on that front.
