‘Cause all sorts of fireworks’ - Steve McManaman makes Liverpool transfer claim

Steve McManaman believes Liverpool deserve credit how they handled Sadio Mane’s departure.

The Senegal international brought an end to his six-year stay at Anfield when joining Bayern Munich for up to £35 million last week.

Mane won every trophy possible with the Reds and was a key player under Jurgen Klopp.

In preparation for Mane’s departure, Liverpool signed Darwin Nunez for what could become a club-record fee of £85 million.

And McManaman reckons bringing in the striker from Benfica was a ‘statement of intent’.

What’s been said

The ex-Reds midfielder told horseracing.net: “For Liverpool to go and sign Darwin Núñez is a statement of intent. He cost a lot of money and I think it was his performances against Liverpool in the Champions League that have effectively brought him to the club. I saw him a number of times last season and in the early stages of the Champions League he looked quite raw and as if he had a lot to learn.

“He’s only 22 year-old but as the season progressed you could see him getting better and better. I thought his second performance against Liverpool at Anfield was outstanding and that’s what made Jürgen Klopp sit up and take note. How quickly he’s progressing is very exciting but he still has to keep on improving as he’s only young and this season has been his first standout year.

“He needs to keep on improving to enable him to hit the heights, but he looks incredibly promising at the moment. He just needs to stay patient because of his age and relative inexperience. He’s young, he’s got the right physique, he causes lots of problems and he’s a different type of player from what Liverpool have got already.

“Sadio Mané has been an incredible footballer for Liverpool and it’s really sad to see him go. However, when players want to leave, then they usually find a way to leave.

“He’s given Liverpool a lot over the past few years and if he fancies playing in Germany then the best thing that could have happened was that Sadio sat down with Liverpool, stated that he wants to leave and organised a dignified exit which enabled Liverpool to get a replacement early in the window.

“It’s been relatively quiet regarding Liverpool bringing Núñez in and Mané leaving. Any other year then you’d think that would cause all sorts of fireworks and once again I believe Liverpool deserve a lot of credit regarding how they’ve gone about it all.”