Transfer Balls – Liverpool: Suarez snubs Gerrard’s testimonial dinner and Arsenal lack class
TRANSFER Balls: News on Liverpool’s Luis Suarez in today’s media.
The Daily Star leads with news that Brendan Rodgers says Arsenal lack “class“. In the insane world of football, Rodgers views an offer of £40m plus £1 offer for a player who wants to leave as a sign of low upbringing. Making a bid for a footballer now requires etiquette. Maybe Wenger should deliver any further handwritten missives on a plump purple cushion?
Before we get to what Rodgers actually said, know that the Star also reports:
Arsene Wenger hints there may be no new signings
Or as the Independent reports:
Arsenal are close to landing their second signing of the summer, with 19-year-old defender Matthias Ginter on the verge of a £6m move from Bundesliga side Freiburg.
So. The Star could well be talking balls.
Back to Rodgers discussing class. And this the club that wore t-shirts to support a man guilty of making racist remarks at an opponent. The Guardian quotes the great negotiator:
“I’ve got to say I’ve always associated Arsenal as a club with class and so there was a wee bit of a game there. For us, it’s about moving on and doing our own work. There will come a point where they understand our position. Obviously they have an interest and they put that interest in with two bids which were nowhere near what the player is worth. That’s within their right. There is a market in football for players but from us the message is constant. We do not want to sell.”
But Suarez wants to go. Is it classy to keep him against his wishes?
“I’m extremely confident that Luis will be here. The offers have come in as you would expect for one of the world’s leading strikers but as time goes by I’m gaining more confidence because I have a chance to be with him on a day-to-day basis and he gets the chance to be around his team-mates. We’re in total control of the situation as a club and that’s how it will remain.
“The owners have been brilliant. If it was another club needing the money or desperate for the money it could have been a different story. But John Henry and Tom [Werner, the chairman] have been first class through the whole process, so there are no arguments there and it gives you the confidence they are not in any hurry to sell because they understand we are trying to build here.”
So. It’s all tickety-boo, as one Liverpool legend would say. Or as the Guardian
The Uruguay international was the only member of Liverpool’s first-team squad not to attend a gala dinner after captain Steven Gerrard’s testimonial against Olympiakos on Saturday.
Classy.
After Rodgers, here’s Wenger sticking to the facts:
“We try to do it properly, but a transfer is always an agreement between three parties and we have always done that until now.”
Michael Calvin says Suarez is the one in control:
The Uruguayan is no George Eastham fighting the tyranny of football’s maximum wage. He is no Jackie Robinson dismantling baseball’s colour bar. He has few redeeming features, other than an instinctive ability to score goals.
Yet the Liverpool to which he is brazenly ungrateful is not the Liverpool of Shankly, an institution based upon socialist principles, communal pride and a deep yearning for recognition. It is a mid-ranking business with expansionist ambitions…
Will the shamelessness of Suarez’s exit strategy from Liverpool be successful? …
The art of the deal, which the Suarez camp appears to ignore, involves getting the message across in a strategic manner, without apparent artifice or aggression. Briefings are off the record, based on mutual trust and tend to massage the truth.
Clubs are hardly benevolent societies. If they want to get a player out, they have few scruples in indulging in emotional blackmail. Contracts are either sacred or a basis for negotiation, depending on the circumstances. Loyalty, perceived or otherwise, is used as a blunt instrument.
Such are the facts…
Posted: 5th, August 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
