Transfer Balls: Liverpool want £35m for Arsenal target Suarez, and Ian Wright and Steven Gerard remain desperate
TRANSFER Balls: The experts in the media tells us what’s happening with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez in August:
August 1
Daily Mirror: “Liverpool agreed to Luis Suarez transfer if a Champions League club offered £35m claim Arsenal target’s camp”
Luis Suarez is refusing to give up on a £40million transfer to Arsenal after angrily claiming Liverpool AGREED to let him go.
Suarez’s agent, Pere Guardiola, has told the Anfield giants that the striker is frustrated, wants to quit and feels let down over what he thought were promises to sell him if the Reds missed out on the coming season’s Champions League.
Now, the Uruguay international is determined to force the issue as he wants to join Arsenal – while also secretly harbouring hopes that Real Madrid will come in for him.
Looks like that secret harbouring has set sail.
August 2:
BBC:
Luis Suarez will consider submitting a formal transfer request and the possibility of court action if his Liverpool dispute is not resolved, say sources close to the player.
The 26-year-old believes Arsenal’s bid of just over £40m triggered a clause in his contract that allows him to leave.
Consider. If. Sources. Believes. And that’s the BBC not a tabloid.
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager tells media:
We want to [sign Suarez] if it is feasible in an amicable way. We will respect what Liverpool want to do. I don’t want to speak about Suarez, because that is between Liverpool and Arsenal. I am a great believer you have to keep as much confidentiality as possible, which is quite difficult in the modern world. But we work very hard, not only on the case you name, but on other different cases. We can still strengthen the squad, there is one month to go. We are at the beginning of August and working very hard to strengthen our squad. I am confident. You look at many teams around us. Nothing has happened until now. At the moment the market hasn’t moved a lot. Apart from Manchester City, nobody has done anything.”
Suarez is serving a domestic 10-game ban imposed by the FA for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic and he has previously served an eight-match suspension for racially abusing Patrice Evra.
But let’s focus on the positives.
Wenger said that if Suarez does become an Arsenal player, such behaviour will not be tolerated.
Racism and cannibalism are no allowed at Arsenal. They Londoners truly are a cut above the rest.
“We have values that we want our players to respect. No matter where they come from, we will be very touchy on that of course. This club has built a reputation, not only during my period here but over 127 years, and the values that are very important for this club have to be respected by every player, no matter where he comes from. That will be with every potential signing.”
The Liverpool Post hears from Mark Lawrenson:
“Arsene Wenger bangs on about having money to spend, but the reality is he doesn’t like spending it. But I’m convinced Suarez believes he is going to be an Arsenal player. The evidence all points to that. And if he thinks he might have to stay at Liverpool, I’m sure there will be a different modus operandi from Suarez and his agent.”
Is Brendan Rodger’s narrative style of speaking contagious?
The Guardian:
Steven Gerrard has told Luis Suárez a better career move than Arsenal is inevitable – and submitted as evidence the revelation he rejected a chance to leave Liverpool for a Champions League club, believed to be Bayern Munich, only last summer.
Inevitable? And Arsenal never did bid for Gerrard:
“I had a chance to leave last year. It was for a club in the Champions League, not a Premier League club, but I wasn’t tempted. I’ve been through that before.”
The Guardian says that club is believed to have been Bayern Munich. But “Gerrard refused to name the interested club”.
Why refuse?
“That is the message for Luis. Move on if you want, further down the line, but a player of his calibre should wait for the big one to come to him. He deserves to play for one of the best teams in the world, a Barcelona or a Real Madrid. They will come calling for him again. I am hoping from a biased point of view that he gives us another year and shows us the form he did last season. Maybe it will be time for him to go next year or the year after. I don’t think it is the right time for him to go just yet.”
Desperate, much?
And Real, Barcelona and Bayern are top clubs who buy their teams for tens of millions. Arsenal are seeking to get into that market. And look how the “inevitable” became “maybe“.
“What we can achieve this season depends on whether he stays or goes in my opinion. That is my main worry. I think that is the main worry for every Liverpool fan. It is no different for me as a player. The only difference is that I am in a position to do something about it on the pitch. I am sure all genuine Liverpool fans have that same concern and worry – that it becomes permanent and we can’t bridge that gap – but we’ve got to keep fighting.
“I have confidence from looking at the last six months of last season that we can prove people wrong and break into the top four. But certain things have got to happen to help us do that and one of them is the main subject on everyone’s lips – Luis Suárez. If we lose him we are taking steps backwards. If we keep him and add to him we will have a much better chance.”
“Can you imagine the reaction if the club just allowed Luis to go and to go to one of our rivals? Imagine the reaction around here if they just gave in easy. I think the club are doing the right thing by wanting to keep their best players.
“Look at Tottenham’s stance on Luka Modric and now Gareth Bale. They don’t make it easy for sides who want their top players and we need to do the same. That sends out the right message to supporters. It shows the supporters we mean business, that we are capable of challenging, and the only way to do that is by keeping your top players.”
Modric left for Real Madrid. Bale looks like he’s heading to Real Madrid. As for Liverpool, Alonso went to Real Madrid and Torres left for Chelsea.
It’s not all about loyalty. It’s also about success and money. Wenger has a few words on Bale to Real in the Indy:
“It makes a joke of them. It is quite amazing that in the year when the financial fair play comes in, the world has gone completely crazy. You wonder, what kind of impact and affect financial fair play will have on the football world because it looks like it has made everybody worse.”
So. Financial fair plays matter. To former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, then, who’s talking up his slot as a voice on BBC Radio 5 live’s football phone-in show 606 , telling BBC sport.
“I’d welcome him at Arsenal with open arms. But if I was Suarez, when you look at everything, it does seem strange he would want to go to Arsenal. I would give Liverpool another season… If you look at Arsenal – not won anything in eight years, just challenging for fourth place, not really any players there who will make him say ‘I’m going to play with him and him’ – Gerrard has got a point…
“Suarez is a world-class striker and if he didn’t have all the baggage around him, I feel the Barcelonas, Real Madrids and Bayern Munichs would be sniffing around. That’s why I believe Arsenal should try to bring him in – because I feel it’s the only time they could get someone like that. In another market, I don’t think he’d even look at Arsenal.”
See that? Controversial views from the man who wants you to phone in.
“I would like to see them go as far as they can to get Suarez, but they can’t just buy him and not replenish the rest of the team. I think they need a goalkeeper, two centre-halves, two full-backs – for both left-back and right-back positions – another midfielder and two strikers. It doesn’t make sense buying Suarez for that money and not backing it up with other signings of the same stature.”
Add Suarez to that, and Wrighty the expert says Arsenal need 9 new top players of the type “that Manchester United would want, that Manchester City would want and that Chelsea would want.” Not cheap players, then, Wright. Now, where does the money come from to pay for them? After Wright, Money Box with Paul Lewis – how to spend £200m you don’t have and stick to the rules?
August 3:
We are working very hard to strengthen our squad, not only on the case you name (Suarez), but on other different cases,” he said. “I always try to make the decision I feel is right for the club. That doesn’t mean I always manage to do it, but I work with that conscience.
“If you say we are under pressure to spend money then yes we are, but I feel more under pressure to spend the money in the right way. That is what I will try to do.”
And so it goes.
Posted: 3rd, August 2013 | In: Sports Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
