Transfer Balls: Luis Suarez wants Arsenal and Spurs teach Liverpool how to strike a deal
TRANSFER Balls: Liverpool and that Luis Suarez saga continues:
Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger has been talking to Al Jazeera Sport:
“At the moment the situation is on standby. I really don’t know what will be decided by Liverpool. I don’t know what has been said, what has been promised and what has been written. That is the story between Suarez and Liverpool. Only Suarez and Liverpool can decide that. It’s nothing to do us. We have been told the player wants to leave Liverpool and that’s why we’ve acted. We try and get what we want, if that doesn’t work we will look somewhere else.”
Suarez says he wants to leave. He says Liverpool have gone back on a gentleman’s agreement to let him go now. He has alluded to move to Arsenal. So. Liverpool either keep a player who not longer wants to play for them and risk him unsettling the dressing room and being worth less, or else flog him to the Gunners for £40m plus £1.
In any other walk of life that much cash for a staff member who wants to quit the firm would be considered sound business. In football… Well, who knows.
What say the experts? PFA chairman Gordon Taylor tells the Press Association:
“If you are going to have a supposed buy-out clause it should be that, but it is different as it says if there is no qualification for the Champions League [by Liverpool] and if there is a minimum offer of £40m then the parties will get around the table to discuss things but it does not say the club has to sell. It quite clearly states £40m is a minimum offer for discussions, but it becomes really difficult with such clauses. There is a ‘good faith’ clause in relation to serious discussions but I can’t say it is cast-iron buy-out clause.
“Luis is one of our members and we want to be supportive, however, he may well have thought such an offer would trigger a move.”
One out; all out, brother Suarez:
“At the moment it is certainly festering and I don’t think it is a good situation for the player or the clubs involved. It is not edifying and that is why I feel we had to do our best to get round the table and see if there are grounds for consideration for the move but it [the clause] is not specific and 100 per cent certain. We are in touch with both parties to try to see if some resolution can be achieved that is satisfactory to both sides.”
It’s beginning to look stinky for Brendan Rodgers, the verbose Liverpool manager, whose negotiation skills are right up there with Neville Chamberlain’s.
Steve Nicol, the former Reds great, has his opinion:
“What has been written tells you that Suárez is actually an honourable guy. For all the things he did on the field, he honoured his contract. He played for Liverpool last season and gave everything. It seems to me that it is the other party that are not being honourable. I don’t think there is any reason for him to come out and say what he did unless it is right. He seems pretty factual in the words he has spoken. Brendan Rodgers seems to have said: ‘if we don’t [qualify for theChampions
League] then I’ll personally make sure you can go’. That totally changes everything. It makes sense that Suárez hasn’t really said an awful lot before. You cannot promise anything to your players
Rodgers is getting hammered. This is Rodgers who put a price on Suraez’s head and then told us:
“Luis is happy. He totally understands the club’s point of view. He’s in a difficult position in terms of not being able to play because of his suspension – he will sit out the first six games and he will miss playing football. But he’s working hard and remains part of the group. He hasn’t been moping about. It’s obviously difficult when you come back after a break but he has settled in and has been working well.”
Tony Barrett sees any move as crucial:
Luis Suárez may be desperate not to be part of Liverpool’s future, but his club are in no position to envisage, never mind countenance, life without him. As unbearable as his continuing presence at Anfield appears to have become to outsiders, those inside the club recognise that his departure, particularly to Arsenal, could spark a new level of unpleasantness, with the gap between Liverpool and the Barclays Premier League elite becoming greater than it already is…
Those who argue that every player has his price are right, but in this case Suárez is the exception that proves the rule. The Uruguay forward is one of a dwindling number of reasons for top-class players to consider joining Liverpool. Lose him and Brendan Rodgers’s war chest may be boosted significantly but who would Liverpool buy, particularly with the summer transfer window into its final month?
This is the reality at Anfield. It is harsh and it is brutal, but it is one that they have no choice other than to confront — and the only way they can do that is by making it clear to Suárez that he will not be allowed to join Arsenal, no matter how hard he tries to force a move.
As for Suarez, well, he now says:
“Right now the Premier League is the biggest and most important league. My record shows that I’m not the kind of player who wants to change clubs every season and I would have no problem playing in England for many more years.”
But he did say:
“I’m not prepared to continue to put up with the English press. I love Liverpool, but if there is a chance of playing somewhere else…I suffered too much as a kid to get where I am to be attacked unfairly by the English press. They haven’t appreciated me as a player, they’ve just judged my attitude.”
But then it was AVB who told us how football works. As the Spurs manager said on Gareth Bale’s move:
“The chairman said that we are not open to offers, whatever they are, and that the player will stay… In football anything can happen, but these are the guarantees given to me.”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 7th, August 2013 | In: Sports Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
