Luis Suárez

[Darkon]

My feeling is that ~£45m is probably what we would have expected to get if we ended up selling him this summer all things considered. I'd like us to play hardball to get more like his footballing value relative to other transfers but not at the expense of getting the best deals for players coming in. Ultimately we want the best squad not the best bank balance going into the new season.

I'd rather sell him this week for 40-45m getting that to reinvest in the squad immediatly, than waiting 1-2 weeks to get 5-10m more but ultimatly leaving us with little time to negotiate replacements and less time to get them integrated in to the team.

[dom9]

Come back Fernando, all is forgiven



You cunt, Suarez. What a cunt.

I was right all along.

[Kenneth]

It's ten pages since I last looked yesterday and frankly I have better things to do than catch up on a lot of grown men swearing.

One question though: is the consensus here to ignore what he reportedly says about being promised last summer he could leave this summer if we hadn't qualified for the CL or do people generally believe there might be some truth in the story?

Nobody can know what was said, but it doesn't really matter. If someone offers our valuation then I expect we will sell him, but they aren't. His 'Liverpool will make a profit' argument isn't really convincing and while the only offer we have is an undervalued and unappealing one from arsenal then I don't think he can really say a vague promise to let him leave has been broken.

[MrMichael]

A verbal agreement is itself a legally enforceable contract but I know what you're saying.

An apparently unwitnessed and disputed verbal agreement would hardly supersede a contradictory written contract signed at exactly the same time. Indeed you'd think there would be some very hard questions for him to answer at arbitration as to why the disparity.

Also it's very possible that what Rodgers said isn't quite the same as what Suárez heard. That happens all the time in conversations and it might underpin the roots of the current dispute and explain the differences in the expressed positions of the player and the club.

Yup, this is possible. Or as I just said above, his team misinterpreted the contract clause and now are trying to invoke what they felt it should have been, rather than what it actually was. Kinda his problem, not ours.

It also makes sense of why he stayed last year and I think it's reasonable for him to think he can't give another season at 26 years old.

How about that at the time he'd only signed for us 18 months previously (on a 4 1/2 year contract no less), then had been supported to extreme lengths by the club while he was suspended etc for racial abuse. We're supposed to be grateful he didn't jump straight to the first club that wanted him back then (not that we received an official offer for him either, hence he has admitted having contact with another club behind our back too which is against all sorts of rules)

Personally I think, if he'd stuck to the line from June, wanting to leave the UK for a Madrid-stature club, people wouldn't be reacting like this and although it would be a bit sore, it wouldn't be outrageous and verging on completely illogical. What he is doing currently, imo, is.

[Exiled_red]

If he did have a verbal agreement with the club then he should have acknowledged it in writing.

I don't blame Suarez for looking after his own interests, it's the way he's going about it. He should be making an effort to move under mutually agreeable terms. He's lost his opportunity to retain some rapport with the supporters, football is nothing without the supporters. I just hope his move makes him even more miserable than he clearly is now.

Surely something like this you (as a player/agent) would insist on an addendum to the contract being made.

[Tee]

I'd ****ing love it of Arsenal turned round now and said

"Do you know what, sorry Luis, we recognise that you are a good player and we want a quality signing, but having reviewed you actions at Groningen, then Ajax and then your time at Liverpool, including this latest outburst, we feel that you don't have the right attitude and for that reason we are pulling out,"

Hahaha be ****ing hilarious

That would level out Robbie Fowlers penalty denials for them all those years ago. Not gonna happen though.

[Vermilion]

Nobody can know what was said, but it doesn't really matter. If someone offers our valuation then I expect we will sell him, but they aren't. His 'Liverpool will make a profit' argument isn't really convincing and while the only offer we have is an undervalued and unappealing one from arsenal then I don't think he can really say a vague promise to let him leave has been broken.

[Exiled_red]

An apparently unwitnessed and disputed verbal agreement would hardly supersede a contradictory written contract signed at exactly the same time. Indeed you'd think there would be some very hard questions for him to answer at arbitration as to why the disparity.



Yup, this is possible. Or as I just said above, his team misinterpreted the contract clause and now are trying to invoke what they felt it should have been, rather than what it actually was. Kinda his problem, not ours.



How about that at the time he'd only signed for us 18 months previously (on a 4 1/2 year contract no less), then had been supported to extreme lengths by the club while he was suspended etc for racial abuse. We're supposed to be grateful he didn't jump straight to the first club that wanted him back then (not that we received an official offer for him either, hence he has admitted having contact with another club behind our back too which is against all sorts of rules)

Personally I think, if he'd stuck to the line from June, wanting to leave the UK for a Madrid-stature club, people wouldn't be reacting like this and although it would be a bit sore, it wouldn't be outrageous and verging on completely illogical. What he is doing currently, imo, is.

[Neil Young]

Does it really matter what the club is doing in all of this though? They are doing whats right for Liverpool. Which ultimately is all most of us care about.

Yeah that's probably a fair point. But let's not think they're honourable and Suárez is the devil. Both sides are acting in their own interests, as they see them.

[Tee]

Yeah that's probably a fair point. But let's not think they're honourable and Suárez is the devil. Both sides are acting in their own interests, as they see them.

That is true, but all said and done we the fans deserved better from the player. I am going to look a right mug now when I see my mates at footy, FFS.

[MrMichael]

There's a very good chance this "rat" will still be a Liverpool player this coming season and this will all blow over.

A very good chance? ****ing hell FakePablo, remind me never to take betting advice from you, that is massively overoptimistic

[Kenneth]

I think Suarez and his agents have found out that legally, the clause they signed up to in his contract isn't worth the paper it is written on, therefore they've turned to this "gentleman's agreement" stuff to invoke what they believe was the spirit of what they signed up to. I find it very unlikely that the club agreed privately to sell him for a specified fee which nobody on his side made sure was spelt out exactly in that contract, but his team have put 2+2 together with the clause, and that now our position remains as it always has been that we will not sell for way below his market value. Agreeing to sell him under certain circumstances if our valuation is met is not the same as selling him to the first rival club that offers anything.

I also find it pretty hard to reconcile his stated position now with that in June (I want to leave to get away from the nasty press) and that in Feb (I won't leave just because we don't qualify for the CL), and also with his argument that he was somehow demonstrating great loyalty signing a new contract, with a huge pay rise, last summer after everything that happened and him having been at the club hardly 18 months. Put all that together and it seems like we have very little reason to trust the specifics of what he is saying and great reason to suspect he's trying to worm his way out in any way he can, just as he has at his 2 previous European clubs.

although its all irreverent ultimately. If someone matches our valuation I'm sure we'll happily get shut now.

[Sarb]

That is true, but all said and done we the fans deserved better from the player. I am going to look a right mug now when I see my mates at footy, FFS.

First your pink boots and now this

[TheElephantMan]

Yeah that's probably a fair point. But let's not think they're honourable and Suárez is the devil. Both sides are acting in their own interests, as they see them.

Yes, but we support LFC and the players who want to play for us. I hate the way this is being played out publicly, there are probably negotiations going on in the background anyway.

[Sarb]

Glad that Henry is in Norway with the club at the moment. You'd expect some sort of statement from us today.

One thing is for sure, if Suarez goes to Arsenal for £40,000,001, I suspect Ayre will get fired