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REVEALED: Why Suarez is wrong to think he can leave Liverpool for £40m... here's the truth behind THAT contract clauseBy Dominic King
PUBLISHED: 22:50 GMT, 7 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:29 GMT, 8 August 2013
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If you wanted to be generous to Luis Suarez, you might argue that on this occasion something really has been lost in translation.
But as the details emerged on Wednesday night of the events that have led to this bitter, very public dispute between Suarez and Liverpool, it appears to amount to a spectacular cock-up.
Suarez thinks there is a clause in the contract he signed last summer enabling him to leave should Liverpool receive an offer of more than £40million. But he is wrong.
And so, for that matter, are his agent Pere Guardiola and the Spanish lawyer currently trying to engineer a transfer to a Champions League club for their unhappy, now isolated, client.
Sportsmail can reveal the detail in Suarez’s contract, a form of words that sparked a heated debate between the two camps at a meeting in London on Monday.
With officials from the Professional Footballers’ Association there as mediators, it was hoped some resolution could be found.
Suarez, Guardiola and his lawyer believe they have a legally binding clause. Liverpool do not and nor do the PFA or the Premier League. Essentially what it says is this: if Liverpool do not qualify for the Champions League or if Liverpool receive a bid of more than £40m, the club will sit down ‘in good faith’ and discuss it.
It is not even remotely close to a trigger clause that would enable the Uruguayan to leave. As one insider said on Wednesday night, the Suarez camp ‘dropped the ball when it came to the phrasing of that sentence in the contract. It is so heavily caveated it amounts to nothing. Legally it is worthless.’
The Suarez camp did not enjoy Monday’s meeting and responded by inviting two Spain-based journalists to interview the 26-year-old striker, with his inflammatory words appearing in Wednesday’s papers.
The Luis Suarez transfer saga has rumbled on all summer, and a man named Guardiola has been at the heart of it. But not the one you might think.
Pere Guardiola is the younger brother of Bayern Munich manager Pep and is one of football’s most powerful agents. He represents Suarez and has looked after the Uruguayan since his days at Ajax.
Now he is at the centre of the current transfer negotiations for his client. But Guardiola has already helped engineer two high-profile moves this summer.
He represents his older brother Pep and was there to arrange his managerial move to Bayern. It should also come as no surprise that another of Guardiola’s clients, Thiago Alcantara, also moved to Bayern this summer, following his old Barcelona boss.
Prior to working as a football agent, Guardiola worked in the sports marketing department at Nike for 12 years, before founding Media Base Sport in 2009, his Barcelona-based management company.
Suarez turned his sights on Brendan Rodgers and claimed the manager made a verbal promise to let him go should they finish outside the top four last season.
If the relationship between the two parties was fractured on Monday night, it had completely disintegrated by Wednesday, with Suarez told to train alone and men like Gordon Taylor, the PFA chairman, clearly wondering how on earth the situation can now be resolved.
There are two possible outcomes, say insiders. If they can get the two parties back around the table. Liverpool might swallow deeply and agree to sell at £50m. Arsenal were badly advised in being led to believe their £40m-plus-a-pound offer would automatically secure Suarez’s services. It remains to be seen if they will increase their offer now they know that interpretation is flawed.
If Liverpool refuse to be browbeaten into a sale, it could be that they agree to let Suarez leave for £40million a year from now, with a new clause inserted into his contract that is unequivocal.
After much provocation, getting Liverpool to sit down might be the difficulty. The club certainly are in no mood to see their best player leave just yet. As Steven Gerrard starkly pointed out, a Liverpool team without Suarez is a team that will find entry to the Champions League almost impossible.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has seen the contract and confirmed: 'There is a clause in there that if Liverpool do not qualify for the Champions League and then they receive a minimum offer of £40million, then the parties will 'agree in good faith to discuss and negotiate in good faith' and see what transpires.
'It is not a straightforwards buy-out clause and it doesn't say that is an automatic trigger for a move.'
‘Certain things have got to happen to help us get back into the top four and one of them is the main subject on everyone’s lips — Luis Suarez,’ said Gerrard earlier this month. ‘If we lose him, we are taking backward steps. If we keep him, and add to him, we will have a much better chance.’
If Suarez departs, Liverpool’s race for a top-four spot may be over before a ball has even been kicked. The Liverpool of 2013 is not the Liverpool of 2004, which shook off the loss of star striker Michael Owen on the eve of the season and went on to win the Champions League.
Liverpool have not played in Europe’s premier competition for four years and, as a result, the quality of their squad has diminished. Suarez, however, is a world-class talent, one Gerrard called the ‘best forward I have ever played with’.
This Liverpool team cannot afford to off-load thoroughbreds and it is why they continue to fight to keep him.
‘We are not in the Champions League and haven’t been for a while and we have to step up to the challenge,’ Rodgers acknowledged last month. ‘It is difficult for Luis, I understand this. But we would love to have him for our next phase.’
Liverpool’s preparations for the new campaign had been ticking along smoothly but now the air is toxic. A shadow has been cast, disruption is inevitable and the harmony that Rodgers and his staff have worked so hard to build has been threatened.
Some in the camp are dismayed by his actions, others can see things from his side. Suddenly one player is creating two groups and an atmosphere is developing. That he has been sent into exile, to train on his own, will not help.
Clubs who want to make progress cannot hope to do so if they off-load their best players to their major rivals. Suarez scored 30 times for Liverpool last season: where will they replace that if, as appears inevitable following his extraordinary interviews on Tuesday, he joins Arsenal?
Not only that, consider the impact on both teams. They were separated by 12 points last year but that is not an insurmountable gap and Suarez would in all likelihood be worth 12 points for Liverpool. Last season, his goals and assists were directly responsible for 11 points.
Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho said: ‘Luis is on a par with Neymar in terms of qualities, for sure you can make that comparison. They are both exceptional players. We all hope he stays. Everyone here wants to play with top footballers and that is exactly what Luis is.’
This is a season when Rodgers has to get Liverpool competing. He knows he will be under scrutiny from all angles once the first whistle blows against Stoke and, having made some big calls, he will be expected to deliver a team capable of competing with the best and being consistent.
That is why, for all the outrage at the disrespect that has been shown, Liverpool won’t cave in easily to Suarez’s demands. They might be finding it hard to live with Suarez, but living without him could be even more uncomfortable.
Whichever way this saga unravels, Suarez is in danger of damaging a crucial season.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz2bNZHt0qG
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
PUBLISHED: 22:50 GMT, 7 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:29 GMT, 8 August 2013
127 shares 258
View
comments
If you wanted to be generous to Luis Suarez, you might argue that on this occasion something really has been lost in translation.
But as the details emerged on Wednesday night of the events that have led to this bitter, very public dispute between Suarez and Liverpool, it appears to amount to a spectacular cock-up.
Suarez thinks there is a clause in the contract he signed last summer enabling him to leave should Liverpool receive an offer of more than £40million. But he is wrong.
And so, for that matter, are his agent Pere Guardiola and the Spanish lawyer currently trying to engineer a transfer to a Champions League club for their unhappy, now isolated, client.
Sportsmail can reveal the detail in Suarez’s contract, a form of words that sparked a heated debate between the two camps at a meeting in London on Monday.
With officials from the Professional Footballers’ Association there as mediators, it was hoped some resolution could be found.
Suarez, Guardiola and his lawyer believe they have a legally binding clause. Liverpool do not and nor do the PFA or the Premier League. Essentially what it says is this: if Liverpool do not qualify for the Champions League or if Liverpool receive a bid of more than £40m, the club will sit down ‘in good faith’ and discuss it.
It is not even remotely close to a trigger clause that would enable the Uruguayan to leave. As one insider said on Wednesday night, the Suarez camp ‘dropped the ball when it came to the phrasing of that sentence in the contract. It is so heavily caveated it amounts to nothing. Legally it is worthless.’
The Suarez camp did not enjoy Monday’s meeting and responded by inviting two Spain-based journalists to interview the 26-year-old striker, with his inflammatory words appearing in Wednesday’s papers.
The Luis Suarez transfer saga has rumbled on all summer, and a man named Guardiola has been at the heart of it. But not the one you might think.
Pere Guardiola is the younger brother of Bayern Munich manager Pep and is one of football’s most powerful agents. He represents Suarez and has looked after the Uruguayan since his days at Ajax.
Now he is at the centre of the current transfer negotiations for his client. But Guardiola has already helped engineer two high-profile moves this summer.
He represents his older brother Pep and was there to arrange his managerial move to Bayern. It should also come as no surprise that another of Guardiola’s clients, Thiago Alcantara, also moved to Bayern this summer, following his old Barcelona boss.
Prior to working as a football agent, Guardiola worked in the sports marketing department at Nike for 12 years, before founding Media Base Sport in 2009, his Barcelona-based management company.
Suarez turned his sights on Brendan Rodgers and claimed the manager made a verbal promise to let him go should they finish outside the top four last season.
If the relationship between the two parties was fractured on Monday night, it had completely disintegrated by Wednesday, with Suarez told to train alone and men like Gordon Taylor, the PFA chairman, clearly wondering how on earth the situation can now be resolved.
There are two possible outcomes, say insiders. If they can get the two parties back around the table. Liverpool might swallow deeply and agree to sell at £50m. Arsenal were badly advised in being led to believe their £40m-plus-a-pound offer would automatically secure Suarez’s services. It remains to be seen if they will increase their offer now they know that interpretation is flawed.
If Liverpool refuse to be browbeaten into a sale, it could be that they agree to let Suarez leave for £40million a year from now, with a new clause inserted into his contract that is unequivocal.
After much provocation, getting Liverpool to sit down might be the difficulty. The club certainly are in no mood to see their best player leave just yet. As Steven Gerrard starkly pointed out, a Liverpool team without Suarez is a team that will find entry to the Champions League almost impossible.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has seen the contract and confirmed: 'There is a clause in there that if Liverpool do not qualify for the Champions League and then they receive a minimum offer of £40million, then the parties will 'agree in good faith to discuss and negotiate in good faith' and see what transpires.
'It is not a straightforwards buy-out clause and it doesn't say that is an automatic trigger for a move.'
‘Certain things have got to happen to help us get back into the top four and one of them is the main subject on everyone’s lips — Luis Suarez,’ said Gerrard earlier this month. ‘If we lose him, we are taking backward steps. If we keep him, and add to him, we will have a much better chance.’
If Suarez departs, Liverpool’s race for a top-four spot may be over before a ball has even been kicked. The Liverpool of 2013 is not the Liverpool of 2004, which shook off the loss of star striker Michael Owen on the eve of the season and went on to win the Champions League.
Liverpool have not played in Europe’s premier competition for four years and, as a result, the quality of their squad has diminished. Suarez, however, is a world-class talent, one Gerrard called the ‘best forward I have ever played with’.
This Liverpool team cannot afford to off-load thoroughbreds and it is why they continue to fight to keep him.
‘We are not in the Champions League and haven’t been for a while and we have to step up to the challenge,’ Rodgers acknowledged last month. ‘It is difficult for Luis, I understand this. But we would love to have him for our next phase.’
Liverpool’s preparations for the new campaign had been ticking along smoothly but now the air is toxic. A shadow has been cast, disruption is inevitable and the harmony that Rodgers and his staff have worked so hard to build has been threatened.
Some in the camp are dismayed by his actions, others can see things from his side. Suddenly one player is creating two groups and an atmosphere is developing. That he has been sent into exile, to train on his own, will not help.
Clubs who want to make progress cannot hope to do so if they off-load their best players to their major rivals. Suarez scored 30 times for Liverpool last season: where will they replace that if, as appears inevitable following his extraordinary interviews on Tuesday, he joins Arsenal?
Not only that, consider the impact on both teams. They were separated by 12 points last year but that is not an insurmountable gap and Suarez would in all likelihood be worth 12 points for Liverpool. Last season, his goals and assists were directly responsible for 11 points.
Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho said: ‘Luis is on a par with Neymar in terms of qualities, for sure you can make that comparison. They are both exceptional players. We all hope he stays. Everyone here wants to play with top footballers and that is exactly what Luis is.’
This is a season when Rodgers has to get Liverpool competing. He knows he will be under scrutiny from all angles once the first whistle blows against Stoke and, having made some big calls, he will be expected to deliver a team capable of competing with the best and being consistent.
That is why, for all the outrage at the disrespect that has been shown, Liverpool won’t cave in easily to Suarez’s demands. They might be finding it hard to live with Suarez, but living without him could be even more uncomfortable.
Whichever way this saga unravels, Suarez is in danger of damaging a crucial season.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz2bNZHt0qG
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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