Luis Suárez

[Vermilion]

Ziege. I think the fine was for unauthorised contact with the player, i.e. an illegal approach or 'tapping up'.

True, but did it not constitute us, illegally i think, having certain info of a release clause?

The Reds have been guilty of "tapping up" the German international from Boro in July 2000 after the Riverside club accused them of making an illegal approach for the defender.

Liverpool snapped up Ziege for £5.5 million as the former Milan ace had a get-out clause in his contract, but Boro insist they could have sold him to other clubs for £8 million and demanded another £2.5 million from the Merseyside outfit.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...legal-approach

EDIT: tbh, never mind, it's not really that important.

[el matador]

We cannot replace Luis like for like but we can invest the funds from his sale into 2 to 3 high quality players that will improve our first 11 and our squad overall and make us more competitive.

Hate to see him go as Luis is a special player but we can turn this into a very good piece of business if we buy smart in the transfer window.

suarez style of play makes it very difficult to integrate him into a team philosophy because he plays off the cuff. he runs all over the place, takes the ball off everyone bar gerrard and tries to do everyones job for them.

in his head, he's the best creator and scorer of goals we have - almost a sort of hybrid no.9 and no.10. which means he's a perfect player in the right formation.

but weve all seen how coutinho has played since suarez' ban because of the freedom on the ball and how sturridge also looked so much better too because of coutinho's brilliance.

Suarez wouldnt allow coutinho to have that much of the ball because he would want it and he wouldnt create so many goals for sturridge because he wants to score them himself.

but luis suarez is simply a sensational footballer who in the right team could make the difference at the highest level of champions league, international stage.

the circa £100m budget will be probably our biggest for a while (assuming coates, skrtel, shelvey, carroll and suarez leave plus the 25m our owners will give rodgers).

Thats a lot of money but its also effectively another year of transition. Like mostar says, if we get it right we could set up something special.

[JohnDoe]

If he wants to go, we have to get rid. It'll be a massive blow to any aspirations we have of progress, but an unhappy Luis Suarez staying at the club is trouble IMO.

The guy is mentally unstable.

[TheElephantMan]

If he wants to go, we have to get rid. It'll be a massive blow to any aspirations we have of progress, but an unhappy Luis Suarez staying at the club is trouble IMO.

The guy is mentally unstable.

I disagree. Suarez is a fantastic footballer and a joy to watch, but we can be a stronger team without him. I really want him to stay, but if he leaves then with the right investment we could make real progress.

[RichC]

I would obviously prefer Luis stays, he is a truly world class footballer but if he wants to go then we need to make the most money we can for him £50M + should be what we're looking for and nothing less.

If we use that money wisely along with the cash generated from other sales along with our transfer kitty we could come out of all this with a better overall team and more squad depth.

[cream]

We can get three real quality first team players for £50m. Think of thee positives.

[el matador]

We can get three real quality first team players for £50m. Think of thee positives.

we wont get proven quality for that money but another three or four like coutinho and sturridge would be good.

[McDermotX]

Keep in mind that clubs will see us coming a mile off, and with a lack of European football (and overall mehness) we'll be somewhat limited to who we can seek out to really progress the team forward.
That 50m extra may not go as far as we'd like it to. Hope it does though.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

No matter what though, you do know release causes have little value. They carry no obligation.

Well this just isn't true is it now.

Messi had a bit accept in the summer from a Russian side because they matched the release clause €250m and Barcelona had no choice but to let them speak with the player. He rejected the move and Barcelona gave him an altered contract with the release clause near €1,000,000,000.

[TheElephantMan]

Torres has never seemed the same since he left, there's something to be said for being the superstar player. It must be incredible hearing forty thousand supporters singing your name. I suppose there is less pressure moving to another club and becoming just another player, but then there isn't that special adulation from the supporters.

[kingfunk]

Aye, right now I would have to seriously think about selling Suarez for 50m. He is banned for the first 6 games, and I have a feeling he will miss another stint from losing his head. Every defender in the country will be told to wind him up. Most importantly I trust FSG and BR to reinvest the money wisely. If its gona happen, do it now.

[rodo]

I want shut now give us the money and get rid even if he stayed it would almost be guaranteed next time he went home his mouth would be off again thanks for the memories luis but I support LFC not luis suarez

[Norbs]

I support LFC not luis suarez

[DeeTheDog]

suarez style of play makes it very difficult to integrate him into a team philosophy because he plays off the cuff. he runs all over the place, takes the ball off everyone bar gerrard and tries to do everyones job for them.

Pre-January, the sale of Suarez would have been thought of as terminal blow to a team in decline; however, the astute signings of Sturridge and Countinho has tempered that. As pointed out above, Suarez likes to get involved in every aspect of forward play. This year he was phenomenal and pivotal to us finishing where we did but who wasn't frustrated when he felt he had to take one too many players on?

One of the conundrums for the upcoming season was going to be how do we accommodate Suarez, Sturridge and Countinho in the same starting eleven? Countinho has flourished in the number ten role, Sturridge also as the central striker with arguably his strengths being a better complement to Countinho than Suarez's. With Suarez back, Countinho may again be shunted out wide where he is less effective and Sturridge as a wide forward which although he is adept at, he is much more suited as the central striker. Also other players such as Henderson came more to the fore in the absence of Suarez and Gerrard.

Goal scoring was not an issue this season and although there was only a small sample matches without Suarez we continued to score. The issues this season were resilience, set-up of our midfield and our defence. Perhaps the loss of our current most talented player may allowa more rounded team to be formed if the mooted funds are well invested.

In regards to the timing, it's not like Torres sulking for months and then jumping ship when going got tough, that would have been equated to Suarez leaving last season. He gave everything this season but it wasn't good enough to get us higher. Although the press harassment is a convenient excuse it surely didn't help keep a player who wants desperately to win. The silver lining is that we have been more clever in negotiations recently and with him tied to a long contract we can hopefully expect a fair price.

[-V-]

He is our Messi. Aside from Gerrard he is the best player we have had in the last 15 years

We absolutely must keep him. There is no deal to sell, no buyer at this stage and he has a long contract. He will just have to keep quiet and get on with it. The press will move on to another villain soon enough