Luis Suárez

[Neil Young]

God, the hours of my life I won't get back because I didn't think of that earlier.

Though if it was a loan and the player paid it back there could still be a tax liability if the interest rate was considered preferential.

If the club making the loan was not in the UK then I suppose it would depend on the tax base in the country he moved to.

Ah, the accountants are gathering.

What's the collective noun? A bromide of accountants? An anaesthetic? A snore?

[RedAndWhite]

Ah, the accountants are gathering.

What's the collective noun? A bromide of accountants? An anaesthetic? A snore?

A bore I believe.

[Catrin]

We should have got a cat.

[Neil Young]

[baitman]

Ah, the accountants are gathering.

What's the collective noun? A bromide of accountants? An anaesthetic? A snore?

dont know the collective name but if it is like the immortals facing off at the quickening in highlander then lets get it on ppv and make enough to buy some beef

[Neil Young]

Wrong thread, somehow.

[BrooklynRed]

Clearly, FSG feel burned by the Torres--> Carroll affair. All of these quotes indicate important lessons learned from that failure-- not having a suitable replacement available, not selling to a rival, too late in the window, etc etc. brilliant quotes today and I hope they stay true to this. We should not be selling for less than other top names, certainly not to a rival club, and without a replacement lined up if we did cash in. Exactly right.

[Gibbo]

I really hope he has one of them for when we win the PL

What you smoking John?!

[Marina]

The club said he wasn't for sale when we initially rejected Chelsea.

John Henry never came out like this though. He never made such a blatant statement, so I think the situation is completely different.

Yeah, think that's pretty much right. Also Piers Morgan is a bitter **** and we ignore everything he says otherwise... so this shouldn't be any different

[DaHongDe]

Perhaps a loan deal to a non-English CL team is the best option for all.

[Marina]

Ok. I'm a little bored and I'm going to have a bit of a rant.

I lurked a bit on some Arsenal forums to see what they thought about all this. There are some who believe it's well and truly over, that they should move on, and others who think Henry is full of it, that we'll sell based on the "Torres is not for sale" precedent. Anyway, this is why Arsenal supporters are the worst:

They criticise us for being deluded, stuck in the past, being "ashamed of nothing, offended by everything," but they are the exact same way. Think they're infinitely superior to us because we've never won the Premier League and because they consistently finish above us. And yet, they've not won anything for years. And they shouldn't have finished fourth last season. Flukey ****ers.

They're just as deluded as we are! They're just as bad! We're probably the two most deluded fan bases in the league. Also, I think we begrudgingly acknowledge that we're a little bit ****, so maybe we're really not all that deluded after all. If you're an Arsenal supporter lurking, this is what I have to say to you: come off it. Jesus!

[EwarWoo]

Perhaps a loan deal to a non-English CL team is the best option for all.

Not a chance. He will be playing for us, and he'll get used to the idea. We'll all hate him but grudgingly respect his performances.

He'll go next summer after we qualify for cl and replace him with someone who's not an ungrateful merc.

[Frenchie]

I love the venom in the miss-spelt Rott (sic) ....

The argument is valid however , even from a financial perspective looking forward.

If we were to sell to the Arse for say £55m the Arse would be much stronger, especially to the eyes of our skipper, and the future revenues of CL footie would be gone again.

Thus leaving us having to pay over the odds for "street" footballers from South America, with dubious characters, rather than the cultured players that are making a bee-line for CL clubs even in ****e leagues. Which would absorb the £55m with just 2 players, and the ones we are linked with are all a bit meh, unless we are looking to be as hated as Leeds were in the 70's.

However, leaving him to sulk for the first 6 games of the season, during world cup year might well be the right strategy to adopt imho.

Especially if after all those supposed double sessions, and they're "the hardest ever gov", propel LFC into a great start of season. Suarez will be chomping at the bit to have any form going into that World Cup and will give his all to get into the spotlight, of this I have no doubt.

Or we could be dicks and sell to the Arse or the Plastics and remain a well run club cemented in mid table oblivion..

A more favoured plan B would be a sale abroad to whomsoever that would have him for £55m

Yeah

[MrMichael]

They're just as deluded as we are! They're just as bad! We're probably the two most deluded fan bases in the league. Also, I think we begrudgingly acknowledge that we're a little bit ****, so maybe we're really not all that deluded after all. If you're an Arsenal supporter lurking, this is what I have to say to you: come off it. Jesus!

Ahhh, I take it you've never been subjected to a large number of Newcastle fans then?

Admittedly they are quite aware that Ashley and his cronies, the latest of whom they seem only to refer to as "must be ****in' Joekin", are complete muppets, however to a man they're convinced that their 50k plus stadium and apparent fanatical support (as evidenced soley by the number of obese middle-aged men in their crowd prepared to strip off in sub zero temperatures) makes them a huge club just waiting to sweep all before them, despite the absence of a trophy, like, ever.

[Marina]

Also, further acknowledging the fact that we're a bit ****, this article hurts.

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2013/08/luis-suarez-personifies-the-decline-of-liverpool-and-breeding-of-mediocrity/

Luis Suarez personifies the decline of Liverpool and breeding of mediocrity

The large teeth; the gnarled features; it’s not exactly a sight for sore eyes. This, by the way, is not a spiteful snipe at a man who wants to leave my football club. I am not ready yet to descend into the whole ‘I may be fat but you’re ugly, and at least I can diet’ paradigm of petty revenge. These are realities. Most will agree that Luis Suarez is not in the pantheon of superficially aesthetic athletes.

When Liverpool fans look at Luis Suarez, they see something altogether more ugly than a Uruguayan with big gnashers. On one hand, we are looking at the modern game and its lack of loyalty. One of the world’s best footballers is throwing the loyalty shown to him by thousands of supporters and one King back in our faces.

Suarez has endured more than one swirling maelstrom of rubbish in his time at Liverpool, yet the club and its supporters have stuck by him. We couldn’t get enough, you see. We all became experts in Uruguayan slang in the Patrice Evra affair. We saw him bite another human being in front of the Kop and still sang his name. And after all that, he wants out.

This then, is modern football. This is what we see when we look at Luis Suarez. We see that there is no loyalty in the modern game. Luis Suarez is the modern game. Break every rule to win, don’t win enough and move on. Players are enticed by the glitter of gold coins and silver trophies. If one of the greatest clubs in the history of the game ridicule themselves regularly to protect you, but can’t offer you a chance to win a few cups, then why stick around? It’s a short career at the top, why waste it trying to play one-twos with Stewart Downing?

Yet the lack of loyalty in the modern game is not a phenomenon pioneered by Suarez. Atletico Madrid fans saw it when the Fernando Torres they groomed for years took calls from Rafa Benitez while he was still their player, and eventually moved left them for Liverpool in pursuit of trophies. What is new to Liverpool fans is that now the players are leaving them. For the first time, Liverpool FC are less a bastion of invincibility and more of a springboard to success elsewhere. This is the ugly figure we see when we look at Luis Suarez: the decline of Liverpool, and the breeding of mediocrity.

Mediocrity tramples all over morals. Kenny Dalglish appeared on television wearing a t-shirt and had to apologise to Geoff Shreeves because Luis Suarez was not mediocre. Do you think we would be fighting to hold on to Jay Spearing if it was he that sank his teeth into Ivanovic? The club defended Luis Suarez blindly and occasionally stupidly because he was one of the few very good footballers in a mediocre squad. This is what is sad. Through their actions, the club have admitted that while the crest on the front of the shirt may be more important than the name on the back, without the name the crest won’t soar. When we look at Suarez we see a great club have had its morals corrupted by mediocrity in the hope that by compromising themselves, they can escape this wretched cycle.

The Suarez saga is sad. Yes, it hurts that he wants to leave, despite all the supporters and the club have said and done for him. It also hurts that it seems he is off to our main rivals for fourth place, the escape route from this cycle of mediocrity. Joining Arsenal only adds oil to the hysterical hinges of Anfield’s exit door. Yet his departure is inevitable.

Put simply, one of the world’s best footballers wants to leave the seventh-best team in England. When it is put like that, the realities are as sad as they are stark.

When we look at Luis Suarez, and tweet our rage at his brazen betrayal, we are masking our pathos and anxiety at the decline of our great club. What is more, deep down we all know it. We can rage all we like at the loosening tethers of contracts, loyalty and human decency, but in reality, we know the game. Luis Suarez holds all the aces, along with a mirror. Liverpool no longer belong to the elite. When we look at Suarez we see the ugly decline of Liverpool Football Club.

As Suarez cries and we tweet, a Liverbird squawks desperately for a long-lost perch.