LUIS LUIS, OH BABY, YOU GOTTA GO?
SO Suarez has been on the radio again. They must love him in the Uruguayan press. Every time he goes back he is available for a chat at all times. His commitment to journalism in his home country is outstanding. But what about his commitment to Liverpool? Not so good by the looks of things……
“Now there are two or three options and the club knows. There are no (other) offers yet but Liverpool FC know exactly what is going on and what I want. A phone call could change everything.”
How about a phone call from me going: “DON’T GO LUIS LAD, YOU’RE DEAD BOSS AND I LOVE WATCHING YOU SCORE LOADS OF GOALS!!!!’?
That probably wasn’t type of phone call he was on about. He probably means the “Real Madrid have made a bid” type. But it is possibly worth a shot. Has anyone trying ringing him? Maybe he is waiting by the phone in Uruguay for some love, and all he’s getting is radio presenters phoning him up for a chat.
Luis isn’t here yet but his agent is. Having talks with with Ian Ayre and Brendan Rodgers which were described by the Liverpool Echo as “positive” and “amicable”. Which I think means that Pere Guardiola (who it appears you legally have to say is Pep’s brother every time he is mentioned) said that Suarez wants to leave, and Ayre and Rodgers said we want him to stay, but no-one threw any pens about. Which is nice. No need for things to turn unpleasant.
It also seems that English clubs aren’t out the question now either, which contradicts the “English Press are making my life a nightmare” reason and points more to the “Liverpool aren’t very good” reason. Which many of us suspected already of course. But I understand if it was tough for him to say, given that we haven’t taken the news of former players moving to better teams very well in recent years. Many fans insist that we’d be OK with it now, if only Suarez was honest about it. But, if true, that is a radical jump from how we’ve reacted in the past, so it’s understandable if Luis didn’t get the memo.
But I do miss a few weeks ago. A simpler time when new players were signing every day and I hadn’t seen the new third kit. Henrikh Mkhitaryan teased us with YouTube clips and goal stats and then pissed off to Dortmund, and then we get the news that ‘The Wallasey Wizard’ Jay Spearing is leaving for Blackburn! Who sanctioned that? And for £1.75 million! He is worth literally pounds more than that!
Sensing my desperation Brendan has been on the official website to ensure us all that Aspas and Alberto, rather than coming as squad players, are actually dead good, and ‘Head of Performance’ Glen Driscoll has been on to tell us all that everyone looks really sharp in training. Like that will help everyone get over losing Speo. You could sign Messi and I’d be fuming about this one. We’re not even giving him a testimonial.
Goodbye sweet prince. We’ll always have, er, that decent game you once had x
ANNE WATT
We can not replace him with equivalent quality and output no matter how much money we get, because players of that capability are simply not sold or moved on easily. We would need to breed another world class player which would take at least a season or two and would involve a number of transfers (remember how many transfers were made between finding Torres and then finding Suarez – lots).
I think he will stay simply because he has boxed himself in inconveniently. He shouldn’t have used the media in England as an excuse because that narrowed down his options to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern – as opposed to those 3 plus another 4 clubs in England. Real Madrid tap him up and he falls for the bait, and now when they don’t follow through since their intention was only to trip LFC up and not pay the full 60M euro, he is stuck after having said too much.
The Real Madrid game plan was for Suarez to file a transfer request, which won’t happen since it doesn’t match the narrative and he would miss bonuses and for that along with his comments to drive Liverpool into a cheap sale. That plan didn’t happen, so they have moved on.
haha, Gibbons, uniquely among the TAW crew, actually writes in the same voice that he talks in. It’s dead scary, really! :)
ferd
That is probably just because everyone else is a proper writer and I’m not!
My hope is that Henry and company hold to the condition at present, in that Suarez is a Liverpool player. However, upon the first offer over 50 mill, they should grab it. I may be lacking in the realities of todays game but I do wish Suarez would just fuck off.
I’m crap at bargaining and always seem to walk away paying slightly more than the price the person selling was after, but I was once told the secret by a family friend, a big jovial American guy who used to embarrass his wife by using any opportunity to haggle with retail staff (eg. to get 15% of a hammer at a hardware store or a bag of chips with his pizza even if no one felt like chips), and that is, you have to be prepared to walk away.
Which brings me to Mkhitaryan, for the last 5-6 years it has always seemed that we have ended up spending up to 25% more on players than they were really worth in both fees and wages (50-100% in the Hodgeson/Commoli period). From my admittedly poor vantage point, it appears we tried to play hard ball with Shaktar, in the process pissed them off, and missed out on a player we really wanted. However, there is something kind of comforting that we didn’t end up caving in and paying whatever they were asking because if we do that long term we are never going to get back to the top (just look at how well Levy has been doing for Spurs with that hard nose of his).
So this is another reason I think we as fans should try as much as possible to keep a lid on transfer rumours, not just for our own peace of mind, but that it probably puts the club at a disadvantage if the selling club can say to Iain Ayre “if you don’t pay £30 mil for X, your supporters are going to be so pissed they will be calling for your head”. Mkhitaryan looked the goods and probably would have been great for us, but everyone has their price and if we overpay that is one new player that we are not going to be able to afford in the future. Honestly, I am not that disappointed (almost managed to convince myself).
Nice work Gibbo – always enjoy your writing and opinions on LFC.
Suarez the little rascal should be made to return to Anfield for a final season and first goal he scores Kop End, should be met with a wall of silence. That would be good fun.