Liverpool FC Forum

It's all getting a bit messy and I don't know how this is going to end.

The offer from Arsenal seems to have been prompted by Suarez and his agent's belief that a bid in excess of £40M from a club in the CL would have to be accepted.Liverpool's understanding is obviously different and that's why they rejected it.

I can't see Arsenal coming in with a higher bid, are Real really interested and do we still want him ?

That's my fear, that there is some legal loophole that means the 40mil bid means we have to accept. Why put in a clause to inform the player of a bid once the bid hits 40mil? The player would surely know anyway.

My understanding, and I could be wrong, is a bid of over £40M enables the player to speak with the bidding club - LFC powerless to stop the discussions, but that bid can still be rejected. i.e a bid of £35m would be rejected and the player wouldn't be allowed to speak to the bidding club without the selling club's permission.

It's an odd clause, but I see why Arsenal might want to activate it. They could discuss wage terms etc and if Suarez would agree to a wage within their budget, they might then be able to throw more money at the initial transfer fee. If Suarez's wage demands are astonomical, and wont back down, they know they dont have to go back in with another bid.

Why put a clause in there in the first place? - It might have been stipulated by Suarez, e.g. "£40m and I'd like to see what they have to say" etc, and we might have agreed to it as we would have the power to reject the bid if we wanted to.

I think there might be a misunderstanding of what the clause actually means, it could mean we have to sell for £40M+£1 or Suarez's representatives have mislead Arsenal and we are allowed to simply reject any offer we think is too low.

I'm sure the lawyers will sort it out.

What is 100% sure though is that Suarez and his camp helped to engineer this last bid by Arsenal.
The contempt Suarez has shown for the supporters of this club is just staggering.

Are you sure it's 100% ?

Did you read that in a book somewhere?

Are you sure it's.............NOTHING!

Basil » Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:20 pm wrote:it could mean we have to sell for £40M+£1

No it can't - we've rejected the bid

Benny The Noon » Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:45 am wrote:Has anyone ever seen Suarez so disinterested ! Regardless of fitness levels etc that shouldn't change how you celebrate a goal being scored - especially one you have a part in - everytime we have scored in the past he acts like a kid at Xmas with a beaming and going mental - regardless of fitness levels

Spot on there, it wasn't lack of fitness but trying to say to other clubs, not interested here, come and get me.

He will not be sold to Arsenal, not for any price. However, if for some reason he ends up there, then it really shows the intentions of our club, that is, in my opinion, we want to make our rivals better. 

We all know the things he said about the English media as the reasons he wants to move is just plain rubbish, otherwise he wouldn't even consider talking to them. If he goes there, then all the things about the English press hounding him will very definitely come back to haunt him for a very long time. The LFC fans will haunt him forever.,

My guess is that he will stay for another season (or two depending how things work out next season) or, he'll go to Spain.

From ESPN

This is all starting to feel vaguely familiar. If the build-up to Luis Suarez's seemingly inevitable exit from Liverpool mirrored that of his departure from Ajax - the wonderful goal-scoring form, the suggestion that he cannot fulfil his ambitions at his current club, the sudden taste for human flesh - then the act of it may well draw from another chapter in his career.

On the surface, Arsenal's reported bid of £40,000,001 for Liverpool's best player is a sly dig, a cheap shot, a light dash of humour in the otherwise po-faced gloom of the transfer market. That is certainly how John W. Henry -- Liverpool's increasingly absentee principal owner -- took it, judging by his response to the offer on Twitter.

Appearances, though, can be deceptive. Arsenal are not messing around. Their bid was not a joke. It was, as Brendan Rodgers might say, all part of the dance.




There is a clause in Suarez's contract at Anfield - signed just last summer, lest we forget - which deals with what happens in the event of an offer arriving for the striker which exceeds the nice round figure of £40 million.

Liverpool believe that clause stipulates that, should such a bid arrive, they are duty-bound to consider it and, whatever decision they reach, to inform the forward that he has been the subject of an offer. Quite how this differs from what normally happens is unclear.

Suarez's representatives - most notably his agent, Pere Guardiola - see it rather differently. They believe that if Liverpool receive an offer over and above that £40 million watermark, the club have to allow Suarez to speak to his suitor. They do not have to accept a bid, but by granting permission, one presumes they open a de facto negotiation with the buying club and give Suarez the chance to establish whether he wants to push for a move. Quite how this differs from what normally happens is unclear.

It is baffling that such a situation can arise, in which a document that is - one imagines - supposed to be legally watertight could contain a clause which is open to such vastly different interpretations, and it is equally confusing as to quite why a club or a player would insert what appears to be such a pointless stipulation.

That said, this does appear to be the summer of ineffective clauses, as Arsenal know all too well. After all, Arsene Wenger's team have a buy-back option on Cesc Fabregas that allows them to match any offer that Barcelona receive for the midfielder and gives them first refusal should Fabregas tell the Spanish side he wants to return to North London. Again, quite what this accomplishes is anyone's guess.

Regardless, ours not to reason why and all that: The clause does exist, and so does the confusion over what it means. And so Arsenal - presumably encouraged by Guardiola - took what they, quite understandably, viewed as the only step that would help them establish quite what the situation is, and submitted a bid of over £40 million. Only just over, but still.

Liverpool, as was to be expected, stood by their interpretation of the clause and rejected the offer; judging by Henry's response, Arsenal may have damaged their hopes of holding amicable talks with the Anfield side should they choose to return with a higher bid in the coming days and weeks.

That may not matter. Suarez has been in this situation before. When his first European club, Groningen, turned down an offer from Ajax for his services in 2007, the player engaged his legal team and took his club to court.

He did not win the case, but he had forced Groningen's hand. When Ajax returned with a better offer - not exactly an extortionate one, but a better one - they felt compelled to cut their losses and accept. Arsenal's bid, likewise, may have been designed to give Suarez the ammunition he needs to force a move out. He had already been in touch with his lawyers before news of the offer broke.

This is, whoever you support, a sad state of affairs. It is sad because it means Suarez's relationship with Liverpool will end on a sour note. It is sad because the club, who stood by him even as he threatened to drag their name through the mud, will see their support thrown back in their face.

It is sad because it offers an indictment of the reality of modern football, that a player will do all he can to avoid handing in a transfer request so as to remain eligible for all of the loyalty bonuses inserted into the contract he is trying to break.

It is sad because this saga could drag on for much of the rest of the summer, and there is nothing more mind-numbing than an incremental transfer soap opera, where every day brings no light but so much heat.

It is not just sad for Liverpool, because - make no mistake about this - it could happen to any club, such is the power that players hold. It might not be Manchester United or Manchester City or Chelsea or Arsenal this time, but should any of those teams spend more than a year out of the Champions League, they can expect to find themselves in exactly the same position.

It is sad because others may learn from Suarez; it is sad because it offers a window on how little players value the teams they play for and the shirts they wear.

But mostly it is sad because football simply does not learn. Clubs increasingly resemble partners trapped in unhappy relationships, convinced they will be different, that they will be the one, that they can take the bad boy and make him good, that they can take the journeyman and make him stay. They cannot.

Suarez has already forced his way out of two clubs - Groningen and, to a lesser extent, Ajax - and seems to be at least paving the way to crowbar his way from a third. He is a Champions League player, and Liverpool are not a Champions League club. It is understandable that he wants to go. But should the manner in which he is trying to achieve it not raise a red flag at the Emirates?

There is no morality in football. That is no great surprise, no great revelation. Liverpool were widely and rightly chastised for their handling of both Suarez's major transgressions in English football, but that they reacted in such a way is not a curiously Scouse thing; circling the wagons - and possessing fans whose loyalty is blind and forgiving - is not unique to Merseyside. The vast majority of clubs would have responded in exactly the same way; if you believe your club is different, you're a dreamer or a fool.

Likewise, it is not just Arsenal who would consider buying someone with such a chequered past. Manchester City have made their interest plain to Suarez on a number of occasions since the incident in which he racially abused Patrice Evra at Anfield. Chelsea - given the John Terry incident - would find it hard to scramble onto the moral high ground. Manchester United have overlooked players attacking a fan and missing a drugs test. Maybe there is a line, somewhere, but it is blurred, indistinct.

Arsenal being prepared to overlook ethical considerations is one thing - a necessary, if unpalatable, reality - but their ability to turn a blind eye to Suarez's transfer history is more worrying. He has already forced his way out of two clubs - his departure from Ajax was less acrimonious but just as compulsory - and now seems to be paving the way to do the same to a third.

This prompts a question that, at some point, Arsenal really should have asked themselves: What's to say he won't do the same to us? Even if he leads them to a Premier League and Champions League double, there is always going to be someone who will offer more money, more glamour, more sunshine.

Why would they be any different than Liverpool, than Ajax, than Groningen? What makes them think they will be the exception? Even if they are prepared to spend all that money to bring Suarez to the Emirates, despite all of his baggage, is signing him not a guarantee of trouble down the road? This feels familiar already. It is hard to escape the idea that Suarez, and his clubs, are condemned to repeat history, time and again - less as tragedy, more as farce

If Liverpool continues to reject anymore  under 50M bids for him, my guess is, he will submit a transfer request. He needs RM more than they need him, thus I don't think RM will go to the extent of paying more than 50M and neither will Arsenal. If Liverpool have the legal right to reject bids under 50M then I fear it will all turn ugly with him taking legal action, going on strike, sulk, etc etc. The biggest mistake LS made was signing the 4 year contract last summer, had he refused to sign, then it would have been easier for him to go now.

I'm glad that our owners and BR are sticking to their guns regarding suarez's valuation... Bid 50 million and we'll talk. The mancs don't sell to their rivals to make them stronger, and so shouldn't we...
How come all of a sudden arsenal's acting like real now?

suarez knows fine well what the situation is and from the mug on him yesterday he obviously had a chat with rodgers about the bid. in response he went out on the pitch and showed rodgers whats to come and thats him playing for us but unhappy in doing it. he didnt bother his ar$e celebrating the goal and barely looked his team mates in the eye either. if he keeps on with that attitude it will affect the rest of the lads sooner or later.
i think its clear that real wont even match arsenals current offer and that leaves the club with a massive decision.
imo he will either stay another year or arsenal will go to 45 and suarez will force the move.
for us it will be wrong on a number or reasons to sell him to the gunners but its not up to us and seen as we already sold torres to chelsea they would have no problem letting him go to arsenal.

suarez should not be sold to another english club wether it be arsenal or whoever.
if fsg sell suarez to arsenal it will be a huge insult to liverpool fans everywhere, fans expect the club to do everything within their power to finish ahead of their rivals not do everything in their power to strengthen them.
in a summer where lfc fans in indonesia and australia have shown how big this club is how ironic would it be for the club to throw that support back in their faces by showing it has zero ambition.