Lol this old chestnut. We have already proven we will not sell to Arsenal. Bookmark this, you will not have Suarez in Jan, next summer or ever. is it not painfully clear he wants to win things, why on earth would he go to your lot, if he continues on this form there is not a hope of you getting him. he will go to Spain, that suits Liverpool and it suits Suarez. Arsenal are not even in the equation. The last bit is nothing better than wild speculation and dreaming
Well, we saw what happened a couple of years ago when we made a purely business decision in the transfer market...
Yes, selling our best player to a rival and widening the gap in quality between us is emotional and not football related at all... Not all of us are braindead idiots who sell our best player to Man Utd
I didn't mean this purely in a negative sense. I think it's to Liverpool's credit that they put their fans first and dug in their heels. However, in the long run, getting 60 million for Suarez and bringing in another good striker to compliment Sturridge who is also quality and a top midfielder that are 100% committed may have been better for the team in the long run.
Fair enough, though I think Spurs have proved that it's very hard to replace a world class player even with £85million. The thing about Suarez is that he will always be committed on the pitch and he will never sulk on the pitch to force a move, regardless of what he does off of it. To be honest I don't think I've ever seen Suarez more committed and he's completely cut out his bad behavior this season with us too. If a foreign team bid £60million then no doubt he would go, but if a rival team of the same country bids that then it weakens us and strengthens another. This is a footballing reason imo as to why Arsenal would need to bid something ridiculous.
Can't see the Suarez deal happening for Arsenal now to be honest. If we'd have bid 6Om in the summer then maybe, but I think too much has been said and done about all of that now for it to get revived. I honestly think our best bet is a loan move in January, then we can make a proper bid for a top striker next summer
It wouldn't benefit us to strengthen Arsenal so. If he does well and has a good world cup we will either sell for a healthy amount or keep a great player, without enhancing an Arsenal squad with who we aspire to compete for CL qualification with. There is no long term benefit in giving Arsenal a player of Suarez's quality - even if he was adequately replaced, we'd still be behind in terms of quality, because we'd have strengthened your side while bringing our own back to the same level pre-sale (unless we get very lucky with our choice of replacements). I also found the owner's stance over the summer laudable - the game desperately needs player power to be redressed. If it was Arsenal with, say, Ozil, you would want to keep him instead of selling him to, say, Chelsea, regardless of price or the player's own attitude. You would feel that way purely for footballing reasons and the fear of slipping behind a team who you aspire to challenge for the league with.
The big question is how much has he been playing and can his body cope with the rigours of the Prem. He clearly has been struggling with injuries for a number of years and we need a player who will be constantly available.
What like RVP? When we got him he was young and not injury prone. Unfortunately for us he was out for most of his career with injuries and only for the last season and a half did he play constantly. We really need some quality backup for our CF position. We can't afford to risk it on an injury prone player at the business end of the season. Giroud is off the boil at the moment and we have limited options up front. The priority is to keep ticking over and get results, and that means having low risk, available squad players.
Pato eh? Isn't he quite wee, lightweight and hardly a goal machine? I'd hope he'd be scoring for fun in Brazil but it looks like he's getting 1 in 3 or 4 if he's lucky. I'd worry that he'd not be robust enough to do well in the EPL. I'm not saying the smaller forwards can't cope, just look at Tevez and Suarez, merely that they're they're the exception to the rule. My vague Milan memories of him are of a really skillful player so that's a positive. I suppose he'd also not be cup tied and available for a relatively modest sum. I'd like to think we can do better.
Tevez is built like a tank and Suarez is one of the best forwards in the world. Pato hasn't really proven anything for a number of years and his pants injury record would be more of a risk than anything else. I'd rather have someone who is decent but available than someone who is out for 2/3 of the season but good. We need cover asap to be honest and there should be a few good players willing to come to us, especially during the World Cup year.
I think fans are a little biased on these kind of decisions. There are enough top players about, available for 60M, that IF (big if) Arsenal want to spend that money, they will get a quality improvement regardless of whether it is Suarez or not. I have said exactly the same about RVP. United would have won the league last year, with or without RVP, maybe not by quite so much, but they would have won it just the same, and bought someone else. These kind of "sell" decisions must be made purely from the cash for player standpoint, not worrying about "strengthening a rival" IMO. I don't know enough about the financial situation at Liverpool to make a judgement on whether 60M would be the break point for them, in terms of selling; 40M obviously wasn't. Personally, I don't think Arsenal will offer 60M for a striker. I think Wenger would feel that 2x30M would have a better chance of success.
I agree it's very likely Wenger would think that way, and arguably with good reason. There's a possible financial cost to strengthening a rival you have to consider too, as a side issue; league positions carry cash bonuses, affect sponsorship deals in the long term, merchandise sales (shirts, likelihood of fans to buy if a star player has been sold) and the money that comes with qualifying for the CL and potentially going further in it.
