An incredible set of quotes have been released by Liverpool owner John W Henry this weekend regarding the story of how Arsenal tried to trigger Luis Suarezâs buyout clause for £40m and one pound. Liverpoolâs owner made the comments at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Saturday. Talking about Arsenalâs bid for Luis Suarez in the summer of 2013, John Henry has now admitted that Arsenal DID meet the Uruguayanâs buyout clause however Liverpool refused to let the player go regardless. Rather than live up to the terms of the agreement in Suarezâs contract, the American owner decided heâd rather play hardball and force the Gunners to take Liverpool to court in the Suarez transfer saga. John W Henry made the following eye-popping remarks: Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League, which is arguably the top soccer league in the world. He had a buyout clause of £40m. Arsenal, one of our prime rivals â this year weâre tied for 2nd ⦠weâre actually 2nd because of goal difference. They offered £40m+£1. What weâve found ⦠is that contracts donât seem to mean a lot in England â actually, in world football. It doesnât matter how long a playerâs contract is, he can decide heâs leaving. We sold a player, Fernando Torres, for £50m, that we did not want to sell, we were forced to. Since apparently these contracts donât seem to hold, we took the position that weâre just not selling [Suarez]. Itâs been great for Luis, itâs been great for us, and what will happen at the end of the year I think weâre going to make the Champions League, we have a small chance of winning the Premier League this year. We have 3 gentlemen up front Suarez/Sterling/Sturridge, [they] are young, I think Luis and those 3 could be together for a long time. http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/l...e-gambled-on-arsenal-not-taking-lfc-to-court/
So basically Arsenal where correct with their information and to make the bid, we could still have gone for it but it would require us to drag things through the courts and make everyone look bad. Makes Liverpool look like right ****s. I;d be worried as a player signing a contract with them...
Fair play to him . Players have too much power. We should have done the same with Van Judas. Let the tw@t rot on the bench if thats what he wants . But no , we sold him to a rival and he went on to win them the EPL . But hey , money is money aint it .
quite the contrary . He has scored sh1t loads of goals for them , rather than AGAINST them . Makes them look sharp and not weak and stupid.
omg... quit on dreaming of having Suarez in your team! Because you didnt get Suarez you got Ozil who was meant to be the best Attacking midfielder in Europe.
He is the best number 10 in europe as far as im concerned. Don't think anyoen is dreaming of Suarez though, just commenting on events that involvedour club. move along.
This just highlights even more the issues around contracts in football, and the simple fact they mean absolutely **** all. We recently had a similar situation with the Ukrainian (Koplylanka sp?) we met the clause, the owners wouldn't sell.
Think its to say we have to negotiate and we did by telling you to do one Donga on our board said the PFA looked at it and there was no clause in there though
Pretty sure Suarez and his agent went to the PFA to get clarification on the clause because they felt it was a buyout but our owners said it wasn't. They ruled that it wasn't a buyout. This sure sounds like Henry has massive balls in standing up to players and contracts...which is probably exactly how he wants to come across. PR exercise in all probability.
The PFA did look at it & concluded that it didn't force LFC to accept a fee for him. So Henry is just trying to make out that he's got bollocks like cantaloupe melons, when in fact the contract was woolly enough to resist the advances of Arsenal.
Not really, Henry made a good point, one we've all been aware of, players will sign a 6 year deal and then want to leave, even with no clause most players will get their way. For once a club said f**k you and decided to fight back, albeit with certain risks but given the predicted outcomes by many that never happened, 1 He will sulk and disrupt the dressing room and or team, 2 His transfer fee will decrease 3 he'll be gone by Jan, signed a new long term deal and his goals have helped us to 2nd on goal difference over the team we refused to sell him to. Now I think it was very well handled tbh, after Torres Henry was not going to bend over and strengthen our rivals, many said we're not rivals last season but the table says different this year thanks in part to keeping Suarez. Henry 100% right, and as for Arsenal, no angels in all of that nonsense, knew exactly what his release clause was, the first offer was a feint, then came the informed £40m+£1 bid. So while Liverpool might look like right ****s to you, to many others it's good to see a player held to a contract for once. Henry said the clause was in there but didn't elaborate on the wording, the PFA looked at it and said nope, so? For me, Suarez, no transfer request and no legal action. That gives some idea of his level of desperation to make the move to London.
This is just getting bad to worse for Arsenal after 1-0 defeat to hear this now. Especially as Suarez single handedly won the game 3-0 for us
Bit of a pointless rant from you there Sisu. All i've said is that if Henry is telling the truth then it means Arsenal where definately right to make the moves they did and it gives a poor impression of Liverpool from a players perspective (i.e. the idea that they wont honor a contract), i have confirmed this was what i meant later on in this thread and said i can see why to Liverpool fans and others it could be seen as a strong move by Liverpool. So i think my posts went strraight over your head pal And i've got no idea what your going on about with the last line of your post as i hadn't tried to make otu that Suarez was desperate to join us? strange.
This does give Arsenal back some credit for their bid for Suarez and shows Henry as being a bit of a ****, but I'm surprised that Suarez changed his tune to be honest, maybe a lengthy court battle would have ended up with him missing more than half the season, so I guess he opted to stay with Liverpool for now. I don't think he's going to join Arsenal at any point now, but I do think he'll still be off in the summer to one of the rich European clubs, regardless of CL or not for Pool
Now now touchy, I guess you were one of the ones certain 100% that Suarez was on his way so it's cool, rage away. I was replying to that gibberish. Players don't give a **** about Suarez and his contract deal, they care about their own, and their lawyers care about them too. Maybe Suarez needed a new lawyer, I think HIAG was available around that time.
