Came across this on the BBC site and at the risk of being wummed I still thought it was worth a quick read. It seems that people want to make excuses for his behaviour and I don't think all this brought up on the street stuff is a palatable excuse as we all have to grow up sometime. However I thought it was worth posting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22356789 "When you understand Luis's background and where he comes from, he sees football as his opportunity to succeed in life, then you can understand his determination." Getting inside the mind of Luis Suarez, 26, appears a difficult task, as his career treads the thin line between footballing brilliance and flawed genius, but a close friend and former Ajax colleague believes his tough upbringing is a good place to start. Herman Pinkster was a member of Ajax's backroom staff when Suarez was banned for seven games after biting PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal in 2010. This was four months after the Uruguayan had hit the headlines for a deliberate handball against Ghana to help earn his country a place in the World Cup semi-final. Now, with the Suarez debate very much back at the forefront after the Liverpool striker received a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, Pinkster believes his 'win at all costs mentality' can be traced all the way back to his childhood in Uruguay. Born in the Uruguayan city of Salto on 24 January 1987, Suarez once had to reject the chance to attend a Uruguay youth team training camp because he couldn't afford a pair of boots. Money was tight as the player fought to succeed. "When you have such a determination to win games and you are such a warrior from the nature inside, it is very hard to change it," said Pinkster. "We really had to adapt, we had never had a player like that, that was so determined to win games, to focus like a soldier in a war. "When he regrets something he is really sorry, but when he has the full commitment that he is 400% right, he never will regret things." The word 'winner' is a common characteristic used to describe Suarez by the people who have seen his rise from kicking around on the streets of Montevideo, Uruguay, to signing for Liverpool for £22.8million in January 2011. His ability has rarely been questioned, scoring 111 goals in 159 appearances for Ajax and a regular for Uruguay, but his temperament has been brought into doubt a number of times along the way. "He is a kind person. He is Dr Jekyll outside the pitch and sometimes Mr Hyde on the pitch," said Tom Egbers, the presenter of Netherlands's version of Match Of The Day, who also describes him as a "wonderful" player. "He behaves like an animal at times. He can be terrible on the pitch, he can do terrible things. Swearing, kicking, diving... all the tricks. He does not mean to harm anyone, to injure someone. "He just wants his opponent out of the way by any means. He is street smart. It is obvious he has not had his education from Eton. He is from Montevideo, Uruguay. Everything is permitted in his view to win a game. "Something in his brain happens - he genuinely apologised to the player and humbly accepted the punishment." Just in his Premier League career alone, Suarez's list of misdemeanours include racially abusing Patrice Evra, admitting diving and being pilloried for a handball goal against Mansfield. His dark side can be traced as far back as to when he was sent off as a 15-year-old for head butting a referee when a youth player for Uruguayan side Nacional, and was seen again when he saw red for dissent on his international debut against Colombia in February 2007. "He is the type of player that once inside the box he is capable of anything to score a goal, to get the ball from an opponent. Obviously this kind of thing shouldn't happen, cannot happen. It's happened to him," said his former Groningen team-mate Hugo Alves. "He does anything to win. He is a winner. And because of his way of thinking, if he is in the heat of the moment, full of emotion, he makes these kind of mistakes. In the middle of an emotional game, he can vent it in the wrong way." One of Suarez's former youth coaches Julian Moreno, said that winning mentality was evident throughout his time at Nacional: "He never liked losing. He wanted to win everything, that's something he always showed." Suarez signed for Dutch top-flight side Groningen from Nacional in 2005. The club's then technical director Henk Veldmarte said it took just "15 minutes" to spot his potential in a trial match. Arriving in Holland as an 18-year-old without any grasp of the language, it was initially a struggle for the striker but there was a sense of unshakeable confidence in his own ability. "Luis is a kind of a person that when he was in Groningen it seemed like he was in Uruguay in his native neighbourhood. I had lots of difficulties when I arrived here. I thought⦠What am I gonna say? What am I gonna eat? Not Luis," said Brazilian Alves. "Without speaking a single word of English or Dutch he goes to the market and buys exactly what he wants. He can communicate with people without knowing one word of their language. Once he got a car, without knowing how to drive. "He said 'I want the car now, I can learn how to drive later on.' Obviously he had a driving licence, he just had to change it for a Dutch one. But that shows how easy it was for him to get used to things. "He had a good relationship with his neighbours, with people who lived close to him. He talked to everybody. He talks to the club doorman in the same way he talks to the chairman. He does not make any distinction." Such single-mindedness has been evident throughout Suarez's career. From attempting to force through a move to Ajax in 2007, when he even took former club Groningen to court, to taking his one-month old daughter on the pitch at the Amsterdam arena, despite being told not to. Suarez has always done things his own way and, no matter what criticisms have been thrown his way, one thing almost everyone is in agreement with is his talent as a footballer. "He is one of the top three most spectacular players Ajax have had in the last 100 years - there is Cruyff, Van Basten and Suarez," said Egbers. Listen to BBC Radio 5 live 'What's Eating Luis Suarez?' programme on Wednesday 1930 BST.
"at the risk of being wummed" Yeah, like you were really concerned about that #dramaqueen PS...will read it during lunch
Load of BBC anti Liverpool ****e from Salford Quay's. "Now, with the Suarez debate very much back at the forefront after the Liverpool striker received a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, Pinkster believes his 'win at all costs mentality' can be traced all the way back to his childhood in Uruguay." Back in the forefront?, hes admitted his guilt, accepted his punishment and is now banned. The BBC never miss an opportunity to mention his 'sins against football' on an almost daily basis.
After reading that it made me wonder if he will ever change? It makes me think that as fans we are at some point going to have to call for his head if he doesn't change or accept what we have. I'm not saying we should accept his behaviour but maybe we have to understand that if the club will not sell then we as fans will need to at times cringe and accept the abuse we will get because of his behaviour.
They always list them in full, makes me laugh. What do you think Page? Will he change or is he bound to do something again?
I reckon 'if' he stays past this summer he knows hes at the last chance saloon with us, so yes hes gotta change or **** off to another club end of.
I think we can all put up with the diving and other minor things that he may do as long as he doesn't cross that line again.
What annoys me is that people still have a go at Luis for the handball against Masnfield and count it as a 'misdemeanor'. Any idiot can clearly see that it was accidental yet the media want to make it something more than what it actually is. And anyone who talks about the handball against Ghana - it's natural instinct. Anyone who wouldn't have done the same thing is a natural born loser in life. I don't remember Neville being condemned for his handball against LFC? Or Taylor's when he went down as if he was shot? And before WUM's mention it, Suarez was punished for the handball - he was sent off and conceded the penalty - it's not like he got away with it ... unlike Henry when his actions knocked out Ireland.
Also from BBC Website: Ronnie O'Sullivan: Luis Suarez will benefit from Dr Steve Peters's help Snooker world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan says he has sympathy with Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and can understand his "moment of madness". O'Sullivan, 37, has been working with Dr Steve Peters and believes the sports psychiatrist can help the Uruguayan. Suarez, 26, was banned for 10 games for biting Branislav Ivanovic - an incident O'Sullivan compares with his decision to quit a game with Stephen Hendry. "I understand what Suarez did - I totally get it," said O'Sullivan. "It's a moment of madness and you think, 'Wow, what have I done?' It's like me walking out against Hendry. You regret it afterwards, but at that moment you are over-run by these emotions." O'Sullivan was fined £20,000 after quitting in the sixth frame while trailing 4-1 in a best-of-17-frame UK Championship quarter-final against Hendry in December 2006. But O'Sullivan, who struggled to stay focused in long matches earlier in his career, began working with Peters in 2011 and went on to win the 2012 World Snooker Championship, his fourth Crucible success. Now in the quarter-finals in his first major tournament after taking time away from the sport following last year's world title victory, O'Sullivan credits Peters for making him mentally stronger. "Dr Steve Peters has been great to me," added O'Sullivan. "I've really worked hard with Steve and tried to take on board everything he's shown me and spoken to me about and I'm benefiting from it massively. "Ever since I first saw him, before the 2011 World Championship, for the whole year leading up to winning the World Championship last year, I worked really hard on trying to get hold of my emotions and my brain. "Not once have you been able to see me lose the plot. Sometimes inside I feel it's tough and it's challenging, but I'm able to overcome that." He insisted he would never walk out on a match again, adding: "None of those meltdowns will happen, no matter how frustrated I may be with myself out there. I'm able to put that on hold until the game's finished." With Suarez banned until the end of September, O'Sullivan believes Liverpool and Peters, who has already been working with the Premier League club, will be able to help the Uruguayan control his temper when he returns to action. "It's not a quick fix with Steve, but if Liverpool stick with him and Brendan Rodgers they'll win the title," said O'Sullivan. "If Liverpool can have Steve there for four or five years, then they'll win the Premier League." (didn't want to create a new thread and attract attention so I posted it here)
I am sure one of the BBC bloggers is doing a PHD in sociology or, more likely, has a friend who is and is using the ungoverned organization to help with a phd thesis! Basically in order to satisfy the need for the work to be new and original they first of all choose a subject, Suarez in this case, then regurgitate over and over every bad event the said subject has been involved in, sometimes even presenting the information as if it is conciliatory or even -god forbid- balanced, and then measure the reaction of British sporting population against the hostile or barely conciliatory reports by analyzing reaction on the comments page. Turns out with a few exceptions the UK has its fair share of unbalanced bigots but not nearly as many as you find in the BBC canteen at lunchtime! I laugh at the Mansfield handball condemnation getting a mention the other day with gravitas coming in the form of the Mansfield "Chief Executive". Almost gave the impression of a man or woman who has worked at board level half their lives in the game, very experienced, and talking from a deep philosophical understanding of the game after rising through the ranks. Turns out she just married the chairman and is proficient in "nails and Beauty treatments".
