If Manchester City wants Suárez, Liverpool should let go
Defending champions Manchester City have turned their focus to Liverpool’s Luis Suárez, reportedly planning to offer anywhere from £40 million to £50 million during the January transfer window.
If that is the case, Liverpool really needs to make that deal – even if manager Brendan Rodgers is against it.
“It’s something I will always fight to protect the club and its assets,” Rodgers told The Daily Mail. “The modern game is very much about player movement – that’s part of football these days. But I will always fight to keep our best assets here. This is an incredible club to be involved with. Hopefully over the coming years we can return to that level, where players were here to win things and want to come here.
“I’m sure there will always be clubs interested in our players, like Suárez. But it is very clear we’re not interested in selling our best players so it’s straightforward.”
Sorry, coach, but it’s really not that straightforward.
While Liverpool would definitely miss Suárez as a scoring threat – his eight goals currently lead the Premier League; the rest of the squad has combined for six – the Reds need the money that the sale would bring to rebuild the team’s talent. It would hurt in the short-term, especially as the club currently has no other healthy strikers, but the fact that the team finds itself in such a situation only supports the argument that Suárez should be on the market.
And from the sound of it the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, are not going to be opening the moneybags anytime soon – especially since Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said that he expects his team’s payroll to be among the highest in baseball.
Good to know where John Henry’s priorities lie.
There’s no question about Suárez’ talent – anyone who saw his goal off a free kick against Manchester City can see that – but we’ve grown tired of his antics on the pitch. He goes down at the drop of a hat and the referees have become very unwilling to give him or his teammates a fair call. And let’s not forget his eight-match suspension last season for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. With Suárez around, Rodgers has to waste a lot of time defending defend Suárez and his nonsense.
Liverpool only has two league wins this year and currently sits in 13th place in the table. Even if Suárez is on the roster, it’s going to be a hard year.
“It’s not a great record, we need to start turning draws into wins,” Rodgers told The Guardian. “We have seen some relentless performances where we haven’t always been clinical enough to finish opportunities off, but we can’t let it burden us. We have to start winning if we are going to progress up the league, but if we worry too much about that we will end up with fear of making a mistake. I don’t want that, you have to be relaxed. I want the players to play with freedom, not worry about results.”
Liverpool hosts Wigan, which is in 14th place, on Saturday at Anfield. That would be a good a time as any to start worrying about getting results.
(Photo by Getty Images)
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