I Didn't Want To Talk About Luis Suarez But...........

 I'd made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to write about Luis Suarez until the whole 'will he stay or will he go' saga was resolved one way or another, but I've read so many opinions about it all I just had to contribute my thoughts. And to be honest I've got more views on how everyone else feels than I've got on the Uruguayan himself.

 Arsenal fans - some of you seem to be against the idea of signing Suarez, if you'd actually watched him closely you would be prepared to move heaven and earth to get him to your club, he is that good, he would bring you far closer to being title contenders than you are now. You call him a diver, remember Robert Pires, Patrick Viera, Eduardo? You don't have any problems with divers at your club, you've proved it. You call Suarez vile, well, he's had a couple of unsavoury incidents on the football pitch, but off it he's a normal, decent guy. You worship the likes of Tony Adams and Paul Merson who have been guilty of far more serious things in life than Suarez, get over it, stop being so hypocritical. You want your club to spend big, Suarez is the best player you have any chance of getting, you should back your manager and embrace the possibility of one of the best players in European football joining your club.

 Liverpool fans - I'm hearing the word 'loyalty' a lot, and it's very appropriate. But be completely honest, have we stuck by Suarez because we stand by each and every one of our own, or simply because he is such an incredible player? Imagine Jay Spearing had caused us the same controversies Suarez has, a hard working local lad but with limited ability, would we stand so fiercely behind him or would we be happy to let him go to Blackburn or Bolton or some such club? And look at Stewart Downing, he's worked twice as hard to stay at the club as Suarez has at trying to leave the club, are we loyal to him? Does he get our unwavering support? I think not. Yes, Suarez has been in situations where we could have quite rightly taken a different view and cast him aside, and yes, it would be nice if he showed some commitment in return, but that's not how the world works, and if we were the chasing club in a similar transfer story would we be thinking the player should join us or not? Not difficult is it.

 Another thing a lot of Liverpool fans are saying, why would he move to Arsenal? Man City, Chelsea, even Man Utd we could understand as they are challenging for the title but Arsenal are content with their '4th place trophy' every season. Well, lets be realistic about what we are aiming for, we want to break into the top four. In short what we want for Liverpool over the next few seasons is exactly where Arsenal already are and have been for the past decade. Our medium term ambition is Arsenal's current reality so calling Suarez unambitious for considering moving there is a little strange. And why wouldn't Arsenal be looking at Suarez? If we'd been playing Champions League football for the last ten seasons in a row and a team finishing seventh had a player as good as Suarez we would be screaming at the board to go out and try to buy him. Tottenham fans didn't want to see Robbie Keane leave for Anfield but I don't remember any Liverpool fans giving them a second thought when he came to us.

 Fans of other teams, especially our rivals - those of you saying you just want to see the back of him should be honest about your reasons.. 'He's a cheating racist cannibal and Liverpool should get rid of him', I'm sick of hearing that. If a team I didn't like (Everton, Man Utd) had a player that caused them as much controversy and negative publicity as Suarez causes us I'd be desperate for them to keep him and hopefully drag their name through even more mud. Unless he was a world class talent who singlehandedly made a massive difference to their performances and results. You all may not like Suarez, that's your personal choice, but the only reason you want to see the back of him is because you would rather face a Liverpool side without him than with him.

 Luis Suarez himself - well, where to start? He signed a new contract last summer when we weren't in the Champions League. At that time we had a new manager, a new project and a new philosophy at the club. When he signed his new contract he will have been fully aware that we were unlikely to break into the top four in Brendan Rodgers' first season so he can't be surprised to find Liverpool where we are. The second half of last season showed a lot of promise and if he stays he has every reason to feel optimistic about our chances for 2013/14. He has made plenty of mention of the English media influencing his desire to move on from Liverpool which I find a little bit soft but still understandable, to a degree. So why then move to the capital of England where the majority of the media is actually based? Very strange. In fairness I don't think Suarez has courted Arsenal, I think they're his only real option so far, but if he did decide to move to the Emirates he would have a lot of questions to answer. I wonder if he and his agent are using Arsenal to try to get Real Madrid's attention? Maybe Madrid are letting Arsenal do all the negotiating and will then jump in if a fee is ever agreed.

 The £40 million clause - apparently this clause states that any bid in excess of this figure allows the player to speak to the bidding club, but doesn't mean Liverpool have to accept the bid. That sounds very strange to me and if it's true then the players lawyers haven't really served their client very well when that was drawn up. And as for Liverpool, if we were short sighted enough not to include some sort of 'not to a rival English club competing for the top four' note in his contract then we've left ourselves wide open to a situation like this.

 Luis Suarez moving to Arsenal would be a double blow for us, decreasing our chances of returning to the Champions League while at the same time improving the team we could most realistically catch. Selling to Real Madrid for £40 million would make more economic sense than selling to Arsenal for a significantly higher sum. I still feel there will be twists and turns in the whole ordeal before it is over though and I doubt Arsenal will have a clear unchallenged path to the player.

 I'm going to try not to make much more mention of the saga from now until it is resolved as I'm beginning to find it repetitive and boring, I just had to vent my feelings today. Do I care whether he stays or goes? Of course, I'm a dedicated Liverpool fan and I want our best player to stay. Can I be bothered with the whole soap opera? Not really. Come on Luis / Liverpool / Arsenal, get on with it, make a decision one way or the other and get on with life.