Arsene Wenger has finally explained the transfer saga that saw Arsenal table a £40 million plus a solitary pound offer for then Liverpool striker, Luis Suarez in 2014.
The Uruguayan was one of the best strikers in the Premier League at the time and Liverpool was building a team that would try to win the title around him.
The Gunners were still looking for a replacement for Robin van Persie who had joined Manchester United a few seasons back.
The Gunners were incorrectly informed that Luis Suarez had £40 million release clause written into his contract, so the Gunners bid £40 million plus £1 for the Uruguayan forward.
Liverpool rejected the offer out of hand and Wenger has now revealed that they didn’t want to annoy Liverpool, but they simply wanted to trigger his release clause, if there was any.
It turned out to be false and the Gunners were ridiculed in the media for their failed bid.
In his new autobiography ‘Arsene Wenger, My Life in Red and White’ the legendary Arsenal manager revealed as quoted by the Metro: ‘In 2014 were looking to get Luis Suarez over.
‘We had an agreement with the player and his agent. But the agent claimed that there was a clause: with an offer above £40million, Liverpool would be obliged to let the player go.
‘But thanks to an indiscretion within Liverpool. I found out that his clause never existed. To check this was true, we offered £40,000,001. This may have seemed ludicrous, I admit.
‘But Liverpool did not want to sell Suarez, they could afford to keep him and there was already an offer from Barca on the horizon.’
So if you actually wanted him. Cough up the money needed like the 65 million Barca paid and you get your man. Liverpool most likely would have let him go for less than that had we put a proper bid in.
This is why Wenger and Gazidis failed for so many years. I remember hearing Mark schwarzer saying Arsenal wanted him but Wenger refused to cough up an extra million. This was back when we had Almunia in goal. The man made more mistakes in his last 10 years than he did make right in his first 10 years.
The guy was a world class coach nevertheless and the best we will ever have.
£40,000,001
Embarassing.
JDawg, why didn’t we just pay the price asked by Lyon for Aouar then?
If we didn’t try and negotiate prices, we would be paying through the nose for every player that comes to our club.
Look what happened with Pepe, we DIDN’T negotiate then, it seems, we just paid what they wanted, but on the never never and our biggest ever transfer player has still to prove he’s worth the money.