By Joe Mellor Deputy Editor
He fought tooth and nail for Liverpool this season, but Barcelona have agreed to sign Suarez for a fee of around £75m. A great deal of money for a man with a chequered disciplinary history, but a fair price for a talent, as great as his.
Suarez is leaving for better things and it’s not his fault that Barcelona still represents a bigger club than Liverpool. Perhaps he is still in love with Liverpool but the Premier League mother-in law, has caused an insurmountable rift between the two sweethearts. They may well meet again in a romantic European destination, and you can be assured there will be no love lost.
If we are honest we all knew he was going to Spain before the World Cup, it was a case of which of the Spanish giants he would join. He opted for Barcelona and he can now share his World Cup woes with Neymar and the Spanish failures. I don’t think pre-season will be much fun in the Camp Nou, not that Suarez is allowed in anyway.
In terms of the transfer, the fact remains that a player who isn’t allowed to play football has moved to a club that arguably shouldn’t be allowed to sign players. It was only recently that Fifa announced that the club’s transfer ban will be put on hold pending an appeal. The Catalan club had been given a transfer ban for two windows for breaching rules on signing minors from overseas. No matter how dubious that decision is, Barcelona took the chance to sign him as soon as they could, after he was unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup.
A lot of reds including Mark Lawrenson are glad to see the back of him and the fee is a great return, but they should be careful what they wish for. Spurs lost Gareth Bale and bought a number of lesser payers, and the North London club didn’t perform anywhere near as well as they did with the Welsh wizard. Poor Bale will have to watch out for Luis’ gnashers in “El clasico” this season.
What we have learnt from the World Cup is that there may well be eleven players on the pitch, but there is such thing as a one man team. However, this has been proven for the wrong reasons. Poor performances or injuries to key men (Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar) have shown how lacking the rest of the players are.
However, Brendan Rogers is a savvy manager and should be able to galvanise his team again next season, but without their bucktoothed talisman a push for title will be a big ask.
Let’s see if the Liverpool manager can mould one. One thing is for sure there will be more Kop legends in the coming season, and hopefully they won’t bite off more than they can chew.