Luis Suarez has explained his decision to try and force a move from Liverpool to Arsenal in 2013 after the London club infamously attempted to trigger a clause in his contract by submitting a £40,000,001 bid.
The Uruguayan was signed by the Reds in 2011 from Ajax, for whom he scored 111 goals in 159 games to sit alongside the likes of Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp as a Amsterdam centurion, and he quickly became an instant hit on Merseyside as well.
During his first two-and-a-half seasons at Anfield, Suarez won the club’s Player of the Season award and was named in the PFA Team of the Year, but the club could only muster an eighth and seventh place finish in 2011/12 and 2012/13 respectively, meaning they missed out on the Champions League.
As such, Suarez has now revealed he attempted to cross the Liverpool-Arsenal divide in 2013 in an effort to play in Europe’s premier knockout competition, but the Merseyside club refused to sanction his transfer to a Premier League rival, and he ultimately stayed on for another year before joining Barcelona.
“I think I’d been at Liverpool for a year and a half when Brendan [Rodgers] took charge in July 2012,” he told UEFA.com.
“Back then, I had opportunities to sign for other clubs who were getting in contact with me, but he phoned me when I was in Uruguay on holiday, to tell me that he had another way of thinking, that he wanted to change the club and its philosophy, that he wanted the club to get back in the Champions League and fight to win big trophies, that he was going to make the team play great football.
ON THIS DAY: In 2013, Arsenal offered £40,000,001 for Liverpool's Luis Suárez.
It was rejected. ? pic.twitter.com/Jp98bgeY6f
— Squawka (@Squawka) July 24, 2021
“He asked me to believe and trust him. I enjoyed that chat. I liked his conviction, the philosophy he wanted to implement at the club, so I talked to my agent and the club to say that I didn’t want to leave, that I wanted another opportunity to be successful at Liverpool.
“That year wasn’t as good as we wanted, but ideas were already pretty clear. So then the 2012-13 season goes by, and I wanted to sign for Arsenal, since Arsenal had played in the Champions League every season prior to that.”