Liverpool owner John Henry has revealed Luis Suarez did have a £40 million buy-out clause in his last contract - but the club decided it counted for nothing when Arsenal tried to buy the striker. The Gunners were rebuffed when they made a bold move for the Uruguayan last summer, offering £40m plus one pound in the belief it would trigger the clause and allow them to open transfer talks. Suarez made it clear in a series of interviews last summer that he wanted to leave Anfield, but the Merseysiders were not willing to sell, even at the point where his deal said he should have been clear to depart. Speaking this weekend at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, in a filmed panel discussion seen by Press Association Sport, Henry said Liverpool stood a chance of winning the Premier League title this season, and suggested keeping Suarez had been key to that prospect. Suarez has since signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with Liverpool. Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League which is arguably the top soccer league in the world, Henry said. And he had a buy-out clause - I dont know what degree I should go into this - but he had a buy-out clause of £40m - more than $60 million. So Arsenal, one of our prime rivals this year ... they offered £40m and one pound for him and triggered his buy-out clause. But what weve found over the years is that contracts dont seem to mean a lot in England - actually not in England, in world football. It doesnt matter how long a players contract is, he can decide hes leaving. We sold Fernando Torres for £50m. We didnt want to sell but we were forced to. For the first time (with Suarez) we took the position that we werent selling. Since apparently these contracts dont seem to hold, we took the position were just not selling and its been great for Luis, its been great for us, and what will happen at the end of year ... I think were going to make Champions League and we have a small chance of winning the Premier League this year. We have three gentlemen up front: Suarez, (Raheem) Sterling and (Daniel) Sturridge. Those three are young, and I think Luis and those three could be together for a long time.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 12:08:33 +0000
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