Liverpool are stubborn bastards to deal with. They won't settle for a penny less than the £55m they're apparently asking for. And obviously he's blatantly not worth that. I've never been into the conspiracy theories of this window, but I do feel that our interest isn't completely genuine. Something has happened with our dealings with Madrid and now we're trying to ruffle a few feathers.
Suarez: the great moral dilemma of our time
I think our interest in Higuain died the moment Real upped their asking price, and we simply switched targets.
I sincerely hope we have a backup plan though, because our options are dying by the day and despite everything, Suarez is still a highly unlikely signing, especially if Madrid come in for him with their new found wealth.
I think we were close to Higuain for £21m, then Napoli swooped in with their Cavani money and Real upped the price for us. So we started very public mind games about buying the man Real wanted to buy to replace Suarez. When have we ever been so public about bidding for players? Never.
http://arseblog.com/2013/07/suarez-40000001-00-and-all-that/
I fully share every thought about this saga with Arseblogger btw. Very good piece today.
One of the key points in this for me:
Suarez is much better than Higuain, people say ... but is he £10m + all the baggage and risk that comes with him better? Not to me. He’s certainly not £15m or £20m better, which is where we might have to go to get him.
The fact that these stroies break out with a headline that includes 'Liverpool reject' should give you an indication of who exactly is going public with these bids.
The market is absolutely ridiculous at the moment.
Never in a million years is Suarez worth £40m.
You guys do realize he's one of the best strikers in Europe right?
As Biggus would say it's capitalism 101...
Top strikers in Europe are moving for ridiculous sums of money, then you can whack on a whole load more when you consider that Liverpool don't want to sell, particularly to a rival.
My god, how bad is Suarez's body language now in the Melbourne match 
Really horrible
Just when I said it he produced a moment of magic to assist a goal.
And he proceed to show a huge black face refusing to celebrate
Considering there is a behavioural risk factor, for which i feel a discount should apply, Suarez isn't worth 40m in a market with alternatives. However his worth is a combination of what a buyer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept, this is especially true in the absence of alternatives . whether we had a choice or not, this was always the problem with selling RVP in a market when there aren't many strikers available. We were alwayslikely to pay considerably more to replace his goals.
Just read today's Arseblog. Admittedly it's all his usual obvious, safe, conservatively minded fence-sitting stuff, but I can't help but feel he's been reading this thread slash forum. :o
You sound a bit tentative, Lagos. Would've expected a more "penny wise, pound foolish" argument.
To me, six games' absence at the start of the season aside, Suarez's behavioural problems are more an ethical or reputational, than a logistical risk. He has been at Liverpool in a time of turmoil and his recidivism has been very badly managed, especially by Dalglish.
At Arsenal there's stability, and structure. A bigger risk is probably that he'll become unsettled if we continue to disappoint results-wise.
However, on the upside, we urgently need a top striker and if we do add one, our "three half-cocked musketeers" forward line of Podolski, Giroud, Walcott suddenly looks like a star and three genuinely useful supporting acts. We have players coming through in midfield, and we have some sort of defence.
We need aggression and energy up front as well, and Suarez would also add those qualities.
On the whole both financially and on the field we could see improvements from signing him that would offset some of a fairly large fee even in his first season—eg if we go further in the Champions League. We have the money, we need the missing puzzle piece to exploit a solid squad.
He'd be an investment with big variation on return, but it's not all downside.
agree. Suarez has this incredible ability to get stuck into all games. He's hardly ever anonymous. He's always scurrying about, twisting and turning and making things happen on his own. If we're looking specifically at solving our problems of starting games too slowly, lack of tempo etc. I genuinely cannot think of a more guaranteed option to take us to the next level. He's right up there with Van Persie as the best player in the league. And for us, I think he's more suited than even Van Persie was.
Patters wrote:He's right up there with Van Persie as the best player in the league. And for us, I think he's more suited than even Van Persie was.
You're taking the piss right?
If it wasn't for his diving which in all likely hood would continue if he came here, I think I could get over the rest of his past personality defects and get a little excited if we signed him. I know in the heat of an intense match though, if I saw him diving for us I'd be livid at him. Then again, maybe I could learn to turn a blind eye to the ugly side of him. If he signs, he signs; if he doesn't, he doesn't. I'm not going to get really bothered either way so I ticked the 'Meh' option above.
RVP is a much better footballer than Suarez. Not even close.
Gurgen wrote:Patters wrote:He's right up there with Van Persie as the best player in the league. And for us, I think he's more suited than even Van Persie was.
You're taking the piss right?
No.
Burnwinter wrote:Just read today's Arseblog. Admittedly it's all his usual obvious, safe, conservatively minded fence-sitting stuff, but I can't help but feel he's been reading this thread slash forum. :o
Why?
Suarez, Bale, van Persie and Mata were the best players in the league last season. In no particular order.
Pep—not really, just because he just regurgitates the exact same Suarez vs Higuain arguments that have played out here over the past fortnight. They're being made everywhere though. Arseblog's so dull these days (and by extension, so's this place, but I didn't say that).