How Liverpool Can Still Progress If Luis Suarez Leaves for Real Madrid

Far from being the doomsday scenario that most prophets of gloom are currently predicting, Luis Suarez’s expected departure from Anfield this summer will actually make Liverpool a far stronger and healthier unit in the long run than if the Uruguayan remains on Merseyside.

Now, we are already well beyond the stage of saying “if” Suarez leaves the club during the upcoming transfer window and have moved on to “when,” with Reds manager Brendan Rodgers and his American bosses across the Pond likely having already accepted in private that the striker has now played his final match for Liverpool.

And frankly, that was a decision made far easier with every outrageous utterance the Uruguay international gave on the subject while away on international duty at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil last month.

As a result, Rodgers and the Fenway Sports Group have come to the logical conclusion that no player can ever be bigger than the football club, as has been proved on countless other occasions down the years, while also sensibly realising that it would be counter-productive in so many ways to keep a disgruntled employee at the club against their wishes.

This is a view also shared by former Liverpool midfield player and now broadcaster Jan Molby, who told the Daily Star “Liverpool are preparing for life without Suarez."

“It is just a question of getting as much as they can for him. I think Suarez is very keen on moving to Real Madrid.

“He’s made his bed but Liverpool are in a strong position to dictate what happens with that sale.”

As the Dane states, what must now be Liverpool’s sole priority this summer is to extract as large a transfer fee for Suarez as is possible from any potential suitors, with reports in The Guardian even suggesting that the club will only allow the forward to depart Anfield for a sum of at least £50 million.

And if the Reds are capable of negotiating such a figure for their mercurial centre-forward from either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich before the transfer window closes on August 31, then suddenly the question of how they can move forward and progress in Suarez’s absence suddenly becomes a far easier one to answer.

In fact, it is a dilemma that Liverpool had to contend with in the not-so-distant past when legendary front man Ian Rush stunned the club by deciding to sign for Juventus in July 1986 (although he did not actually join the “Old Lady of Italian Football” until the following summer).

On that occasion—while at the time it may have appeared to Reds supporters that the world had just ended with Rush’s departure—in actual fact within a few months, the loss of the Wales international had quickly been forgotten as new arrivals John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and John Aldridge began to form the basis of what would turn out to be perhaps the greatest-ever Liverpool team in 1987-88.

And that trio of star players were all brought to Anfield using the proceeds from Rush’s £3.2 million sale to Juve, so there is already an established blueprint for the club to follow in this regard, and in actual fact all the signs so far this summer indicate that that is the path Rodgers intends to go down.

In the attacking third of the pitch, the Northern Irishman has already signed both Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto from La Liga for a combined fee of £14.8 million, while coveted Shakhtar Donetsk attacking midfield player Henrikh Mkhitaryan could also soon be on his way to Anfield for a whopping £22 million, says The Guardian.

Including the captures of both Kolo Toure (free transfer) and Simon Mignolet (£9 million), then Rodgers could potentially have brought five new players to the club next season, and what is more, he would still have change left over from Suarez’s big-money move abroad.

However, key to this whole strategy is ensuring that those new forward signings are all capable between them of covering Suarez’s attacking output, which currently amounts to an eye-catching 51 goals and 24 assists in only 96 matches in all competitions for the Reds since arriving at Anfield from Ajax in January 2011.

All of which explains why Rodgers has been targeting more than just the one new arrival in the top half of the pitch next season, as Suarez is such a talent that in essence three players are needed to produce what one man is capable of on his own.

Molby, though, feels that Aspas and Alberto can both help to make up for the loss of the Uruguay international’s goals and assists next season, saying: “These two new signings are obviously gifted but are a bit untried at the very top level. I can see what both Alberto and Aspas will bring to the party.

“They are both very good technically and can spot a pass. Both of them will be a massive part of creating and scoring goals.”

And if Shakhtar’s prolific Armenia international can also be lured to Merseyside, then in effect Liverpool could line up in a 4-3-3 formation for the opening game of the Premier League season against Stoke City at Anfield on August 17, with the trio of attacking positions taken by Aspas and Philippe Coutinho either side of lone front man Daniel Sturridge, supported in midfield by Steven Gerrard and Mkhitaryan ahead of the more defensive-minded Lucas Leiva.

So there is life post-Suarez after all, and it is one in which the club would be free from the incessant controversies that have followed them around almost from the very moment the player arrived on Merseyside two-and-a-half years ago.

And while some may argue that allowing the Uruguayan to join Madrid sends out completely the wrong message to both the club’s fans and the watching world at large—that Liverpool are now officially a "selling club"—by this time next year those same critics may very well be singing a completely different tune altogether.

Follow @Richiereds1976