What the Luis Suarez Situation Says About Liverpool Right Now

Reports from various sources including the Express say Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers claims he is currently doing all he can to persuade wantaway striker Luis Suarez to remain at Anfield this summer; however, the Northern Irishman is fighting a losing battle, and that is a damning indictment of where the one-time giants of English football are right now as a force in the game.

Initially at the very start of this long-running transfer saga, at least Reds supporters could console themselves with the thought that their mercurial Uruguay international wanted to leave the club in order to join Spanish giants Real Madrid.

That was back in June when the 26-year-old was representing his country at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, with Suarez admitting on Uruguayan television that: "Of course I would like to play with Cristiano Ronaldo - he's a great player. You never know, but it's complicated."

Disappointing words to hear from a Liverpool fan's perspective, sure, however this is Los Blancos we are talking about here, the club that managed to lure Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo to the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2009, and even more remarkably, FC Barcelona’s Luis Figo to the Spanish capital nine years earlier, both for world-record transfer fees.

And so in that regard, such a move must be viewed in context, especially when the forward went on to explain his “real” reasons for wanting to quit the club after less than three years on Merseyside. According to a report from Andy Hunter last month, Suarez said:

"

Without any proof they gave me an eight-match ban. But with [John] Terry, where they had proof, lip-readers, they gave him four. I'm South American and I think that's the root of all of this.

Liverpool is a club that I dreamt about playing for as a boy. I have been with great players there, they know me and I would love to continue for many more years at Liverpool. The stadium is spectacular, the fans are phenomenal: people with tattoos of me, things that I could never have imagined.

About a week ago I was walking in a shopping centre near Manchester and three or four guys asked me for a photo. While we were posing for it my wife said to me: 'Luis, get out of the photo.' She noticed they were making biting gestures. I was with my wife and my daughter. Things like that get on your nerves. My wife was on the brink of tears and the blokes ran off laughing. You get tired of stuff like that.

"

Right, so that is all clear at least: Suarez is desperate to leave Liverpool because of the over-the-top press intrusion into his private life following his on-pitch controversies, while he also feels that he was mistreated by the Football Association in regards to the punishments that he received for those crimes.

And a move, therefore, to the Spanish capital to play for the nine-time European Cup winners alongside word superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo would be just too hard to say no to.

However, now we are hearing a different line coming out of the Uruguay attacker’s camp following the surprise recent revelation that Premier League rivals Arsenal are also reportedly interested in signing Suarez this summer.

The North London club have already had one initial offer of £30 million rejected by Liverpool, but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is said to be preparing a second, improved bid of £35 million for the player with which to test the Reds’ resolve.

Suarez, though, in the space of a month has substantially changed his tune, now telling Sky Sports: “If I receive an important offer to progress my career, I will study it. Some clubs have asked about me but I hand questions over to my agent. I am no stranger to rumours.”

And then the front man further expands on his new “real” reasons for wanting to leave the club, adding:

"

I always want to improve. That's why I left Ajax for Liverpool.

But this club needs to fight to enter the Champions League and, when it doesn't happen, it damages the morale of any player. So I've suffered.

It is hard to view the Premier League every week with never a chance of winning it.

"

So now Suarez feels that he cannot either further his career or get better as a player at Anfield, while also claiming that it is demotivating for him playing for a team that will never win the title or even compete for a Top Four finish in the Premier League.

And when Suarez’s comments are also viewed in light of the recent disappointment of the Merseysiders missing out on Shakhtar Donetsk's Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Borussia Dortmund, it says plenty about exactly just where the club are at this current moment in time.

It has been four years since Liverpool were last competing in Europe’s premier club competition, and in the intervening period, the Reds have hardly been kicking the door down either to make an instant return to the UEFA Champions League, with top-flight finishes of 7th (2010), 6th (2011), 8th (2012) and 7th (2013).

Meanwhile, as Rodgers’ side continues to wallow in mid-table obscurity, those teams above them also continue to strengthen each year using their proceeds from European football, and so the gap between the elite and rest just grows ever wider.

Consequently, long gone are the days when Liverpool can attract, and keep, star players of the quality of Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres, at the club without the double lure of both challenging for the Premier League and competing in the Champions League, as they managed with such sustained success between 2005 and 2009 under Rafa Benitez.

That is why Mkhitaryan opted for Dortmund ahead of the Reds, Ajax’s Christian Eriksen has so far been stalling on a move to Anfield, and Suarez has now chosen to quit the club, even if that means joining a team that has not won a trophy for the last eight years.

And Suarez’s willingness to move to the Emirates says everything one needs to know about Liverpool’s current state of health, and the worrying thing for the club’s fans is that the forward’s imminent departure will only now make it that much harder for Rodgers to return the Reds to anywhere near their former glories.

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