Barnes: Flush Lu out of Kop now!
LIVERPOOL should cash in on Luis Suarez NOW, according to Anfield legend John Barnes.
Suarez is at loggerheads with the club as he tries to force through a move to Arsenal.
The Uruguayan frontman, 26, believes the Gunners’ offer of £40,000,001 triggers a release clause in his contract and he is set to battle with the Reds to prove it.
Liverpool claim they only have to inform him of Arsenal’s interest at that price. Even though Suarez still has six games of his 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic to serve, the scrap for his signature is overshadowing their pre-season.
In January 2011, Liverpool flogged Fernando Torres on deadline day and ended up wasting £35million on Andy Carroll. Barnes wants to avoid a repeat of that and believes the Kop giants should sell now.
And he thinks it would be wrong to assume that Suarez will continue to give his all if he is denied a move to London.
He said: “We’ve seen in the past, when transfers go down to the last minute, that it doesn’t help anybody – especially for a club like Liverpool who, if they lose Suarez, would have to find a big-name replacement.
“I’d like it to be done sooner rather than later because if it goes down to the last day, and you then have to get somebody in, it’s not ideal.
“As far as Suarez is concerned, if he is not going to be happy then he has to go.
“We can all say, ‘Yes, we think Suarez is going to be a player like Carlos Tevez who gives 100 per cent no matter what’.
“But we don’t know what his mental state is going to be if he doesn’t get his wish.”