Barca close in on Suarez with £70m cash bid

LONDON: Luis Suárez is close to sealing his preferred move to Barcelona after the Catalan club held a “productive” first meeting with Liverpool and offered around £70m for the controversial forward.

Barcelona’s determination to clinch a deal for the Uruguayan was confirmed during talks between their director of football management, Raul Sanllehi, and Liverpool’s chief executive, Ian Ayre, in London on Wednesday. Rather than seek a drastically reduced fee for a player banned for four months for biting the Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, Sanllehi’s opening bid was in the region of £70m.

The fee falls short of Liverpool’s initial £80m valuation, and has not been accepted, but both sides appear convinced a deal can be done after their face-to-face negotiations over the 27-year-old. Barcelona are believed to be willing to pay a straight cash sum for Suarez or to include Alexis Sanchez as a makeweight, as Liverpool had requested.

However, the Chile international has given no indication he wants to move to Anfield and Suárez’s transfer is unlikely to be concluded until the winger has decided whether to join Liverpool, another European club or to stay at Camp Nou.

A second round of talks has not been scheduled but negotiations will continue over the coming days, with Liverpool close to getting their asking price for Suárez after cordial and constructive talks with the delegation from Barcelona. A Liverpool source said: “The talks were productive. There were sen- sible expectations on both sides and there will be further discussions to take place. But nothing is finalised as of now.”

Suarez is banned following the bite on Chiellini, subject to an appeal from the Uruguay foot- ball association, but a transfer is allowed in that period.

Liverpool will now await an answer from Sanchez, and hold further dialogue with Sanllehi, before finalising the terms of Suarez’s long-held desire to move to a Spanish club. His wife’s family are based in Barcelona and that has influenced his preference to join a rebuilding job under Luis Enrique rather than a move to Real Madrid.

Suarez signed a contract extension until 2018 worth £200,000 a week with Liverpool in December, albeit with a release clause designed to eradicate the problems that erupted over his thwarted attempt to sign for Arsenal 12 months ago.