Sly ‘ Pistolero ’ Suarez is cleaning up his act
WILL he stay or will he go? That’s the question uppermost in the minds of soccer lovers after Luis Suarez this week cast renewed doubt over his Liverpool future by admitting he would welcome the chance to speak to clubs with more prospects of Champions League football.
Suarez had previously insisted he was prepared to stay at Anfield beyond this season even if Brendan Rodgers’s team failed to secure an unlikely top-four finish that would return Liverpool to the Champions League for the first time since 2009.
However, the 26-year-old, who is on international duty, said this week he was very happy at Anfield but if a club “with more prospects of competing in international club competition games” approached him, “they are very welcome”.
His comments could spark a bidding war for the player who currently tops the Premier League scoring charts with 22 goals.
However, Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said the Uruguayan ’ s comments “may have been a bit lost in translation” and when asked by the BBC if he was 100% confident of keeping hold of Suarez, replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
He added: “We love Luis being at Liverpool, he loves being at Liverpool, and we fully expect him to be at Liverpool next season.”
Suarez, who moved to Anfield for £22.7-million from Ajax Amsterdam in 2011, signed a new long-term deal with Liverpool last year.
Suarez’s agent is Pere Guardiola, the brother of soon-to-be installed Bayern Munich coach Pep, which has led to inevitable media speculation that the player could be tempted to quit England for Germany.
Liverpool ’ s prolonged absence from Europe ’ s money-spinning Champions League could leave them vulnerable to a close-season approach. Suarez, however, has never expressed a desire to leave the club that stood by him when he became embroiled in an ugly racism scandal that resulted in an eight-match ban after he was found guilty of abusing Manchester United ’ s Patrice Evra last season.
Liverpool, seventh in the standings, have slipped out of the running for Champions League spots, trailing fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur by nine points with eight games to play, but still have a slim chance of qualifying for the Europa League.
Meanwhile, Suarez has admitted he has made mistakes on the pitch that have earned him a bad reputation, but the controversial Uruguayan star defended his “slyness ” and “character” in an interview with AFP.
“I have a very strange way of playing football,” Suarez said. “I’m my own most severe critic and I realise when I make mistakes.”
The English Premier League’s top scorer said criticism he has faced has changed the way he acts on the field.
“There are times that I get yellow cards that can influence a game,” he said, adding that for that reason “I have improved and I have to continue” improving a reputation that has cost him fines and bans in his career. Nicknamed “Pistolero, ” Spanish for “Gunslinger,” Suarez has often played the role of villain on the field, notably for his tendency to dive and his clashes with opponents.
He handled the ball to stop a certain Ghana goal in the dying minutes of the 2010 World Cup quarterfinal, he bit an opponent in the Dutch league in the same year and he received the ban for racially abusing Evra in 2011.
“You can lose some things but can never lose the slyness, the passion you have had since you were a kid playing in the street,” Suarez said.
“If I didn’t have the character I have today on the pitch I don’t think I would have become the player I am today, ” he said.
Despite the diving and other controversies, Suarez has become a key player for club and country, but he admits Liverpool are enduring a “difficult moment”.
“We have to realise we have a new manager who is imposing a philosophy and a way of playing that the players are adapting to as best we can,” he said, referring to Rodgers. “We hope it will bear fruit next year.” — The Daily Telegraph London, Reuters and Sapa-AFP