Goodbye, soon?
“To sign a new contract with Liverpool is
unbelievable for me because I am happy here at both the club and also in the
city. That is important for me and I am very happy with my new contract. When
you are a kid, everybody wants to play for Liverpool. I am here now and it is a
dream for me, and now I am a Liverpool fan.”
--- August 8, 2012, after Luis Suarez
signed a new long-term deal with the club
“I am very happy at Liverpool but you never
know in football. A player’s ambition is always there, the ambition of wanting
to play in elite teams is always there. I’m in a world-class team, an elite
team like Liverpool. 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. We hope it will bear fruit next year. If another team comes around with
more prospects of competing in international club competition games, which is
willing to have me, they are welcome. We would talk to the club. We would see
if I want to go, if I don’t want to go.”
--- March 20, 2013
So the rumours have started again. They are
inevitable. Luis Suarez could consider leaving Liverpool. Luis Suarez wants
Champions League football (obviously). Luis Suarez could be gone in the summer.
Yada yada yada.
I know there could be a lot of tactics at
play: there are a lot of possibilities. Such things always arise before the
summer transfer window (although that is quite some time away right now).
Things are said to gauge how popular or wanted a top-quality player is, to see
what price another top-class club would want to shell out for his services, to drive
up his price by a few millions, to enable him to get a bigger pay packet from
his future employers, to lead his current employers to give him an even more
lavish contract and perks, among other things. Football is funny that way.
Managers and agents indulge in such behaviour quite frequently, something most
of us fans are now used to.
Suarez could leave in the summer. For
Bayern Munich or Juventus or another top-level club that can afford his
services and offer him European football. Suarez could stay at Anfield and
honour his contract that runs until 2017. Suarez is ambitious, a player like
him should be lighting up elite competitions. He can work magic with his feet
everywhere. Despite his unlikeable nature/character, any sane fan would love to
have him in her football team – he is THAT good. Being a Liverpool fan, I would
evidently want him to stay. I have grown quite fond of him, of that
buck-toothed smile, the kissing-the-wrist goal celebration, the glorious free
kicks and moments of magic, the wildness that at times descends and clouds his
characters. Suarez has been a saviour, scoring goals from every conceivable
angle. Suarez has quickly become the Kop’s new favourite – the No. 7 born to
dazzle and please. This is exactly what I am worried about – another heartbreak
if (and when, for he will surely make an exit) he were to leave the club.
After Torres’s rather acrimonious departure
for the Londoners, I had wallowed in grief and pity for quite a while. I even
promised that I would never, ever subject myself to such torture again – that I
would never grow so emotionally attached with another footballer. Because, in
the end, most of them are mercenaries. And ambitious, as well. It would be
impractical to expect them to be otherwise. Tomorrow, if someone were to offer
me more wages and ask me to move to a bigger company, where I would be sure of
going places, I would readily agree. So I cannot blame them. If Suarez were to
move, I would understand his decision of leaving the club. But the feeling of
being disappointed and hurt once again would persist. It would be another
heartbreak, something I am not ready for.
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