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Arsenal Agree Five-Year Deal Worth £150k-Per-Week With Luis Suarez
Arsenal’s move for Luis Suarez gathered pace on Tuesday night after we submitted a formal £40m + £1 offer to activate a clause in the strikers contract. While Liverpool have rejected the bid, they were duty-bound to inform the player of our interest and gave him permission to hold talks with us.
It seems those talks have been swift as the Daily Mail are reporting that we’ve already agreed terms with the striker, with a five-year contract worth £150,000-a-week agreed in principal. In all likelihood, terms were probably already agreed weeks ago but ‘officially’ we shouldn’t have been discussing such matters until we were given permission from Liverpool. Unfortunately this is just how modern day transfers work.
All that remains is to find an agreement with Liverpool. That’s clearly going to be the difficult part as the Merseysiders are determined to hang on to the Uruguayan hitman and have hinted it will take upward of £55m to persuade them to sell. I really don’t see Arsenal paying that much so it looks like the player may have to force a move.
This is why bidding £1 over £40m was necessary. I think all we wanted was the official go-ahead to be able to hold talks with Suarez so we could try and persuade him to hand in a transfer request in the hope that Liverpool would then lower their demands.
There has also been the suggestion in the Guardian that Arsenal were lead to believe that bidding anything above £40m would act as a buy-out clause. The newspaper claims that legal proceedings could now follow if we feel we have a strong enough case and the exact wording of Suarez’s contract will now be scrutinised over.
I really hope we can avoid any form of legal proceedings as that’s sure to be a long, drawn-out affair that won’t be good for anyone.
So the ball now looks to be in Suarez’s court. I don’t see us paying what Liverpool want as it stands so the striker is going to have to force a move or hand in a transfer request to bring the asking price down. The big problem we face is that should Suarez refuse to do so, we’re going to be left in a tricky situation.
Gonzalo Higuain looks like his move to Napoli is almost complete and not only does this mean we’ve missed out on a potential target, but it also means Real Madrid will be armed with the funds they need to make a move for Suarez. I think it’s safe to say the striker, and Liverpool, would favour a move to the Spanish capital so it could all end very badly for us if Carlo Ancelotti decides to enter the bidding.
Fingers crossed they go all-out for Gareth Bale and leave us with a free run at Suarez, otherwise we could be in trouble and that marquee striker could elude us once again this summer.
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What do you make of the whole Suarez situation?
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