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Revealed: Wenger Turned Down Chance To Sign Suarez In The Summer

By on February 7, 2014

Some interesting reports have emerged today that claim Arsene Wenger rejected the chance to sign Luis Suarez in the summer because Liverpool were asking for Theo Walcott as well as £40m in cash.

Everybody will remember our pursuit of Suarez in the summer that culminated in us submitting a rather embarrassing £40,000,001 offer after being wrongly led to believe that the extra £1 would trigger the players buy-out clause.

Suarez went public with his desire to leave Anfield and join Arsenal but Liverpool were adamant he wouldn’t be sold at any price, especially not to a domestic rival.

However, Goal are reporting today that the Merseysiders came to us during the final days of the summer window and proposed a player-plus-cash swap deal that involved Theo Walcott plus £40m. Wenger refused to sanction such a deal as it meant giving up Walcott – who he valued at at least £25m – making the entire deal worth £65m.

As it turns out, £65m for Suarez would have represented a decent piece of business had we paid that in cash. However, with Liverpool insisting on having Walcott in exchange, there was no chance a deal would be agreed.

Suarez has gone on to sign a new long-term contract at Anfield that now includes a ‘water tight’ buy-out clause that could see the Uruguayan leave for around £70m, but only to a foreign club should Liverpool fail to finish in the top-four this season.

Wenger insisted at his press conference on Thursday that he has no regrets over his failure to land Suarez and ruled out making another bid to sign him this summer.

While I would have loved to see us sign the controversial striker, I don’t blame Arsene for rejecting their swap deal. We ended up signing Mesut Ozil and we’re sitting pretty at the top of the league, so it hasn’t turned out too badly for us.

Obviously we could do with more depth up front and Suarez would clearly make us stronger, but I think it’s safe to stay that that ship has sailed.

Would you have accepted the swap deal? Are you disappointed we missed out on Suarez?

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