Luis Suarez: Money or Honour

No matter which way you cut it Luis Suarez worth to Liverpool cannot be understated even after such a deplorable act.  Can or more to the point will Liverpool throw away a player who is one of the world’s great players with in his market value soaring from anything between £60/100 million.

After the rocky years of Hicks and Gillet and the club now on its uppers the question is can Liverpool afford to banish the player and loose millions in the transfer market or keep him and loose face in the eyes of not only the footballing public, but the wider world as the incident moved football from the back to the front page.

 

Suarez cries wolf

Suarez owes Liverpool a huge debt of gratitude,  not just for supporting him through the disgraceful incidents with Patrice Evra and Branislav Ivanovic, but for buying him in the first place after his original suspension for biting while at Ajax.

 

Liverpool has always prided itself on its ethics and ethos, but our current number 7 is stretching the club and Brendan Rogers public support to the point of ridicule and embarrassment.  

 

But in the cold light of day, money has always been the driving force which guides morals in football and one only has to look at FIFA and the alleged misdemeanours over the World Cup bids to see the lack of scruples throughout the game.

Top quality transfers the order of the day as the future is now

I guess we all have that uneasy feeling.   That feeling where are expectations levels have been heightened after finishing such a close second, only to be dampened with our transfer activity grinding to a holt since the pre-World Cup transfers of Rickie Lambert and Emre Can. Nervousness is abound.

Brendan Rogers is making all the right noises. 

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo he said, “What we do need to do to ensure we kick on? We need to ensure we continue with our thinking in terms of the types of players we're going to bring in.”

 

“We want to bring players in who are hungry. They must have the ambition to want to come in and succeed here.

 

“We need players who there can be no doubts about their quality.

 

“We're in a position now where we're going straight into the group stage of the Champions League and we’re going into the Premier League next season with an expectation and a belief that we can win the league.

 

“We need players that have those qualities. That belief, players who are willing to improve and who are hungry to improve themselves.

 

“If we can get a number of signings with that profile then we can go on and build on last season.”
 

We all know player’s prices ramp up exponentially after a decent World Cup, but inflationary prices or not we need to bring in more top quality to Anfield.  We are in the perfect position to judge the type of quality needed having just missed out on the Premiership.

Rogers has to get it right in this transfer window

Keeping Suarez is a must.  Undoubtedly the foremost striker in world football, adding a top quality midfield general, a  left-back, centre-half and a winger would certainly give us that strength in depth required.   I believe Liverpool should’ve made a statement by buying in a top class player before the World Cup.

Suddenly, we are under pressure with Barcelona and Real Madrid allegedly hovering over our marquee player.   Once again we are having to listen to the usual summer diatribe that the Uruguayan wants to and is instigating a move the Spanish giants.  

 

As tiresome as this is we cannot afford to let him go (unless it is for a near world record fee) having come so close to winning the Premiership.   I believe it is more important that we show our intentions in the transfer market, by bringing in the talent we need and working as close to the limit of the Financial Fair Play boundaries as possible without putting the club in danger.

If we do keep Suarez, this is almost certainly the last season he’ll stay without winning the Premiership or the Champions League and in fact we could lose him even if we do win the Premiership or the 'Cup with the Big Ears'.

If we’ve learned anything from the last pre-season window it’s that to make the required leap you need players who can hit the ground running.  In hindsight, the relatively large sums spent on Aspas and Alberto who were brought in as first team squad members cost Rodgers in the long run, especially Aspas.

When the chips were down and Liverpool reaching the season’s nadir, Alberto (£6 million) was considered not ready; Aspas (£9 million) was considered not good enough and Illori (£8 million) was sent on sent out on loan to Gatafe.    All three play in areas where we required support.

We finally have enough young talent coming through after a decade and yes we must look to the future, but right now we need to think in the present because it will be a catastrophe should we finish outside the top four and as such we have to consolidate and move forward in the same season.

A poem by Hillsborough survivor Stuart Littlewood

As a lifelong supporter of the Reds there have been many seminal moments, the majority good and some bad, some sad. Hillsborough was one of the bad moments. Very bad moments.

But even out of tragedy, positives can be gained. The Dalai Lamai once said, "There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.'  No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster."
 
The positive for me was meeting Stuart Littlewood, a Hillsborough survivor, and his partner Susan after the Celebration of the 96 Memorial match on 21 April 2014. As many times as one sees the harrowing scenes on television and the news reports on the inquest, talking to someone who was actually there gives one a first hand and privileged picture of that day, April 15 1989.
 
Stuart sent me a short poem he touchingly wrote 23 years ago, about how close he came to dying that day and in that moment he was aware of fellow supporters dying around him. It also explains the guilt Stuart felt about his own survival.

The poem was first published in the Hillsborough Interlink magazine on April 15^th 1991. Stuart has kindly given permission for us to reproduce his poem:

Held like a baby in the arms of a proud father,
Held so tightly, unable to move.
Short of breath, am I so close to death?
I see pain in people's faces, they reach out for me
It's their last breath.
I give up on life, I can't hold on anymore,
Like a drowning man I'm pulled ashore.
I'm not sure whether I'm grateful.
I wish the 15^th April was fateful for me.
I've suffered too much pain…
To come away from Hillsborough with my life,
Was no gain

The hope is that through the inquest the families of the 96 and the survivors and their families are healed to the extent where they get closure. As the author Dr Irving Yalom once said, "If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic."