Luis Suárez has said
he wants to leave Liverpool, but how many clubs can realistically sign
the Uruguayan striker? Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Liverpool's
Luis Suárez broke his silence on Tuesday night,
telling the Guardian that he wants to leave the club and
that he was promised he could so if they failed to qualify for the
Champions League at the end of last season. The striker, who joined the
club in January 2011, says he wants to play in Europe's top competition
next season - "I'm 26. I need to be playing in the Champions League. I
waited one year and no one can say that I did not give everything
possible with my team-mates last season to get us there" - but what are
his options now?
Several clubs have already secured their top
attacking targets and others would struggle to meet to transfer fee and
the players' wage demands. A look at 15 possible destinations makes for
depressing reading (for Suárez at least) with only a few clubs -
maximum four - in a position to sign the player.
The
only club who have made an offer (two actually) for the Uruguayan, the
second bid of £40m plus £1 irritating the Liverpool hierarchy, with
Brendan Rodgers saying that the Gunners had lacked class over
their approach to buy the striker. "My priority is Champions League
football. This is about me doing what is right for my career at this
moment in time," Suárez said on Monday night and added that he would not
mind playing in England "for many more years". Arsenal are the
favourites to sign the Uruguayan - although they could still be knocked
out of the Champions League in the qualifiers – but will they meet
Liverpool's demands? History suggests not and the London club held back
when push came to shove in the pursuit of
Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuaín, who joined Napoli for £32m.
Chelsea
José
Mourinho has so far - publicly at least – targeted Wayne Rooney but
with United turning down a second bid for the England striker over the
weekend, thought to be almost £30m with add-ons included, it is not
impossible that the Portuguese switches his attentions to Suárez. What
would be better value, Rooney for £35m or Suárez for £50m? Most people
would say the Uruguayan, despite all the baggage. Chelsea are in need of
another option up front with Fernando Torres still struggling for form
and Romelu Lukaku inexperienced when it comes to leading the line at a
top club. Demba Ba is also there, of course, but it would be a surprise
if Mourinho did not add to his forward line.
The Manchester clubs
No
and no. Manchester City had a clear strategy this summer and their new
manager, Manuel Pellegrini, secured the signings he and the club wanted
early, learning from last summer's mistakes. They have bought cleverly
and the captures of Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina) and Alvaro Negredo
(Sevilla) ensures that Suárez will not play at the City of Manchester
Stadium next season. City, in addition, already had Sergio Agüero and
Edin Dzeko at the club. United, meanwhile, could potentially go for
Suárez if they sold Rooney but signing the Uruguayan would go against
their current transfer policy and it is unthinkable that Liverpool would
sell to their most bitter of rivals.
Real Madrid
Probably
the club that can offer Suárez most hope of playing Champions League
football next season, together with Arsenal. Everything depends on the
Gareth Bale deal though and the feeling is that Real and Carlo Ancelotti
has decided that the Tottenham Hotspur forward is their man this
summer. Real normally get what they want in the transfer market – apart
from Neymar – and only if the Bale deal collapses will they turn to
Suárez. Liverpool would rather sell to Spain than to Arsenal though,
that is for sure.
Barcelona
Barcelona, too, did their
shopping early and brought in Neymar from Santos for a reported €57m
(£48.6m) and with Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez and Alexis Sánchez
already at the club that means that the road to Catalonia is closed for
Suárez (this summer at least). As for Spain's other Champions League
participants, Atlético Madrid and Real Sociedad, they cannot afford the
Liverpool striker. Atlético could potentially spend most of the Falcao
money on Suárez but that is unlikely as they have already signed David
Villa from Barcelona and, although the fee was far from astronomical,
his wages are not insignificant.
Bayern Munich
The
European champions were linked with a move for Suárez earlier in the
summer but the club chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, said this week that
they had finished their transfer business for the summer. "We will not
make any more signings. The team looks exactly as we want it right now,"
he told Bild. "We brought in Götze as we believe he is the biggest
talent in Germany and Europe in his age group, as well as Thiago
[Alcântara]." Bayern appear to be a little short up front with Mario
Gomez having joined Fiorentina but playing with one forward, or none for
that matter, that has not been a problem for Pep Guardiola before.
Borussia Dortmund
The
second best team in Europe are not going for Suárez either. It is
simply not their policy to buy players at the top end of the market.
They buy cheap and sell expensively (or don't sell at all as the Robert
Lewandowski case shows) with Shinji Kagawa the prime example. He joined
for €350,000 in 2010 and joined Manchester United two years later for
£17m.
Paris St-Germain
The Parisians certainly have the
financial clout to sign Suárez but they, like Manchester City, appear to
have finished their shopping for the summer, at least when it comes to
attacking-minded players. Their forward line is already, arguably, the
strongest in Europe – if not the world – with Edinson Cavani having
joined Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ezequietl Lavezzi in an expensive and
star-studded line-up. Add the fact that Lucas Moura and Javier Pastore
will contribute with goals from attacking positions in midfield and it
is clear that Suárez is not heading for Paris.
Monaco
The
French Ligue 1 newcomers should not even be an option for Suárez as he
has stated Champions League football as the reason for leaving Liverpool
- and Monaco cannot offer that this upcoming season (as can't
Tottenham, for example). They have the financial clout to sign him,
though, and have already secured the services of Radamel Falcao from
Atlético Madrid for a club record £53m. The rest of the strike force is
comparatively low-key compared to their marquee signing - who scored an
incredible 52 league goals in 67 games during the past two seasons for
Atlético – and it is not wholly implausible that the club's Russian
billionaire owner, Dmitry Ryblovlev, opens his wallet again. But it is
highly, highly unlikely.
The Milan clubs
No chance. They
simply do not have the financial power to compete with the rest of the
top clubs at the moment. Milan have been a selling club for a while now –
when it comes to the big names – with Zlatan Ibrahimovic's and Thiago
Silva's move to PSG last summer a clear indication of where they are at
the moment. Inter are arguably in a worse position than their city
rivals with the owner Massimo Moratti saying this week that investment
from the Indonesian tycoon Erick Thohir may be necessary to ensure that
the club can continue to compete at the highest level. Juventus,
equally, is not an option for Suárez as their budget, too, is restricted
and the Italian champions have already brought in Carlos Tevez and
Fernando Llorente.
Napoli
Rafael Benitéz's new club have
money to spend after that extraordinary transfer of Edinson Cavani to
PSG for a reported £55m but more than half of that (£32m) has been spent
on Higuaín while the Spaniard manager has also brought in Raúl Albiol
(Real Madrid, £10.6m), Dries Martens (PSV, £8.5m) and José María
Callejón (Real, £8.4m). There will be no more major signings arriving at
the Stadio San Paolo this summer.
Galatasaray
The Turkish
club could conceivably have been an option for Suárez as they showed
with the signings of Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder in January that
they are not afraid to make marquee signings. "Big clubs can only reach
their goals by signing high-profile players," the club president, Unal
Aysal, said at the time. But to think that their budget would stretch to
a £50m transfer fee plus the players' wages would be fanciful to say
the least.
Anzhi Makhachkala
Only a few weeks ago, the
Dagestan club would have been on a list of clubs who could afford to
sign Suárez but this week the owner Suleiman Kerimov seems to have given
up on his grand project and they are reportedly willing to offload most
of their high-profile stars, including Samuel Eto'o and Lassana Diarra.
In addition, the former Manchester United coach René Meulensteen is
reportedly about the get the sack, only two weeks after joining the
club, and be replaced by Gadzhi Gadzhiyev.
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