The Sunday Times reckon that both Barcelona and Real Madrid are prepared to pay €85million for the striker.
The longest running transfer saga of last summer centred on Luis Suarez and whether he would stay at Liverpool or leave for pastures new. In the end, the Uruguayan stayed at Anfield, scored a hatful of goals to propel Liverpool into Europe and picked up the Player of the Year prize to boot.
With Liverpool now in the Champions League, fans would have hoped that any talk of an exit would not reappear this summer but a report in today’s Sunday Times, by Duncan Castles, says that the striker will ask to leave so he can complete a ‘long held ambition’ to play in Spain.
The report says that Suarez has a release clause of £67.9million (€85million) in his contract and both Barcelona and Real Madrid are prepared to meet that fee. The article goes on to say that sources close to Suarez say that Suarez was upset that Brendan Rodgers said the team didn’t miss the striker when he was banned for the first five games of the season. The decision by the owners to renege on his contractual clause to leave if the club did not make the Champions League last season has also been ‘not forgiven’ by the player.
Because of where Suarez’ wife’s family live, Barcelona are leading the chase, according to the report.
Whether this is the beginning of another long saga remains to be seen but John Henry held off all the suitors last summer. Let’s see if they can repeat the trick this time around.
