Luis Suarez transfer plea changes nothing for Arsenal – yet

Luis Suarez has demanded to leave Liverpool.

Clearly this is a hammer blow to Reds’ fans and the club, who seemed to harbour some misguided hope that one of the world’s top footballers would buy in to another year of the ‘Rodgers project’.

While Liverpool’s prospects for the coming season may be as good as most others, the fact remains that they will not be competing at the highest level and, let’s be honest, they haven’t for some time.

In his explosive interview, Suarez pleaded with his employers to allow him to join the club ‘offering him the chance to play Champions League football’. That would be Arsenal – the only club to have made an official bid.

So what does this ‘revelation’ mean for the Gunners?

Suarez insists he has the backing of the PFA. He claims he had assurances, both verbally and contractually, that he would be allowed to leave should another club bid over £40m for his services. He says he’s ready to hand in a transfer request should the situation not be resolved by the end of the week.

Advantage Arsenal, right? Not really.

Should no other club come in for Suarez, Liverpool will be forced to deal with Arsenal

The situation – for the Gunners anyway – still hinges on the validity of this mystery release clause (presumably written in some kind of Elvish).

Liverpool have always known Suarez wanted to quit and they have always known his camp encouraged Arsenal to make the £40,000,001 offer; but they remained publicly adamant that this supposed ‘get out clause’ holds no legal water, and that the player will not go – to the Emirates, at least.

For a club/business of Liverpool’s size to be mistaken over this issue would be almost incomprehensible and beyond embarrassing, so it’s highly likely they’re still holding all the cards in this stand-off.

The fact Suarez has himself gone public with what the club already knew will not alter Liverpool’s valuation of him, nor will it make the concept of selling to a direct rival any more appealing.

What Suarez’s interview has done is make his position at Anfield pretty much untenable and I’d imagine Liverpool will now desperately be trying to find a buyer on the continent (probably at a knockdown price) to avoid the unpalatable situation of being forced to sell to Arsenal in the last few weeks of the window.

Let’s be clear. Liverpool, like any other club, can’t afford to keep an asset as valuable as Suarez at the club in a non-playing capacity, so the fans’ dream of seeing him rot in the reserves is exactly that – a dream.

Should no other club come in for Suarez, Liverpool will be forced to deal with Arsenal and may be able to extract an extra £2-3m out of the Gunners, but will get nowhere near their £55m valuation.

That, however, will be a last resort and neither club will have any desire to drag this saga to that point, so while tale-telling may have made Suarez’s stay at Anfield impossible, it’s this contentious clause that still holds the immediate key as far as Arsenal are concerned.