Steven Gerrard has told Luis Suarez a better career move
than Arsenal is inevitable — and submitted as evidence the revelation he
rejected a chance to leave Liverpool for a Champions League club, believed to
be Bayern Munich, only last summer.
The Liverpool captain is being honoured for his 15-year
service with a testimonial against Olympiakos on Saturday, when Suarez is
expected to play at Anfield for the first time since biting Branislav Ivanovic
in April and subsequently publicising his desire to quit the club.
Gerrard himself came close to leaving Liverpool, for
Chelsea in 2004 and 2005, before deciding to remain with his boyhood team. That
commitment did not prevent tentative enquiries from clubs such as Real Madrid
in later years and, Gerrard confessed, another European team only 12 months
ago, while he was recovering from groin trouble.
“I had a chance to leave last year,” said the England
captain. “It was for a club in the Champions League, not a Premier League club,
but I wasn’t tempted. I’ve been through that before.”
Gerrard refused to name the interested club but it is
understood that it came from Bayern, who ended the season as European
champions. Now Gerrard believes that level of interest in a player then aged 32
should be instructive to Suarez.
Arsenal are the only club so far to have bid for the
disillusioned striker and Liverpool will not countenance selling the
26-year-old to a Premier League rival for £40,000,001.
The midfielder explained: “That is the message for Luis.
Move on if you want, further down the line, but a player of his calibre should
wait for the big one to come to him. He deserves to play for one of the best
teams in the world, a Barcelona or a Real Madrid.
“They will come calling for him again. I am hoping from a
biased point of view that he gives us another year and shows us the form he did
last season. Maybe it will be time for him to go next year or the year after. I
don’t think it is the right time for him to go just yet.”
Gerrard admits Liverpool’s prospects of ending a
four-year absence from the Champions League next season rests on the Uruguay
international. “What we can achieve this season depends on whether he stays or
goes in my opinion,” said the midfielder, who fears the divide between
Liverpool and the top four could become permanent without a recovery in the
near future.
“That is my main worry,” the 33-year-old admitted. “I
think that is the main worry for every Liverpool fan. It is no different for me
as a player. The only difference is that I am in a position to do something
about it on the pitch. I am sure all genuine Liverpool fans have that same
concern and worry — that it becomes permanent and we can’t bridge that gap —
but we’ve got to keep fighting.
“I have confidence from looking at the last six months of
last season that we can prove people wrong and break into the top four. But
certain things have got to happen to help us do that and one of them is the
main subject on everyone’s lips — Luis Suarez. If we lose him we are taking
steps backwards. If we keep him and add to him we will have a much better
chance.”
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