Liverpool to tell Luis Suarez to stop flirting with Real Madrid and ask for a transfer
Liverpool to tell Luis Suarez to stop flirting with Real Madrid and ask for a transfer
Reds won't fall for any attempt to poison situation so they
accept less than £40m for striker PLUS Aspas, Mkhitaryan, Mignolet
latest
No dummies: Liverpool want the Suarez situation settled quickly either way
John Powell
Angry Liverpool will deliver a put-up-or-shut-up ultimatum to loose-lipped star Luis Suarez.
Weary of the unsettled striker's almost daily public pronouncements on his future, the Anfield giants will now lay down the law and demand he put in an official transfer request if he remains determined to leave.
The
Uruguay international - currently on Confederations Cup duty in Brazil
- has turned what promises to be this summer's biggest transfer saga
into a near farce by offering regular, spectacularly unsubtle, hints
that he is desperate to move to Real Madrid.
Yet there is genuine
bafflement within Anfield about the reasoning behind his comments,
following the latest outburst in which he suggested he has lacked
backing in England, and he would "give his heart and soul" to Real.
Suarez
has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave if an offer
exceeding £40million is made, a fact which makes all of his many and
varied outbursts redundant.
So far though, no interest in the player has been expressed by any club, let alone formal offers made.
Instead
of continuing to snipe at the club, their supporters and the British
media, Liverpool now want Suarez to simply come clean and tell them he
wants to go.
That of course, would mean the player forfeiting any cut of the transfer fee.
Manager
Brendan Rodgers has had enough of the posturing and positioning, and is
now ready to deliver an ultimatum that the situation be sorted quickly.
Rodgers has already spoken to Suarez, making clear Liverpool's position.
They don't want him to leave, but are powerless to prevent him triggering the clause in his contract.
He
will, though, have to ask for a move, and will also need to sort his
future before the club jet off to Asia and Australia in the middle of
next month for a pre-season tour.
A club insider explained on Monday that there is a growing sense of frustration and anger within Anfield.
"Luis will be told - in no uncertain terms - he must put his cards on the table, and do it quickly," the source explained.
"There
is no way Brendan Rodgers will be left high and dry with no options if
Suarez forces a move, so he wants it to be sorted one way or another
before the season begins."
That will mean a time-limit being set
on any deal - and a clear message sent to both the player and the club
he wants to join, Real, that there will be no budging on the price set
out in his contract.
Real have yet to even make an enquiry, and
Suarez's continuing outbursts strongly suggest they are trying to force
the price down by encouraging the player to agitate for a move and make
it impossible for him to stay at Anfield.
Liverpool are wise to that predictable tactic though, and it will not be allowed to happen.
They will consider a player-plus-cash deal, with Spain Under-21 star Alvaro Morata moving to Merseyside as a way of allowing Real to meet the get-out clause.
Morata,
the top scorer at the European U21 Championship currently being held in
Israel, has said he will be forced to leave the Bernabeu if Real buy
either Suarez or Napoli's Edinson Cavani this summer.
The Spanish giants are reluctant to let such a promising youngster leave, though.
If they remain intransigent, Suarez will be told to put in a transfer request on a £40m take-it-or-leave-it transfer.
Rodgers will speak to Suarez again when the Confederations Cup - where he scored a brilliant free-kick in Uruguay's 2-1 loss to Spain on Sunday - ends.
The 26-year-old will be told he must decide his future before the Reds jet out to Indonesia on July 15.
Rodgers returns to the training ground this week, intent on finalising several of the deals he has lined up this summer.
Celta Vigo forward Iago Aspas is expected to be first in, with clearance for his £7million move expected to be given in a matter of days.
Sunderland's Belgium international goalkeeper Simon Mignolet will follow,
with the Anfield club confident they will close out a deal before the
end of the week for a figure of around £9m, and Seville winger Luis
Alberto will also arrive for £5m.
Liverpool also remain strongly contenders for highly-rated Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan,
though they face competition for the £20m-rated star from the likes of
Champions League clubs Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.
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