Suarez Confirms Desire To Leave Liverpool For Arsenal In Stunning Interview

With the summer transfer window now open, there is plenty of gossip doing the rounds in the newspapers so we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest transfer rumours. Today, Luis Suarez opens up about why he wants to leave Liverpool.

Liverpool have been rocked by a sensational interview that Luis Suarez has given to the Telegraph where he confirmed he wants to leave the club to join Arsenal and insists the Merseysiders have to honor their word and let him leave.

One of this summers long-running transfer saga’s took a twist last night when the Uruguayan broke his silence and gave a lengthy interview detailing the reasons he wants to leave Liverpool, with playing in the Champions League at the heart of his decision.

Suarez told Telegraph Sport that he feels he’s been left with no choice but to speak out after failing in his attempts to persuade Liverpool to let him leave to join Arsenal, and he’s now ready to hand in a transfer request by the end of the week if the Reds don’t change their stance.

The striker revealed that he turned down the chance to join a ‘big European club’ last summer on the understanding that he’d be allowed to leave if the Reds failed to finish in the top-four, and he’s made it clear to boss Brendan Rodgers that he wants out this summer. He told the Telegraph:

“I want to move to play in the Champions League and there is a club offering me that opportunity,” he said. “I have told the manager that I want to leave the club.

“I am being accused of showing a lack of loyalty but last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we did not qualify for the Champions League the following season then I would be allowed to go.

“I gave absolutely everything last season but it was not enough to give us a top-four finish. Now all I want is that Liverpool honour our agreement.

“Last season, we told Liverpool there was interest from a top European club but they told me: ‘we have a new coach, we are going to push for the Champions League’.

“I spoke with Brendan Rodgers several times and he told me: ‘stay another season, and you have my word, if we don’t make it then I will personally make sure that you can leave’.

“Liverpool is a club with a reputation for doing things the right way, I just want them to abide by the promises made last season.”

The 26-year-old also claims he has both a written and verbal agreement with Liverpool that he would be allowed to leave this summer if they failed to qualify for the Champions League, and is frustrated that the club have decided to renege on that agreement and he’s willing to take the case to the Premier League, claiming he has the full backing of the PFA. He continued:

“I have the club’s word and we have the written contract and we are happy to take this to the Premier League for them to decide the case but I do not want it to come to that. We have the backing of the PFA.”

Suarez signed a new contract last summer tying him to the club until 2016 after Liverpool had stuck by him during his racism case with Patrice Evra and the striker feels that after turning down the chance to leave last summer, it’s time the club held up their end of the bargain and allowed him to leave.

“That was the moment to show my loyalty to Liverpool and I did. They had given me my chance in England and stood up for me through my ban. I know I have made mistakes in my time here but I have apologised many times over. This is not about that. This is about the club having agreed to something both verbally and in the contract which they are now not honouring.”

“I am 26, I need to be playing in the Champions League. I feel I have done enough to be playing in the Champions League at this stage of my career. Now there is an option for me to do that and I want very much to take it.

“I don’t feel betrayed but the club promised me something a year ago just as I promised them that I would stay and try everything possible to get us into the Champions League.

“They gave me their word a year ago and now I want them to honour that. It is not just something verbal with the coach but something that is written in the contract.

“I don’t think the supporters are angry, I think they understand a player when he has the ambition to triumph at the highest level. I was a long time at Ajax without playing many games in the Champions League. I’m not going to another club to hurt Liverpool.

“I am always going to be grateful to Liverpool for everything. But I have to put my career first. People say Liverpool deserve more from me but I have scored 50 goals in less than 100 games and now I could double the money they paid for me.

“I just ask that they respect the objectives I have in my career. I don’t want things to end badly. I just want us to come to an amicable agreement according to what was agreed.”

Suarez was heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid and some have suggested he’ll use a move to Arsenal as a stepping stone for a move to Spain in the near future. However, the striker has claimed he wants to stay in England for ‘many more years’. He continued:

“Right now the Premier League is the biggest and most important. My record shows that I am not the kind of player who wants to change clubs every season.

“I have no problem playing in England for many more years. If we are just talking about the level of the football and the way the supporters are then it is an incredible league. Any player in the world at the moment would like to play in the Premier League.”

It’s also been questioned why Suarez wants to join Arsenal after citing his poor relationship with the British press as a reason why he wants to leave Liverpool earlier in the summer, but the striker insists he was only answering a question honestly but understands there would press attention from the media wherever he played.

“I had just arrived in Uruguay where the press are very good to me because I am one of theirs,” he says.

“They asked me about the press in England and what am I going to say? Of course I don’t like the fact that my wife goes to the supermarket and there are photographers. But I realise that the press attention is the same wherever you go.”

So Suarez has finally spoken out and given an lengthy explanation over why he wants to leave Liverpool and he seems confident he has an agreement in his contract that allows him to do so. It makes you wonder why Liverpool are adamant he doesn’t, they can’t both be right!

Although he never actually names Arsenal in his quotes, the Telegraph suggest his comments were in response to questions about moving to Arsenal. So when he said ‘a club is giving me the chance to play in the Champions League and I very much want to take it’, he was talking about the Gunners.

His position at Liverpool is surely untenable now following this outburst? It’s similar to the statement Robin van Persie released last summer when he forced a move to Manchester United. I bet the Gunners fans are thankful to be on the other end of it this time around!

It’s going to be interesting to see Liverpool’s response to this. Over to you…..

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