Arsenal

Suarez Admits Defeat In ‘Buy-Out’ Clause Conflict – Arsenal Must Now Pay £55m

Arsenal have received a blow in their pursuit of Luis Suarez after the Liverpool striker admitted defeat in a dispute with the club over his ‘buy-out’ clause.

by
Transfer News Reporter
July 31, 2013

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, Arsenal’s hopes of signing Luis Suarez have been dashed.

Arsenal have received a huge blow in their pursuit of Luis Suarez after the Liverpool striker admitted defeat in his dispute with the club over a supposed ‘buy-out’ clause, according to the Mirror.

The report claims that the Gunners submitted a bid of £40,000,001 last week on the advice of Suarez’s advisers who claimed that figure would be enough to trigger an automatic release clause in the strikers contract. Liverpool firmly reject that stance and dismissed the bid immediately, which lead to a stalemate with the striker threatening to take the case to a Premier League arbitration hearing to settle the dispute.

However, the Mirror report today that Suarez has now accepted that the key clause in his contract is NOT a buy-out clause as it clearly states in his contract that the Merseysiders have no obligation to sell at any price.

An apparent source close to Liverpool’s American owners told the Mirror:

“We are 100 per cent confident – there is absolutely no obligation to sell and that is very clear,”

“We’ve all examined the clause in detail. All it obliges is good faith negotiations about Luis’s future.”

The newspaper suggests that Liverpool will now demand in the region of £55m for the 26-year-old but there is no guarantee they’ll agree to sell to Arsenal even at that price such is their determination not to sell to a domestic rival.

This news will come as a bitter blow to Arsene Wenger as he battles to try and bring in some marquee names this summer, and it seems he may have been given false hope by Suarez and/or his advisers about the validity of the clause.

It leaves the situation finely balanced and Suarez must now decide how much he really wants to leave Anfield this summer. He still has the option of submitting a formal transfer request to try and force through a move but that would mean he gives up lucrative loyalty bonuses, so it remains to be seen whether this is a step he’s willing to take.

If Arsenal fail to agree a fee with Liverpool, the likelihood is Suarez will be forced to stay at Anfield unless a foreign club comes in before the transfer window closes, with the Reds likely to be far more receptive to a foreign buyer.

What do you make of the Suarez situation? Share your views below.