Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has set out to establish who is the real boss and has stated that matters regarding Luis Suarez are very much in the hands of the club. He has insisted that the club would like to retain its star striker and that Suarez is very much part of Rodgers future plans. His exact words were
“It’s quite simple, the club is in complete control of the situation. We have a player we don’t want to lose. There’s no real change. He’s away with Uruguay and we’re messaging.”
Rodgers’ actual fears are that Real Madrid would not move for Suarez early enough and provide Liverpool with the opportunity to find an adequate replacement. Instead Real would wait to act at the last moment and a repeat scenario of Micheal Owen would happen. In 2004, Real made a late bid for Owen and the Merseyside club were forced to part ways with their striker for a fee of £8m, which represented only a part of Owen’s true value. Real are in no mood to comply with Suarez’s wage wish of £120k per week and are thus waiting for the last minute. But after Rodgers’ strong words, it is believed that Real would not further delay the proceedings and would soon table a bid to land Suarez.
Rodgers has also mentioned that he is very pleased with the club’s early transfer activity and has revealed that the club had made extensive scouting for the past six months before finalising their targets.
“There has been a lot of great work gone on over the last six months,” mentioned Rodgers. “We wanted to get as much of our work done as early as we possibly could for the summer so we could get the group back in and get the players together as quickly as we can.”
He has also spoken highly of his new recruit Luis Alberto, who completed his move yesterday from Sevilla on a long term contract. He has drawn comparisons to his January signing Coutinho while talking with talkSPORT
“He’s another Coutinho-type. Young Luis is exactly the same – a talented, very highly rated young player when he was at Sevilla but obviously spent last season at Barcelona B. He’s a big talent and one for now that can play. He’s got competitive games behind him and is one we see progressing over the next few years. Importantly, he knows the type of game and model we’re trying to work in.”