By Chris Wright
Luis Suarez has given an interview to both the Guardian and the Telegraph in which he openly pleaded with Liverpool to honour an agreement (i.e, to let him leave if the club failed to achieve Champions League qualification last season) that was supposedly written into his contract at the beginning of 2012/13.
Suarez said:
“Last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I’d 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 for Liverpool to honour our agreement.
“I don’t feel betrayed [by Liverpool] 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. And it is not just something verbal with the coach but something that is written in the contract. I’m not going to another club to hurt Liverpool.”
“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. Some of [my team-mates] say to me: ‘We cannot understand that if you have it signed [in your contract] that you can’t leave.'”
The full interview is available here and rather than being some huge anti-Liverpool crusade pulled out of the ether by the dastardly English media, it’s all pretty cut-and-dry: the man wants out, pronto.