Luis Suarez Joins LFC

By: Noel | January 28th, 2011

So, people, turns out you can stop burning those Torres shirts in the street, as Chelsea coming in with a bid Liverpool could never accept with four days left in the January market even if Roman Abramovich had added a one to the front of it meant–and means–Torres isn’t leaving in the January market, full stop. And now the club has officially announced a deal with Ajax to acquire Luis Suarez for just over 26 million Euros, or about 22 million pounds. Which is, you know, kind of a signal of intent. The sort of intent I recall a few complaining the club weren’t showing even when the Hodgson situation at the start of the month had possibly suggested a little patience might be in order. Well, on with the show, then. Lots of video to drool over is below the fold…

Since Torres is staying, and now Suarez is coming, how about we turn those sportswear bonfires into roasted marshmallow-cooking celebration bonfires? Sound good? And all it took was for me to spend a foolish amount of time putting together one of my old school attempts at a weighty tactics post that I haven’t done in a little while–because they’re pains in the ass to write and edit and take twice as much time per word as anything else I put up–so that it could immediately be buried by Torres fears and Suarez revelations. Well, hell, if I’d known that’s all it would take to land the fiesty Uruguayan, I would have done it sooner.

But anyhow, Suarez is here, so let’s all get oiled up and dance to techno! Oh, wait, that’s just the obligatory soundtrack to his Youtube Top 50 Goals video. Well, that’s good, too:

And, because goal compilations don’t really tell you a lot, for those with more time here are three “every touch in the match” compilations, the first against poor sisters of the Dutch league Den Haag, the second against Dutch champions FC Twente, and the third against AC Milan in the Champions League. Just so that you can have all your bases covered:

There, now you know who Luis Suarez is. And Luis Suarez is now a Liverpool player. Did I say “Woo!” yet?

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Premier League, Team News, Transfer News

« Nobody’s Going Anywhere. Deal With It. | Home | Breaking Transfer News: Chelsea Offside to Write Another Story About Fernando Torres »

dsm9412

Certainly the transfer fee is a little high, but as can always be invoked in these circumstances, it's not my money.
adam james

Theory: Both Torres and suarez share the same agent, (pep guardiloa's brother), maybe to push the suarez deal through the agent recommended torres to put the owners on wearly feet and say he wanted to go, now the deal for suarez is almost complete, this agent will now get a good percentage of this transfer and torres will come out and commit his future. (its all buisness on the agents side).
Ed

Or apparently I'll spend the rest of my time at work clicking refresh on Twitter as rumors of a Fernando Torres verbal transfer request spread.
Noel

Twitter is like tossing chum to sharks. The way it's making me despair for humanity as I watch people I used to think of as sane behave as if civilisation has just collapsed and it's time to start the riots is making me feel old. Damn kids and their social media and acting like overexcited five year olds eating sugar by the fistful.
Ed

My new favorite thing is typing in the search bar whatever the controversy of the day is about and reading people's comments--"teleprompter" on the night of the State of the Union was particularly mind-blowing.

But when it's about Torres, I take that shit seriously.
Noel

Meh, much as I think Barrett's a solid journo, nothing in the Times article actually says anything new that wasn't already floating around. We already saw how much of a clue all the supposed experts had with the Suarez saga, with for the first time in the history of the internet the club's official site being the one that broke the story. Throw in that after the shit he's put up for the last few years, Torres requesting a transfer with three days left in the window on the same day the club's new owners signal that they'll actually try to deliver on the promises he's been waiting around for by breaking the club transfer record he set and bringing it the biggest name of the window to support him? Excuse me while I shake my head in mild annoyance at the general idiocy.

Doesn't mean something can never happen, of course, but come on people.
GalahadThreepwood

Ahhh, I spend a lot of time on Twitter too, and the rumor mill is beyond belief. Remember when a Twitter rumor spread that there was an impromptu meeting being held about Roy's job? All because Ryan Babel tweeted "CEO meeting today"--about his stupid rap company. Twitter's fun, but not very reliable. Torres isn't going anywhere.
Rosco

As long as he devoures Paul scholes' jugular, I'll consider it a good singing.

Many welcomes you Uruguayan striking cannabill bastard.

In the nicest possible sense
RussellR

Thats the exact spelling out of my feelings.
Ed

Well I'll be fucked, that turned out to be quite a nice day. Even better, I'm headed home to take a nap, play video games, drink beer, and put up another post late tonight that makes little sense.
Desailly

Great bit of business for Liverpool.
Looks like the ideal future replacement for Reina IMHO.
Mike

I'm disappointed in how long it took me to get this.
INCABRUCE

what will his song be?
Justin

This feels like Christmas.
Justin

INTENSITY!!!
Red2death

Wow, I must say especially after watching that Milan clip, we've inherited a player with a face and attitude almost as irritating as one Christiano Ronaldo.

No doubt he'll get his fair share of kicks, yellow cards, accusations of diving/simulation.

But hey, if he's half as good as that petulant Portuguese, at least we'll have a top class player.
Jesse Rai

its onnnn like donkey kong!!! Torres + Suarez + Meireles + Gerrard = DESTRUCTION!!!!
Tom Foolery

Yup, I'd put Luis on the left for Maxi, and Gerrard for Kuyt. Of course, then Stevie would have to show defensive capabilities like Dirk, and we'd see more Poulsen or Spearing in the center. Or, we sign Adam...and all our worries are over, or something like that....
I'm not much for speculating, but we could see this in Feb:
Reina
JohnsonSkrtleAggerWarnock
Lucas
Raul Adam
Gerrard Suarez
Torres
I could dig it.
Eddie

give him the number 7 shirt!
Mike

Best hangover news ever.
Pyro

Hahaahah SAME!
Jake_LFC

Woo!

So this means Torres wouldn't go anywhere, right? RIGHT?
Red2death

Pure guesswork would be that Torres had something to do with it. There are reports floating around saying he told Liverpool to sit down and discuss his future with Chelsea. Maybe they're completely false, but it could also be that he did make such a decision as a way to force FSG's hand - either show some intent or I'm out of here.

Given that situation, it would be easier to see how they could go from a 12m bid to 22m in the space of a few days. I still doubt they value Suarez at 22m even though they're paying it, but if Torres was part of the equation, that would justify the quick hike.
Noel

I'm still convinced it was £12.6M cash + £5.6M Babel = £18.2M total. That's what accepting the bid from Hoffenheim was all about, because obviously Ajax didn't agree he was worth that much. Then, when it was proven he was worth that much, they didn't want him/couldn't afford him, but that took a week to sort out. So a £4.5M bump is still a lot--I always figured £18-20M cash would get it done--but not quite as monstrous, and recall that every bit of leaked news was coming from Ajax.
Red2death

Same here. I thought 18m cash would be the eventual end point if a deal was struck. So, if Ajax had valued him at 18.2m (12.6m + cash/player that they deem worth 5.6m more), then why the bump up even more to 22m?

Without the Torres factor, Liverpool held all the cards in this negotiation. Ajax was already stuck with a player who wanted to leave, and Liverpool could match the minimum 18m valuation. What would prompt another increase to 22m unless there was some factor compromising Liverpool's position?
Noel

I don't think £18M was Ajax's valuation--I'm fairly convinced that was Liverpool's valuation, hence the 12 + Babel soap opera, with Ajax not believing Babel was worth that much but also spouting to the press every five minutes that Liverpool's offer was insulting. Meanwhile Ajax kept saying their valuation was in the space between £25M and E30M.

Liverpool really worked to get a deal done for below £20M, and with the window closing and Ajax not taking the bait, they stepped up. Whether that had to do with feeling they needed to give that signal of intent to Torres, to the fans, or whether it was just a signing they felt they needed to make, period, we probably will never know. In any case, they still didn't match what Ajax was asking for in the press, but they did go over their valuation by at least a couple of million pounds.
Red2death

Points taken. Possibly right.
Noel

Like with a lot of the fans, I suspect this is the signal of intent that he needed. So I don't expect him to be going anywhere now. Though like I said, no way would FSG let him go with CFC coming in four days from the end of the transfer market--it was always a stunt by Abramovich to make it look like he was trying to fans who are pissed their side is weaker than in past years and he hasn't been spending like a sugar daddy lately. But longer term, I suspect it helps lock down Torres, too.