That £40,000,001 offer Arsenal put forward for Luis Suarez in 2013 is now one of the most infamous transfer moments in English football history.
As we all know, the Gunners lodged the aforementioned bid and were convinced it would trigger a clause in the Uruguayan’s contract allowing him to leave Anfield for the Emirates Stadium. Of course, this proved not to be the case, and the Merseysiders’ owner, John W Henry, posted a hilarious tweet in the aftermath asking what they were “smoking” in north London…
What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?
— John W. Henry (@John_W_Henry) July 24, 2013
Suarez stayed at Liverpool, netted 31 Premier League goals across 2013/14 and eventually departed for Barcelona ahead of the 2014/15 campaign, but just as some Arsenal supporters had forgotten about the episode, Arsene Wenger has spoken to beIN Sport (via the Mirror) about it:
“He was very close (to signing for Arsenal). We had an agreement with the player. We had been wrongly advised that he had a clause, with a minimal clause, but we had an agreement with the player. You can ask him.
“I’m convinced he wanted to join us and then they sold him. They kept him one more year, improved his contract and promised to sell him the year later to a club abroad.”
It’s a case of another one that got away for Arsenal, then, and fans have taken to Twitter to vent at their French boss (they don’t need much of an excuse, after all)…
Pointless hearing Wenger saying Suarez wanted to sign for Arsenal. You should have gone all out and paid Liverpool whatever it took.
— Robbie Sparkes (@superbob09) 24 March 2017
Next thing Wenger will say “I didn’t win the league title because Liverpool didn’t want to sell Suarez”
— Sanchez (@AFCSanchezz) 24 March 2017
@johncrossmirror arsene Wenger is humiliating himself and Arsenal fans every time he talks about who he ‘nearly signed’. No one cares.
— Sam Robinson (@Sam_CFC10) March 24, 2017
Seriously though why is Wenger talking about Suarez?
— Ross Anderson (@rossaaaanderson) 24 March 2017
@johncrossmirror @MirrorFootball all Wenger does is bloat about who he ‘could have’ got, instead of actually buying decent players
— Andrew (@Mercurydota) March 24, 2017
@johncrossmirror Yawn 1 of Wenger’s ‘nearly signed’ stories. Hopefully he will soon be in a pos where he cant nearly sign anyone for Arsenal
— Mark Pattersön (@patthegooner) March 24, 2017
@johncrossmirror We already know this. Suarez wrote an open letter to Liverpool asking them to let him join us. Why is this news?
— Bradley Lobo (@obolyeldarb) March 24, 2017
