Keeping Suarez Must Remain Top Priority

Some things in life are inevitable.

1) You will get old.

2) New Year celebrations will never quite live up to your expectations.

3) Luis Suarez will be linked with a move away from Liverpool at every opportunity.

This transfer window started off surprisingly quiet. Apart from murmurs that he had enrolled his daughter into a Merseyside school, very little tabloid space had been reserved for the Uruguayan. And each day since had pretty much passed without any mention at all of his impending exit. It was all a little bit too good to be true. That was until the past week.

Once again media outlets across the world have fervently linked him with a summer move to newly crowned European champions Real Madrid, with his own lawyer reportedly suggesting that Suarez has a “Predisposition for Spain.” Even more spectacularly, some sections of the media have suggested that Manchester United and new boss Louis Van Gaal may try to tempt the striker with a £65 million pound move to Old Trafford.

A lot of reds I have spoken to have passed this off as nothing more than tabloid speculation. It may well be. But I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that wasn’t worried. Last year, we came desperately close to seeing him moving on and I think at some point in the next few weeks, our resolve will be tested more than ever.

It was a stellar season for him last year. A season in which he picked up a number of personal honours and notched up an impressive 31 goals and 12 assists. Not only was the amount of goals he scored impressive, but the variation of the goals he scored where simply stunning. His unpredictability panicked defenders all season. They couldn’t keep him quiet because they simply didn’t know what he was about to do next. If clubs didn’t already know what a talented player he was, the season that has just finished has cemented him as one of the top players in the world.

As well as this, it is a World Cup year. A World Cup that if Suarez is fit for, he will undoubtedly be a star of. He will have the whole world watching him at the peak of his game. This will make him more desirable than he’s ever been before and will almost certainly place him on the top of every clubs shopping list.

There aren’t many players who are irreplaceable, but he is. Without him last year, the title race would have been over a lot sooner than it was. Losing him this summer would be utterly disastrous. He simply has to stay at our club if we have any chance of building on the progress we made last year. It is vital John W Henry and all associated with this club ensure that keeping him at Anfield is again our top priority.