Liverpool’s proposed move for Ajax’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez has apparently hit the buffers over the nature of the potential fee. It seems the Merseyside club’s under-evaluation of the player in question, and the recent inflation of the market with the likes of Edin Dzeko and Darren Bent going for large fees already this transfer window, has seen Ajax drag their heels in an attempt to hold out for more money.
In all honesty, you can hardly blame Ajax for their stance considering Suarez’s importance to them and the relative pittance that Liverpool have offered the club for his services – reportedly £12.7m. By relative pittance, I am of course talking about contrasting the current fee with that of the two big name moves to English clubs this transfer window – Edin Dzeko and Darren Bent.
Dzeko arrived at Man City for a fee in the region of £27m from German side Wolfsburg. While this may be a tad over the top, it’s fair to say that City know they are getting a player capable of delivering and Dzeko does admittedly have a fantastic record over the last couple of seasons. Plus, you have to factor in the effect that City’s millions have on any player they are chasing. The club are yet to pay a fair price for any of their most recent acquisitions, and this is not entirely their own fault, it’s just that when they’re dealing with clubs now, a player’s fee can almost double if they know City are interested because they simply know they’re good for it.
Darren Bent’s surprise move to Aston Villa has cost the Midlands outfit £18m up front, rising to £24m in total. Villa were in dire need of a player of Bent’s talents and any potential deal is surely relative to how much any given club needs the player, and in that respect, Villa have probably achieved a fair deal for Bent. Compare it to the rest of the market though, and the added premium of being English, and it’s fair to say that in basic terms, this deal is hugely over-inflated. Ajax released a statement on Tuesday saying:
“We have to wait for them to come back with something more respectful. We want to keep him – at least until the end of the season and preferably for the rest of his contract. If you compare the $15m (can’t find euro’s button) (£13m) Liverpool want to pay for Suarez with other transfers you can imagine that it’s far too low for us.”
A statement in obvious reference to the Dzeko deal, and more obviously, Darren Bent’s move. Ryan Babel has moved to Bundesliga side Hoffenheim for a fee rumoured to be in the region of £5.7m – so stepping up their pursuit of Suarez is now of paramount importance.
Its live fantasy football! Become part of Liverpool matches and play Picklive for FREE. A Free Trial for every reader here
–
–
If the £12.7m offered is just an opening bid, then fine, but if that’s all the club are willing to offer, they surely couldn’t have ever hoped to prise away such an asset for so little. Ajax are thought to be holding out for £25m – again, another unrealistic estimate – and Liverpool are thought to have a limit of £18m for any such proposed deal, which seems around a fair price for him.
The longer Liverpool haggle and wait, the worse it will get. Ajax’s position becomes stronger the longer this drags out and the nearer to the end of the transfer window it gets. They have no real need to sell the player just yet and he’ll command a bigger fee in the summer, with more interested parties likely to be ready to deal then.
Liverpool, however, are in dire need of striking reinforcements. The longer they pursue the Suarez transfer, without any realistic estimations at least, the less time they leave themselves to pursue other targets fully. The last thing Liverpool want is a forced move on transfer deadline day whereby they get a poor deal for an otherwise decent player simply because they missed out on Suarez.
They were never likely to get him for the aforementioned price, which by anyone’s estimations, does seem awfully low. But with the likes of Bent and Dzeko going for huge fees already this window, Liverpool need to focus on what they want and deliver, rather than penny-pinching their way to their second or third choices. What does everyone else think Suarez is truly worth? Have the Dzeko and Bent deals inflated the market or simply put the poor value of Liverpool’s bid into perspective?
The article was written by James McManus for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.
Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
This week it is former Liverpool WAG Joanna Taylor!
————–
CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR HERE TO GET TO THE GALLERY
–
So what you are saying, if I get this right, is a couple of clubs have paid stupid money for players, so we should too. What utter rubbish.
No, he’s saying the rate’s gone up and if you want to compete, you will have to pay for the privilege.
If Suárez was worth anywhere near what Ajax are asking for then one should wonder why those clubs who don’t care about money didn’t buy him yet. I think that all clubs apart from Ajax know that taking this guy to Liverpool would be a huge risk. Therefore we should offer 15m tops with add-ons should he really be a hit. Or how about paying them what they are asking for but only if they offer a money back clause should he not deliver what is expected of him.
As for the question you ask in your headline the answer is yes, off course.
I cannot understand why more was not done sooner, but anyway Suarez is not proven in a big league and 18 mill is the most i would pay.
The club does not want to get ripped off a number of dominant players out of Holland of recent have failed to deliver.
If you care to read it enko it says we may have to if we want
Him, not that we should pay it
January is a sellers market. If we want ,we may have to pay more than we wanted to
Red Enko – I think you missed the point entirely. It is not Liverpools decision. Ajax are saying that if Darren Bent is worth £24m then Luis Suarez is worth the same if not more due to his World Cup appearances. They hold the cards and if Liverpool don’t want to pay they won’t get it’s very simple. There is value in the transfer market it just takes patience and understanding, neither of which Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool have.
“neither of which Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool have”
made me chckle.
Should’ve read “neither of which Man City or Chelsea need”.
I don’t think that this is the case. When it was banded about that city were in for torres,(and that wasn’t even worth the allegedly) the asking price was in the region of 60 million, or 25 for gerrard when that ‘rumour’ surfaced. So surely, you live by the sword. To blame other clubs for paying what the respective clubs wanted to release that player from his contract is futile, its their prerogative to get a good deal on a valuable asset , if you can’t meet their price than you have to move on, not complain that you have to pay the going rate for a world renowned forward, (dzeko or suarez) or someone who will almost guarantee you goals in a way that is compatible with the premier league (bent)
This should be a change for the new owners to show a statement of intent. If we have to pay £25m for him, pay it. While this is dragging on we, once again, are starting to look stupid. Do the deal get it done.
He looks to be a ready made foil for Fernando, either playing behind, left, right or alongside. He’s a good finisher which we need desperately!
Why pay £12m for a hugely inferior player (C Cole anyone).
Come on new owners please put your money where your mouth is!
Anyone else thinking that Comolli is looking very stupid here with talks of mumbled phone calls?
But equally, the new Liverpool owners also need to make the statement that they are not another Chelsea; they are not another Man City. Liverpool doesn’t have money to fritter away willy nilly. They need to set down a marker that says that they aren’t prepared to overpay just because the selling club think that Liverpool have money to burn. This isn’t just for now; this is a statement for the future.
As for bidding for Suarez, £12m IS low. But this just the usual lowball starting bid. If Ajax would stop acting out to the world how indignant they feel and actually get on with the process of haggling … properly, then this transfer might actually get somewhere. I reckon both parties would find £18m-£21m satisfactory and reasonable.
Spot on. (love the name btw)
In fairness though all the media speculation is Ajax mouthing off about prices offered. It’s telling there has been no comment from LLC. Points toward a more professional approach in the market.
Suarez’s value was actually higher than this a year or two ago – his reputation took a massive hit after the world cup, with him having some issues when he returned to Ajax, which is the only reason that we are able to sniff around at such a (relatively) low transfer fee
i think the players as well as the fans are excited at the prospect of signing this guy! and to miss out now would deflate players and fans alike. it would seem we’ve turned a corner, king kenny has instilled much needed confidence and passion and i think failing to make a marquee signing could negate our new-found belief, come on john and tom, get it done!
well said Steve spot on mate .albey
its right that Lfc are careful with (our) money citeh / madrid cant buy success anbd in a world where people still starve its immoral to pay over the odds for anything..least of all un intried player, its one thing looking good in the world cup , in the dutch league or playing for b,pool but reaching the standards we expect is another thing..Kenny s got back to the starting point within a month, if we dont sign players theres room for pacheco and some of the TWENTY-FIVE international youth players we have on the books!!!!!
ts right that Lfc are careful with (our) money citeh / madrid cant buy success anbd in a world where people still starve its immoral to pay over the odds for anything..least of all un intried player, its one thing looking good in the world cup , in the dutch league or playing for b,pool but reaching the standards we expect is another thing..Kenny s got back to the starting point within a month, if we dont sign players theres room for pacheco and some of the TWENTY-FIVE international youth players we have on the books!!!!! Several young players are the same age as suarez was when he started in the dutch league?
how do you justify saurez, on what basis, success in world cup, or scoring goals in an inferior league, we payed around the same as ajax wants to atletico for TORRES , who was captain of a team in la liga, bit diffreent ?
There are questions to be considered
Do we really NEED him, when we are 7th? no, we WANT him..,if hes worth 20 mil why havent the other “big clubs” come in for him? will suarez come in and score goals now??? considering how most players need time to get used to the change of pace & pressure of the EPL, why do we need saurez now? why do we need “big money players” havent we just got caught ip in all the “transfer market BS” for far too long?
What if we spend 20 mil, and then Torres gets injured but suarez is not ready?? , not many clubs wanted bent at the price either, it seems to me that because hodgson fouled up the first part of the season u still cant see the wood for the trees , we had a squad full of world cup class palyers at the beginning of the season, mismanaged, and now people panic..just because we arent paying blackmail prices for players, its ridiculous, and bad business and also is not good for the club payment levels,, never mind the moral issues , just because other clubs have got money than sense..
I mean we have such a “limited” squad that international players like Babel and jovanovic cant get a game, and pacheco is only on the bench who is rated by everyone with a football brain , what Carra or players say about managment dont interests me , take note, we have only Carra injured , in the last 2 seasons we had several players out at this time of the year, this means we have more players available, kelly and jonjo are ob first team squad start have been added, just because we dont SPEND new money dont mean we have a limited squad, as Kenny said when he took over, “with or without new players i am HAPPY to manage this squad until the end of the season” dont that make sense to you? Carra isnt a manager , he wanted hodgson over Rafa or Kenny , so his judgement is flawed IMO
we dont NEED new players, a couple would add to the squad, but whats more important is using what we have better,m which is what kenny is doing…either U trust Kenny or not and as Kenny has said he is happy and has money but will “spend it carefully” then why cany u accept that and not join the “transfer window panic” ? I disagree with the writer mate! ;)i dont have to be right..but what i do know is that I will back Kenny, and if Kenny says we are “ok” without those 2 then its good enough for me..yes i want success , but not at any price, this club has been mis-managed too much especially since moore employed parry, then the hicks purslow crap, its time we sorted it out on and off the pitch showing strength in negociations is as important as showing fight as they did last night..mate ! 😀
“It’s not for lack of trying…” I don’t call 12.7 mil trying… it’s not a serious offer and everyone knows it. All these fans going on about inflated prices… when NESV just paid 180 mil on Redsox players. We are so far behind our competitors… we have one 20 + mil signing… they have whole teams full of them. Henry should have showed intent.. this squad needs immediate investment. 18-20 mil is a fair price for Suarez… and that’s what he’ll cost in the summer too. Are we seriously supposed to believe we can’t land a single target after Comoli bragged about world class players wanting to come to us? Are we supposed to believe our final offer for Adam is what we paid for Konchesky? I’m not impressed.
Kenny has said the finance is in place that means the owners have put it there to pay for players so whats your problem fellas what more can he do or should we pay the inflated price and every other club is watching if we do pay what they want and then guess what will happen guys every transfer we go for in the future we will be held to ransom by that club as Blackpool have done this club is in the right hands let them sort the buisness out like the old days when we found out we he had signed so stop flapping were getting like spoilt children if we dont get our own way we kick and scream its so embarising
Ye suarez was in the world cup and scord but so did diouf and diou and we paid good money for them and they were out of there depth at liverpool the top scorer in the world cup before last didnt score many all the next season for bayern munich after the world cup (Kloser.)so its not a cert that because you scored in the world cup you will score in the EPL .Suarez has a bad boy reputation lets remember that and is serving a seven match ban and the last goal scorer we paid out big money for who had a bad boy reputation hit our left back with a golf club and was quickly moved out the club.( Bellamy)so what am saying is because a player has had a good world cup scored goals in the dutch league which is the equivellent to the scotish prem ( no disrespect to the Scotish prem ) does not mean he can come to the premier league and score bags of goals it is a 50-50 chance we have seen some do it and we have seen some that have not and that is a reason that as a buying club all these things must be taken into consideration when bidding for a player from a diffrent league .I really hope that we do get both suarez and adams butat the right price I really hope that they both are super stars for liverpool fc bur common sense must provail when buying players .