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£55m for Uruguay’s second-best – so what’s Suarez worth then?

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UruguayIT was bound to happen, eventually.

Uruguay has two great strikers, Liverpool has one, Napoli has the other. Both are being linked with moves to ‘bigger’ clubs. 99% of knowledgeable football fans will agree – whether they like him or not – that Suarez is easily the better of the two.

Let’s face it: for all his goals Cavani could never single-handedly win an international competition, which is exactly what Suarez did a couple of years ago.

Yet, Cavani moves to Paris St-Germain for over £55 million and we’re being told to settle for whatever pocket-change Real Madrid throws at our hobo of a club? No thanks.

Cavani is like a Uruguayan van Persie – great goal-scorer, talented player but can ghost through games for weeks without doing anything.

On the other hand, Suarez is the Uruguayan equivalent of a Messi or Ronaldo. Granted, he’s probably not done enough to be considered at that level but he is usually always the best, most dangerous man on the pitch, whenever he plays and, last season, nobody scared Premier League teams quite like Suarez, regardless of what the EPL, PFA and FA will have you believe about Gareth Bale.

All personal opinions aside, there are the cold, hard facts about the two. Suarez is just 10 short of 200 career goals, having played most of his career in Europe, most recently with Ajax and Liverpool. While Cavani has barely passed 150, with almost 2/3’s of those coming in the last 3 seasons and has yet to play for a big club (having not yet played a game for PSG, of course).

Internationally, Suarez is even further ahead of his compatriot, with one goal ever other game for his country (35 in 69) whilst Cavani has not yet reached 20 in 54 appearances for Uruguay. They make a devastating partnership but Suarez is clearly the more dangerous and effective of the two, particularly as both men are the same age.

Many will point to Suarez playing a lot of football in Holland for one of the top clubs in that country and I, like many, have pointed out in the past that playing for Ajax is like playing for Celtic or Rangers in Scotland but Cavani has not exactly been playing in one of the top-3 leagues in Europe either, with Serie A falling behind the likes of England, Spain, Germany and even France in recent years. Either way over 110 goals in four seasons is nothing to turn your nose up at.

All of this raises the question: why have Napoli been able to get so much for a man that clearly isn’t as good as Suarez?
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It’s a tough one and the most obvious answer is that PSG have got money to burn and were prepared to reach Napoli’s release clause for the player. The likes of Chelsea and Madrid have been sniffing around Cavani all summer, so far, but rich as they are, they could both be bought several times over by the French clubs’ owners and those guys seem to only want to make statements. Building a ‘proper’ team doesn’t appear to have entered their minds.

As for Suarez, his personal baggage has probably made him a harder sale but that is something the club signing him will have to moralize before they make a bid and what other clubs (or the clubs fans) think about him shouldn’t matter a hoot to our owners, the player has a price and if it isn’t met, the player stays.

For the measly £30 million Ayre claims Arsenal offered, I’d rather let him sulk and give us another season; the starting bid, it appears, has always been around the £40 million mark and should not go any lower.

Of course, the fee touted for Cavani has further muddied the waters now and if – as claimed – there is, in fact, no release-clause in Suarez’s contract well then, Arsenal, Madrid and anybody else who’s interested best start scrambling down the back of the couch for some more pennies because the precedent has been set.

With fees for players who are just ‘very good’ now reaching ridiculous levels, the club needs to show a bit of back-bone and draw a line in the sand, saying: this is what we want for Suarez and unless you show that you’re serious, you won’t even get in the door.

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I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.

36 comments

  • Rishaad Ally says:

    In fact Lpool should of set the 50mill marker as soon they rejected Arsenals 30mill bid. That would of given other clubs the message as well.YNWA

  • CHUKWUEMEKA says:

    Dont worry guyz, the bid wld come pouring in like wild fire in summer by august. its only a pity that we are going to use the jackpot to buy more average players.

  • frae says:

    If bale is worth 70 quid n cavani 55 den surely suarez is above dem by a mile.I tink lfc shud put a price tag of 75 mil on hm n c wat pool get cos if we can scare other away den we got a great chance to win da league if we r consistent

  • akash says:

    if suarez leaves,our season is over right from beginning.we cant hope on sturridge at all.

  • Haryomide says:

    I love dis post

  • Osman ali says:

    Yes, i was wondering why LFC is handling the price tag so cowardly and spinelessly! Get up and demand 0ver £50!

  • stevie says:

    Reckon darren bent would be a decent buy at 5m if his wages are reasonable. Scores goals. Don’t laugh. I am serious

  • ody says:

    Really surprised as to most of us sanctioning the sale of Suarez. Despite his behaviours, he is a god on the pitch. Don’t we deserve him in our team? We are hoping to get into top 4 yet we are selling our best player. If he wants to leave let’s see the transfer request, else he should stay put. If we sell, we sell at 50m not even 40m and never to any EPL team.

  • Patrick says:

    Cavani is a much better player than Suarez he has improved with age fact that’s why his worth 55m, plus your guaranteed to get a full season out of him without no bands. No player is bigger than the team get rid of him. Van Persie went for 25m last season and his stats are way beyond Suarez. Again fact.

  • Sibusiso says:

    Great post i was also beggining to soften to the silly arsenal bid. Suarez is worthy more and the club should stand up and demand the rightful price 55 mil and more. YNWA

  • Stevie G (Walton) says:

    Never mind Cavani! Only recently Zindane was extolling the virtues of another “second-best” player, namely Gareth Bale and saying Real Madrid should offer upwards of 70 million pounds to get him. My suggestion is that Ayres and Rodgers tell Madrid that is the base from which bidding will start if they want Suarez! Suarez on the other hand should be told in no uncertain terms to knuckle down, grow up and start acting professionally both on and off the pitch and to start repaying the loyalty, support and commitment his club has shown him over the last 2 and a half years or so he has been at Anfield.

  • fergil* says:

    Great article! Saurez is our player, and we don’t want to sell period that’s my opinion. Why would we strenghten a rival premier league club doesn’t make sense. Saurez should just knuckle down and show us some loyalty.

  • Raam says:

    All the while, i thought certain team supporters went very low taunting LFC and the supporters but to my surprise, UK journalists and certain press showed that they can get lower than sewer.. First they bombarded LS and LFC regarding the racial issue. Than they ganged up again following the Ivanovic incident.. Now when LS threaten to quit Liverpool, the same people backing and encouraging him on which team to join. Astonishing..!

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