Arsenal may have ended their long wait for a Premier League title if their bid for a dream striker hadn’t sparked one of the most ‘ludicrous’ transfer sagas in history
Arsenal are desperate to sign a striker to help Mikel Arteta’s nearly men fulfil their ambitions of winning the Premier League.
After twice finishing runner-up behind Manchester City, the Gunners are hoping to add the elite firepower that will give them the edge over title rivals Liverpool. It’s a familiar story – one their fans know only too well, after what happened just over a decade ago.
Back in the summer of 2013, then manager Arsene Wenger launched an audacious bid to sign a world class forward in the shape of Luis Suarez. The controversial Uruguayan, who turns 38 today, January 24, is undoubtedly one of the most talented stars to ever play on these shores.
Yet Arsenal’s attempt to bolster their strike force while hampering a rival sparked one of the more bizarre transfer stories the Premier League has ever seen. The Gunners were under the impression that Suarez had a release clause of £40million and saw their chance.
That led to a bold offer of £40,000,001, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether their information was accurate, especially when Liverpool owner John Henry responded with the now legendary tweet: “What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?”
He was not alone, as Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was equally perplexed when he insisted that the transfer window fail was one of Wenger’s biggest mistakes. He wrote in a column for the Daily Mail: “If you look back at Wenger’s 20 years in English football, there are so many highlights, but that day in July 2013, with the bid that enraged Liverpool, cannot be ignored.
“Not signing Suarez is the biggest mistake of Wenger’s reign. Had Arsenal pushed the boundaries for Suarez, perhaps with an offer of £50m, I believe they would have won the Barclays Premier League in two of the last three seasons. That’s the thing about Suarez: whichever team he plays for, he drags them to a higher level.”
Suarez went on to have one of the greatest individual seasons in British football history, notching 31 goals and 12 assists for Liverpool as he dragged them to the brink of the title, only to fall short to – you guessed it – Manchester City.
Wenger has since admitted Arsenal’s attempts to sign Suarez were “ludicrous”, though he has stuck to his guns over the transfer, despite admitting that there was in fact no release clause.
“In 2014 [the 2013/14 season] we were looking to get Luis Suarez over,” Wenger wrote in his book My Life in Red and White. “We had an agreement with the player and his agent. But the agent claimed that there was a clause: with an offer above £40million, Liverpool would be obliged to let the player go.
“But thanks to an indiscretion within Liverpool, I found out that his clause never existed. To check this was true, we offered £40,000,001. This may have seemed ludicrous, I admit.
“But Liverpool did not want to sell Suarez, they could afford to keep him and there was already an offer from Barcelona on the horizon.”