LONDON // Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, said the club did everything they could to keep hold of Luis Suarez prior to his move to Barcelona.
The Catalan giants announced on Wednesday that the controversial Uruguayan was “100 per cent” a Barca player, although the striker was conspicuous by his absence at a news conference due to his four-month Fifa ban from all football-related activity after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder at the World Cup.
That incident, the third time in Suarez’s career that he had been banned for biting, prompted many in the game to urge Rodgers to get rid of his star forward before the start of the season.
But the Northern Irishman is adamant that the 27 year old’s exit was more down to his desire to move to Catalonia than his antics in Brazil.
“We did everything we could as a club to keep Luis,” he told the Liverpool Echo.
“He wanted to go and play in Spain, and unfortunately when a player no longer wants to play for you, we need as a club to look at it.
“It was his decision for him to go, he’s gone to Barcelona, a club he wanted to play for and now we’ll move on.
“I’m not sure if he would have gone regardless of the World Cup. But I never felt that towards the end of the season, and likewise he never said he would give us another year either. He had obviously signed a new deal so we had that.
“But I think we have had great service out of Luis and it’s one that we can’t worry too much about now, it’s done, it’s gone and our focus is here.
“There is a lot of work going on with the recruitment team in terms of getting in the right player and I am sure we can identify that.
“This club and many other clubs have shown over a period of time you move on, and believe me, it will be a really exciting season for us.”
Suarez will be ineligible to play for Barca, who reportedly paid €95 million (Dh472m) for his services – or even to train with his teammates – unless any appeal lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is successful.
Liverpool, meanwhile, started life without Suarez on Wednesday with a 2-1 defeat against Danish side Brondby in the club’s opening pre-season friendly.
Christian Norgaard gave the home side the lead from a free-kick midway through the first half before Liverpool’s Swedish international winger Kristoffer Peterson levelled early in the second half.
But Ferhan Hasani hit the Brondby winner in stoppage time.
“This year, we know it’s going to be extremely competitive. Every team will strengthen and we’ll be exactly the same. But the beauty for us is that we’re a young group and we’re bringing in young players that are hungry,” Rodgers said.
“We will progress again from last season. It’s going to be a really exciting season. I’ve seen development in the players already in the short period of time that we’ve been back. This season we have the belief to go along with the quality.
“We want to improve and continually improve. We’re working very hard behind the scenes, as we always do, in terms of getting the best quality players into the club.”
Chelsea defeated fourth-tier Wycombe Wanderers 5-0 with Patrick Bamford, Izzy Brown (2), John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic on the scoresheet.
In Austria, Crystal Palace enjoyed a 13-1 romp at GAK Graz with Stephen Dobbie grabbing four goals and Glenn Murray, Joe Ledley and Jonathan Williams all netting twice twice.
Yannick Bolasie, Jerome Thomas and Marouane Chamakh finished off the rout.
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