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Barcelona star Luis Suarez has thanked his former captain and team-mate, Steven Gerrard for helping him avoid the mistake of joining Liverpool’s Premier League rivals Arsenal last season.
In recent times, Suarez has been not only the most enigmatic player on the field but off it as well. Just as Luis Suarez was beggining to stamp his authority on the footballing scene in England, the South American forward was embroiled in one of the most entertaining transfer sagas of the recent past.
Unhappy with the direction in which Liverpool were heading, Suarez went into a self-imposed exile last summer when Arsenal came calling the for the services of the Uruguayan international. The North London club had triggered a £40 million release clause in his contract.
Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool, however, were able to keep a hold of the maverick striker and rightly so as Suarez delivered a career season last time around, scoring 31 goals in 33 appearances for the Reds in the Premier League. This summer, Suarez completed a £75million move to Barcelona.
Gerrard told me top European clubs would sign me: Suarez
Suarez now says that the decision to go on strike to force a move to Arsenal was wrong on his part and he is thankful that Gerrard talked him out of it.
Speaking in his new autobiography, which was published in Spanish media outlet Sport, Suarez thanked Gerrard for helping him avoid the pitfall of going to Arsenal.
Suarez was quoted as saying: “It would have been a big error that I would have made had it not been for Steven Gerrard.
“We spoke about this when I went to Melwood [Liverpool's training ground] to pick up my things at the end of the summer and he said: 'You did the right thing, you waited until the best moment.'”
“He had told me [the previous summer] to play well for Liverpool, give it another year and it will be Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Barcelona coming for you and then you can go where you want, because you have the quality to play at any of those three clubs.”
