5 stars who signed a new contract...and then left the following summer

#2 Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez did a u-turn and left Liverpool after signing a new deal

Despite scoring 23 goals in 33 league games for Liverpool in 2012/13, the summer of 2013 saw Luis Suarez posturing for an Anfield exit. While Liverpool had shown tremendous loyalty to the Uruguayan striker – sticking with him through thick and thin, even during the period in which he was accused of racist taunting and then later when he was suspended for biting Branislav Ivanovic – Suarez hadn’t returned the favour off the pitch at least.

May 2013 saw him state that he wished to leave Liverpool citing unfair media pressure on his family following his spate of high-profile incidents.

Liverpool’s then-boss Brendan Rodgers stated that Suarez had shown total disrespect for the club, but maintained he wouldn’t be going anywhere despite being forced to train on his own. An approach from Arsenal was knocked back, and a few months later Suarez changed his mind, citing the support of Liverpool’s fans as his reason.

And sure enough, he lived up to his word – after a blistering start to the 2013/14 season, he inked a new deal with Liverpool in December 2013 that would keep him at Anfield until the end of 2017/18 and would also pay him £200k a week.

Unfortunately, it turned out that contracts don’t mean much when Barcelona come knocking. Suarez had gotten himself into hot water at the World Cup in the summer of 2014 – biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini – and had earned himself a four-month ban from FIFA, and so when a bid of £75m came in from the Catalan giants, Suarez decided he wanted to go and Liverpool felt they had no other choice but to accept.

The Uruguayan star made the move and debuted at the Nou Camp in October, and Liverpool was left to simply accept their place on football’s food chain – a handful of notches below Barcelona.