Luis Suarez had a buyout clause of £40 million, says Liverpool owner John W Henry in shocking revelation

Liverpool fc owner John Henry

In a shocking announcement, Liverpool’s American owner – John W Henry has revealed that star striker Luis Suarez indeed had a buy-out clause of £40 million in his previous contract, over which the transfer saga hinged.

Arsenal bid £40 million and £1 to trigger this clause last summer, but the Merseyside club decided to stay firm, and not let the Uruguayan leave the club.

At the time, the Liverpool management came out with an announcement stating that the club merely had to intimate the striker of any bids in excess of £40 million, and nothing more.

John W Henry, speaking at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, has taken a complete U-turn.

He started off saying, “Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League, which is arguably the top soccer league in the world.”

“He had a buyout clause of £40m. Arsenal, one of our prime rivals – this year we’re tied for second – offered £40m plus £1.”

“What we’ve found is that contracts don’t seem to mean a lot in England, actually in world football. It doesn’t matter how long a player’s contract is, he can decide he’s leaving.”

“We sold a player, Fernando Torres, for £50m, that we did not want to sell, we were forced to.”

“Since apparently these contracts don’t seem to hold, we took the position that we’re just not selling (Suarez).”

“It’s been great for Luis, it’s been great for us, and what will happen at the end of the year, I think we’re going to make the Champions League, we have a small chance of winning the Premier League this year.”