• Premier League

Former Liverpool MD: Agent to blame for Suarez saga

Former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow believes that Luis Suarez should blame his agent for his Liverpool contract stand-off.

Suarez's chances of securing a move away from Anfield are in tatters as his club stand firm in their refusal to sell him.

The striker said in interviews with the Guardian and Daily Telegraph earlier this week that he believes a £40,000,001 bid from Arsenal on July 23 activated a release clause in his contract.

He also claimed that manager Brendan Rodgers had promised to allow him to leave if Liverpool failed to qualify for this coming season's Champions League.

Rodgers and Liverpool have dismissed both claims, with the club insistent that there is no release clause.

And principal owner John W Henry went further on Thursday by declaring that the Uruguay international will not be allowed to leave this summer at any price, declaring the notion of selling him to Arsenal "ludicrous".

Purslow, as Liverpool's managing director between June 2009 and October 2010, played a key part in negotiating player contracts on behalf of the club.

He was not involved in the talks over Suarez's current Liverpool contract, though, which was signed in 2012. Ian Ayre, who replaced Purslow as managing director in March 2011, was in charge of negotiating that deal for Liverpool.

Purslow believes that Suarez, signed from Ajax for £22.8 million in January 2011, has been let down by his agent Pere Guardiola.

"What's unusual about this case is there seems to be some significant confusion between the player and the club as to whether he did or didn't have such an escape clause," Purslow told Sky Sports News.

"Yesterday it became clear that he did not have a clause, so I suspect he's pretty unhappy with his agent who got that wrong a year ago.

"I also suspect Arsenal are unhappy because they're a club who do their business extremely properly and professionally and they will have been made aware by intermediaries acting for the player that he thought such a clause existed.

"They will have done the right thing, which is make a written offer to Liverpool.

"They may have spent a lot of time thinking that if they were to make an offer at that level they would be securing a player. This is not something one does on a whim.

"I suspect Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have been planning Luis Suarez as their main signing for some time and to discover that such a clause is not valid and doesn't work runs the risk of seriously wasting Arsenal's time as well."

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