Phillip Buckley
Earlier this summer, Liverpool fans eagerly waited for word on the club's prospective capture of Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar Donetsk. The omens were good. Mkhitaryan, who had shone in last season's Champions League and top scored in the Ukrainian Premier League, wanted a move to Anfield. Sources close to the player insisted Liverpool were his priority, he has been earmarked for an important role. It was even whispered he could just be Steven Gerrard's long term successor. Mkhitaryan went AWOL, failing to show up for Shakhtar's pre-season training camp in Austria. The Ukrainian giants raged, with director Sergei Palkin saying: "He has not turned up for training. Mkhitaryan can expect a fine. We do not know whether he intends to return in the short term." Liverpool fans hungrily and excitedly digested the reports of Mkhitaryan's stand, designed to force a move. Added to the Armenian's clause in his contract, not strictly a buy-out amount, but rather a stipulated penalty for not honouring the deal, which strangely had become widely known, the path for Liverpool to sign the midfielder was clear.
Of course, the deal never went through. Some sources claim Liverpool stalled on paying the $30m needed. Others say Borussia Dortmund, Mkhitaryan's eventual destination, beat the Reds to his signature. What is beyond doubt though is that Reds fans everywhere had prepared for the midfielder's arrival. This would be the summer’s signature capture; it would send a message that the club were serious about returning to the top four. Now, just a month later, the tables have turned – and it does not taste good for those at Anfield.
Unlike Mkhitaryan, Luis Suarez reported for pre-season training as scheduled. While Mkhitaryan stayed away, letting his team-mates toil in the warm Austrian sunshine, Suarez pulled on a red shirt and entertained Liverpool fans in Australia, playing in a friendly against Melbourne Victory. The Uruguayan, despite wanting to leave his club, just as Mkhitaryan wished to exit his, has done all required of him, preparing for the new campaign under his manager’s watchful eye. For Liverpool in the Mkhitaryan saga, read Arsenal in the Suarez story. It has been asked how the Gunners knew to bid £40m + £1 for Suarez, activating a certain clause. Are contracts not confidential? Shakhtar might have thought that. Or even Middlesbrough, when Liverpool slapped in a £5.5m offer for Christian Ziege just over a decade ago, perfectly meeting his clause and angering the Teeside club. "They were talking to Ziege long before the end of the season, when he was our player of the year", bemoaned then-chief executive Keith Lamb. "They have treated us like dirt."
Suarez has gone public with his desire to quit Liverpool. His latest comments, pointing to the fact he only signed a new contract with the understanding he would be allowed to leave if the club did not qualify for this season's Champions League, have provoked anger; but he has been vocal about his desire to leave for much of the summer. However, regardless of the situation, for Liverpool fans to eagerly cheer the imminent arrival of Mkhitaryan, while castigating Suarez for wanting his own move, is nothing short of hypocritical. Would Reds fans rather the Uruguayan went AWOL but kept his mouth shut? Such a course of action would soon see the club forced to sell him and perhaps for even less than £40m. For all the talk from Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, about challenging for the title -"When we came in our goal was to be the best team in England, not just the top four, to compete with the best teams in Europe", said chairman Tom Werner – the Americans are businessmen and a highly priced asset that refuses to play and sees his value depreciate as a result must be quickly sold.
The question has been asked 'why Arsenal?' Surely Liverpool are just as big, if not bigger, than an Arsenal that have spent the last eight years more concerned about paying off stadium interest rates than increasing trophy rates? The trouble is, such judgements are subjective. "I think he is making a big mistake", said Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu when Mkhitaryan seemed on the verge of joining Liverpool. "You play for a team which is fighting for the championship each year and for the cup, and in the Champions League – he has to appreciate it." Such words are a little like those uttered by Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers after the Reds played in front of 95,500 people in Australia. "This is a remarkable football club and I don't think you want to leave one of the biggest clubs in world football in a hurry", he said. "He knows that." But for another person, in the same way Mkhitaryan would be swapping an Eastern European outfit who play poor teams domestically to prove himself in one of the world's best leagues, Suarez would be leaving a club in decline, who handed their legendary number 9 shirt to a 26-year-old uncapped Spaniard bought from a relegation battling club this summer, for a side having paid off a beautiful new stadium, with improved finances coming on stream and regular, consistent, dependable Champions League football every year; an opportunity to prove himself on the highest of stages.
It is all subjective. And with the majority of fans not quite understanding the extent to which the club they support shapes their view of a situation, agreement will never be achieved. Mkhitkaryan, a villain for the Shakhtar faithful, would have been a hero had he landed at Anfield, no matter the method. Suarez, now a villain for Liverpool fans, but set to be a hero, a redeemer, should he land at Arsenal. In the end, the only view that really matters is the player's. Just as Asamoah Gyan thought swapping Sunderland for Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates was the best move for him and his family, Suarez's belief that joining Arsenal is the correct career path is something for him and him alone to decide. It might not make sense to the Liverpool season ticket holder – but that is beside the point.
There is though the thorny matter of a contract still in force. And unless Suarez pulls a Mkhitaryan, Liverpool can play hardball. But in the long run, it isn't worth it. Because when a player doesn't believe in his club anymore, the spark has gone and the virus can spread; it is easy to imagine Philippe Coutinho looking on and wondering whether he too might have to follow Suarez out of the door within the next two years, all because of the message sent out by the Uruguayan. Perhaps instead it's time for Liverpool to ask why Suarez feels strongly that they are so far behind Arsenal it is worth fighting to move to the Emirates Stadium, rather than castigating him for having those feelings in the first place.
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