[Bruvva]

Oooh, a 40 million AND ONE pound bid for Suarez from Arsenal. They can have him for that much. Although I'll still be surprised if he goes to an English club.

*edit*

Just seen the Liverpool owner's reaction on Twitter : "@John_W_Henry What do you think they're smoking over there at Emirates?"

*second edit*

And presumably the extra £1 is just returning the one Carragher lobbed into the crowd a few years back.

[Yudster]

I know Suarez is a very very good player but given the crap he brings with him I am quite surprised that anyone would want to take him on. I think he's best off staying at Liverpool where they already understand him and are used to his - eccentricities?! - and more to the point appreciate him. He won't get that kind of love anywhere else surely? And if Liverpool are ever going to get back to being the club they once were, and surely should be, they need him. I think.

[Boboff]

I think if he scores goals and wins games, they will love him wherever he goes, even if his goal celebrations involve munching off a goat.

[Topher]

This is the racist, yes? Why would you be even entertaining the idea of employing a racist or not sacking a racist, regardless of how good they are at their job?

[Bruvva]

Ask Chelsea.

It does amuse me that England's John Terry's on pitch racist outburst is forgotten by everyone but people leap up and down and point at the swarthy foreigner whilst saying "HE'S RACIST".

Oh, AND Rio Ferdinand for his "Choc Ice" twitter faux pas. That was equally offensive, anyone said that to my wife and they'd be shitting their teeth out for a long time afterwards.

But y'know, those two are English so it gets overlooked.

[chrysostom]

As I said at the time of both incidents, there is a massive difference between making a racist comment to antagonise someone and actually holding racist views. The term 'racist' is bandied about so much these days that people are starting to forget how horrible true racism can be. The same goes for John Terry.

That's not to make apologies for Suarez - I think he conducts himself poorly on the pitch, dives, feigns injury to get others carded (in turn getting himself carded often), and also has a worrying temper which has twice led to him biting opposition players during a game.

While Arsenal fans have long since yearned for an expensive, world class marquee signing who is proven in the premier league, I think it's fair to say that this wouldn't be everyone's first choice. The £40m (which will end up being significantly more than that if we do sign him, ~£45m) price tag combined with his numerous issues would make signing Suarez a calculated gamble. Not to mention that it's a confusing situation in which to support your club, you have to support a player who has such obvious flaws.

In general, Liverpool as a club and fanbase threw their support behind him and in turn got excellent form out of him - but their reputation suffered hugely. Conspiracy theories, claiming Negrito is actually a friendly greeting, the 'Support Suarez' t-shirts. I would hate for anything like that to be brought out in the Arsenal fanbase (in which there are many idiots who would gladly comply) and God forbid, the club dealing with any potential incidents badly.

If he does sign for Arsenal, he should get the full backing of the fans, as at the end of the day he's one of the best 3 players in the league and a huge improvement on what we have - but he won't be loved like he is at Liverpool, which could end up like Torres at Chelsea.

[The Deadly]

There are far better, less risk players out there than Suarez. How much of an idiot will Suarez look BTW when he signs for another English club despite slagging off the media and lifestyle?

[chrysostom]

I think the biggest issue is Arsenal's 'pulling power', and potential wages for any marquee signing.

Currently Suarez is on around £120k (deal signed last year) - meaning that he'd probably be OK moving for a 20-30% increase. Well within Arsenal's wage structure - but more importantly he wants to move to a club in the Champions League. If you ignore Monaco's squad, I'd say Suarez has to be the best striker not playing in the CL in European Football.

Not to mention that Suarez has 2 and a half years of Premier League experience, with a good league record (77 apps, 38 goals, 16 assists) and a fantastic level of technical ability.

End of the day, if Arsenal could easily sign any of Zlatan, Rooney, Lewandowski, or even if they could have retained Van Persie - they would have. It's a harsh reality, but we won't pay silly wages (above £190k) and we haven't won anything for 8 years - meaning we're not that attractive a prospect if you're good enough to walk into any team in the world.

Now that Higuain is all but signed for Napoli, Suarez is probably one of the best strikers who would be interested in coming to us. Just a shame he has so much baggage, as he's a wonderful player.

edit: Top 20 strikers in Europe last season http://eurorivals.net/top-scorers.html

[The Deadly]

Ok hypothetical situation. Suarez comes back from his ban that he's on and 5 games later he stamps on a player/bites them. What happens then??? The FA will likely ban him Eric Cantona style and your club flushes £40million down the toilet. Suarez obviously has some kind of anger issue and it could be something that is not treatable or manageable. I just think although he is talented and would score you goals he is just too bigger risk.
If I was Wenger I'd try to reunite Cisse and Ba. You could get both of them for about £25million.

[Bruvva]

Well, Suarez isn't starting this morning's friendly, read into that what you will.

[Boboff]

Maybe he's actually the Royal Baby's Father and is jetting back to insist on DNA on Jeremy Kyle.

"Suarez:-I'll prove with DNA I am Kate's Babies Dad"

?Maybe?

[chrysostom]

We'll find out once he starts teething.

What really concerns me as an Arsenal fan is also that our squad needs a defender urgently - much more urgent than our need for a striker, and we certainly need a goalkeeper & midfielder.

These deals don't need to be world class players, but shouldn't have much difficulty to complete.

[The Deadly]

Cisse and Ba are the answer to your striking needs. The goalkeeper you require is Asmir Begovic from Stoke and as for the defenders Hummels from Dortmund and John Terry.

The last suggestion might be tongue in cheek.

[chrysostom]

Cisse and Ba are average at best.

Ba can be very good, but struggles for sustained form, only scored 2 league goals since joining Chelsea - and his exploding knee could go off at any time.

Cisse was below average last season after a good half season.

Given that our system uses 1 central striker and we already have Giroud (and have signed Sanogo) - getting in 2 more strikers of a similar level wouldn't make us much more of an attacking threat.

[The Deadly]

It is true that both had a bad second half of the season. I just can't get my head round why Suarez is the main target. It is so unlike Wenger to go for a player with his reputation. The whole thing might come to nothing anyway if Suarez doesn't want to join Arsenal. If he hates the lifestyle here so much he might bugger off to Monaco or PSG.

[Bonanzoid]

The main thing that's bugging me about the Suarez fiasco is that he said he's fed up of being harassed by the English media. Obviously, the logical solution to that is to move to London.

[Yudster]

I'm sure Suarez would jump at a move to Spain or Italy - but be realistic, for all the reasons mentioned by various people here, that isn't going to happen, he's too big a risk. Like Deadly I'm astonished that Wenger would even consider signing him, but who knows what might be going on there?

So notwithstanding what Suarez has said about living in England, he hasn't got a lot of options really. I still say he will be best of staying exactly where he is. Liverpool have already taken the decision that supporting him is more important than maintaining a reputation (whatever that means in football) and I totally get why, he brings something very special and very different to them which they are thriving on, and he won't get the support and love he will get there anywhere else.

[The Deadly]

As astonished as I am that Wenger wants to sign him I'm equally as astonished that Liverpool didn't take the money and run. They have Sturridge and Aspas who are really good strikers and that £40million could go a long way to improving the other positions. Suarez is world class but with his problems and the fact if he loses it again and does something stupid he'll be banned for months I'm surprised Liverpool won't sell.

[flyingbadger]

Congrats to Bonerzoids team St. Johnstone. Fantastic result beating Rosenborg in the Europa League qualifiers.
Shame Hibs got pure pumped by Malmo. Ah mean imagine getting beat by a soft chewy confectionary.
Pish.

[Bonanzoid]

The words "best result in the club's history" are being thrown around about last night, and I can't think of a bigger scalp for us as such a small club. Over the bloody moon.

Also, lolhibs.

[The Deadly]

Reading won today. I had the pleasure of being there to see it live and it was a * struggle.

[Yudster]

Wow. We won. Away. At Gillingham, the Old Enemy. Wow. Just wow.

[Bruvva]

Only 5 days til the conference starts, hurrah for non league football.

Also, can the really tedious Suarez/Rooney/Bale transfers get sorted out in the next week please?

[Yudster]

Also, can the really tedious Suarez/Rooney/Bale transfers get sorted out in the next week please?

Oh god please.

[The Deadly]

Yeah it's really pathetic now. To be fair the clubs would rather do the business in private and the sports media who have * all to talk about have to recycle the same story every day.

I've been in favour now of a salary cap and draft system similar to American football. The whole process lasts about two weeks and once it's done it's done. As much as I love football it really is the most morally corrupt, poorly run team sport in the world.