Arsenal legend Ian Wright has said Luis Suarez should ignore his former club and stay put at Merseyside.
Liverpool have rejected two offers from Arsenal for the 26-year-old Uruguay international, who has not kept secret his desire to play in the Champions League next season.
Suarez is of the view that Arsenal’s latest offer of £40m plus £1 triggered a clause in his contract that allows him to speak to suitors, but Liverpool does not agree with the striker and are likely holding out for a fee in the region of £50m-plus.
Ian Wright Believes Suarez Should Remain at Liverpool For One More Season.[/caption
Speaking with the BBC Sport, Wright, who scored 185 goals for Arsenal in his seven-year stay at the London club said if he were Suarez, he would be considering playing for the Reds for one more season.
“I’d welcome him at Arsenal with open arms,” Wright, who signed for Arsenal in 1991 for a then club record £2.5m said.
But if I was Suarez, when you look at everything, it does seem strange he would want to go to Arsenal. I would give Liverpool another season.
“Arsenal finally realise they’ve got to get up there with the big boys otherwise they will be left behind,” he added.
Arsenal’s only summer signing to date is the free transfer of 20-year-old French forward Yaya Sanogo from Auxerre, and Wright believes there are other areas in the team that has to be strengthened as much as getting Suarez is not a bad choice.
“I would like to see them go as far as they can to get Suarez, but they can’t just buy him and not replenish the rest of the team. I think they need a goalkeeper, two centre-halves, two full-backs- for both left-back and right-back positions- another midfielder and two strikers.
“It doesn’t make sense buying Suarez for that money and not backing it up with other signings of the same stature.”
Suarez’s 10-match ban for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic will have him miss out of the first six games of the 2013/14 season and Wright added that Arsenal could capitalise on the player’s situation and land him.
“That’s why I believe Arsenal should try to bring him in- because I feel it’s the only time they could get someone like that. In another market, I don’t think he’d even look at Arsenal.”
