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Arsenal are doing their best to take the sheen off Liverpool's fancy friendly tomorrow at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, reportedly bidding upwards of £40m for Luis Suarez and triggering some sort of talk-to clause that exists in the Uruguayan striker's contract. The best part of the whole deal is that the "upwards of £40m" part is that they've gone and added a whole £1 to make it north of the £40m, which is either some really shrewd negotiating or a really high profile troll job. It's probably both.
Earlier in the day Tony Barrett had rejected claims that the North London club had not bid £42m (including add-ons or Skittles or free cinema passes), but he's now announced both on Twitter and in The Times that Arsenal have indeed placed another bid for Suarez and had it rejected by "bemused" Liverpool officials:
Right. It's 10.30 so here goes: Arsenal have had an improved offer of £40,000,001 for Luis Suarez rejected by Liverpool.
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) July 23, 2013
So something did actually happen, but what materializes from here is anyone's guess. Suarez is supposedly able to talk with Arsene Wenger and Arsenal about the move from here, but Liverpool remain in control, don't have to sell the player, and would be foolish to do so to one of the clubs that they're hoping to chase for the Champions League spots in the coming season or two. Plus, you know, they added an extra £1 because they must mean business now surely.
At this point it sort of feels like Luis Suarez is Arsenal's grandiose safety school--they've applied to Jovetic and Higuain and been rejected, and now they're telling everyone in their extended family that they didn't really want to go there anyway and that Suarez is what they really wanted all along. Only instead of ending up at the technical school two towns away they're going to be left with Olivier Giroud.