• John W Henry quoted as saying club simply refused to sell • 'What we've found is that contracts don't seem to mean a lot'

The Liverpool owner John Henry has reportedly admitted that Luis Suárez did have a £40m buyout clause but that the club simply refused to sell the player when Arsenal made their £40m plus one pound offer last summer.

At the time Liverpool were adamant that the Gunners' bid would not trigger the release of their striker, but Henry, speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, appears to have suggested that the Reds simply took a hard line because "apparently these contracts don't seem to hold".

"Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League, which is arguably the top soccer league in the world," Henry is reported to have said. "He had a buyout clause of £40m. Arsenal, one of our prime rivals, offered £40m plus £1. What we've found … is that contracts don't seem to mean a lot in England – actually, in world football.

"It doesn't matter how long a player's contract is, he can decide he's leaving. We sold a player, Fernando Torres, for £50m, that we did not want to sell, we were forced to.

"Since apparently these contracts don't seem to hold, we took the position that we're just not selling.

"It's been great for Luis, it's been great for us. We have three gentlemen up front Suárez, [Raheem] Sterling, and [Daniel]Sturridge, [they] are young, I think those three could be together for a long time."