SUAREZ: IT MAKES NO ODDS

IT makes no odds.

I understand why people think it does. I understand the recourse to emotion. That’s the aim.

It makes no odds.

When he ran out on Saturday Suarez may have been surprised by the warmth of the response. I suspect his agent was. I suspect it made him think, we’ve got to do something about this. We need these people to barrack him. We need to do an interview which separates him from them. This is the next step. It is the only step. We need to do something to bring this move about.

It makes no odds.

It’s a manipulative move. By player, by agent. But it is merely saying publicly what has been said privately to the club. It is the explicit articulation of a number of implicit leaked noodles to newspapermen. You knew Luis Suarez wanted to go. You know he really wants to go. He wants to play at the highest level and currently Liverpool cannot offer that.

It makes no odds.

The crux of it isn’t unreasonable. This is where we are. We end this forthcoming season 4 years and six months on from our last Champions League fixture. Luis Suarez is, in my view, the best attacking footballer in the world who doesn’t currently play for Barcelona or Real Madrid. He ought to have the opportunity to play at that level. His talent isn’t wasted at Liverpool – it’s appreciated like nothing on earth. It’s a glorious, marvellous, rambunctious thing. It should be showcased in European Cup Finals as Zidane’s and Messi’s, Dalglish’s and DeStefano’s has been.

It makes no odds.

The player is under contract at Liverpool. Now presuming that the clause doesn’t oblige Liverpool to accept anything (and this had better be the case or Liverpool’s competence question is only going to go nuclear) the reality is that Liverpool choose whether he stays or goes. Liverpool choose what to do with an offer of forty million and one pound. Liverpool choose.

The situation is that Liverpool’s challenge for a finish fourth or higher is easier if Luis Suarez doesn’t play for anyone this season than if he plays for Arsenal and Liverpool have fifty million pounds to spend. This is the reality. This is where we are as well. What stuns me is that Arsenal haven’t offered sixty or seventy million pounds for the player. Because any amount he is worth to Liverpool he is worth that plus ten million to Arsenal. He is the player who would cement them in the top four barring catastrophe. He is the player who would make them genuine contenders.

But it would make no odds.

A sale to Arsenal is suicide for a Liverpool dangerously close to coma – though showing serious signs of fight I believe – regardless of what Suarez does. A sale to Madrid slightly less so but still gives Liverpool a question hugely as to how they effectively spend any money.

I love the expression “it makes no odds”. What exactly does it mean? It doesn’t make that much sense in theory but it is almost onomatopoeic. It’s what not being impressed sounds like. It’s your mouth shrugging.

It’s the response. Garments shouldn’t be rent, hair should remain in the scalp, tears shouldn’t be shed and shirts should remain uncharred.

Let’s not give anyone what they want. No heat. No light. No shouting. Just a collective “It makes no odds. Lad.”

Soz abar that.