Arsenal fail with £40m Suarez bid

Liverpool have rejected Arsenal's
improved offer of just over £40m
for Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez.
The unusual bid of £40,000,001 was
designed to trigger a clause in the
player's contract, but Liverpool have
turned it down.
Under the terms of Suarez's deal, the
club are duty bound to consider any
offer for him in excess of £40m and
then inform the 26-year-old of it.
But they do not have to sell and have
now rejected two bids from Arsenal.
While Liverpool remain determined
to keep their prized asset, who
scored 30 goals for the club in 44
appearances last season, their
resolve is likely to be tested if the
bidding continues to rise.
Should Arsenal persist and have an
improved bid accepted, it could
come close to trebling their previous
highest initial outlay on a transfer.
The Gunners, whose first offer for
Suarez was £30m, paid a reported
£15m to Zenit St Petersburg for
Andrey Arshavin, in January 2009.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers
last week said he considered Suarez
to be at least as valuable as Edinson
Cavani, who recently joined Paris St-
Germain for £55m.
Real Madrid remain interested but
have yet to make a formal offer.
Suarez joined Liverpool's pre-season
tour of Australia at the weekend and
was expected to hold talks about his
future with Rodgers.
The Uruguay international flew to
Melbourne from Montevideo on
Sunday after being given extended
leave by the Reds following the
Confederations Cup.
He wants to leave Anfield to play for
a Champions League club despite
only signing a new long-term deal
last summer.
Speculation has grown about
Suarez's future since he was
punished with a 10-game ban at the
end of April for biting Chelsea's
Branislav Ivanovic.
The striker still has to serve six games
of that suspension and was also
banned in 2011 after being found
guilty of racially abusing Manchester
United's Patrice Evra.
Suarez joined Liverpool from Ajax in
January 2011 in a £22.7m deal.