Rodgers slams ‘disrespectful’ Suarez

Liverpool manager says striker has undermined club’s dignity.

LONDON: Luis Suarez’s uneasy relationship with Liverpool reached breaking point when manager Brendan Rodgers accused the want-away striker of lacking dignity over his public campaign to engineer a move away from Anfield.

The controversial Uruguayan striker claimed that Liverpool had gone back on an agreement written into his contract, signed last August, which obliges them to sell to any club offering more than £40 million.

“The Liverpool way is all about a club with ambition, a club that strives to be the very best, a club that is about commitment — that means that everyone is committed to the cause of fighting for the shirt,” said Rodgers. “It’s also about dignity and being dignified in how you speak about the club, on and off the field, and it’s about unity. There will never be any player or person bigger than the club.

“Professionally, Suarez has given me everything since I came into the club, but there is obviously a way in which you have to speak. This is a club that has offered Suarez the utmost respect since the day he walked through the door.

“That’s something that over the course of the coming weeks you need to have when you work for Liverpool Football Club. You’ve got supporters and players that have given Suarez absolutely everything — they backed him to the hilt.”

Rodgers was speaking after seeing Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Martin Kelly and Raheem Sterling score in a 4-1 friendly win over Valerenga. Suarez did not feature in the squad.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2013.

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