Suarez ‘won’t apologise to Liverpool’
Reports Uruguayan striker will refuse manager Rodgers’ demand that he apologise for trying to leave the club.
Wantaway Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has no plans to apologise and mend a rift with the club over his conduct, sources have told British media.
Manager Brendan Rodgers said Surarez must apologise to his club and team mates if he wants to be welcomed back into the squad, after the Uruguayan sought to leave Merseyside during the off season.
Rodgers said on Sunday the striker would need to mend relations when he returned from playing for Uruguay in a friendly in Japan on Wednesday.
“Initially there will be an apology to his team mates and the club, then a recognition that he is ready to fight for the club,” Rodgers said after Liverpool had lost to Celtic in their final pre-season friendly in Dublin on Saturday.
“I know that we are not seeing the Luis Suarez I know. He has spent some days working on his own. When he comes back from Uruguay we will see how it goes further.”
But Britain’s Sky Sports and the Daily Mail newspaper reported that sources close to the star had said that he would not apologise because he believed his conduct had not disrespected the club.
‘Amicable agreement’
The reports said Suarez believed that there had been an agreement that he could leave to for a club playing in the Champions League.
Rodgers ordered Suarez to train alone after the 26-year-old told Spanish sports daily Marca in midweek he wanted an “amicable agreement” to leave Liverpool and thought that a bid over 40 million pounds was enough to trigger a clause in his contract.
However, Rodgers insisted that “we are all on the same page”.
“He won’t be going to Arsenal, that’s for sure,” the Liverpool manager said, in reference to the Premier League rivals’ 40 million-pound ($62.11 million) offer for Suarez during the season’s break.
“When Luis is committed to the cause, we will welcome him back with open arms.”
Suarez, who scored 29 goals in all competitions for Liverpool last season, received full backing from the club and the solidarity of fans during two controversial incidents that have marred his two and a half years at Liverpool – a racist outburst at Manchester United’s Patrice Evra and biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.