Arsenal decided not to go to court over batte to sign Luis Suarez for £40,000,001 in 2013
In a meeting involving Arsenal supporters clubs on Monday night, French journalist Julien Laurens revisited the time the Gunners nearly signed Luis Suarez from Liverpool.
Arsenal's Ivan Gazidis, in the summer of 2013, had a telephone conversation with Liverpool's Ian Ayre, during which he made a final offer for Suarez, an offer which was rejected.
The London club's strategy, in cahoots with Pere Guardiola, Suarez's agent, was to go £1 over the Uruguayan's release clause, which they understood was anything over £40million.
A clause in Suarez's contract said Liverpool had to accept any offer which went above £40million, which is why Gazidis offered Ayre £40,000,001.
It was Arsenal's third offer. The first was £25million, while the second had been more than £30million.
They were then prepared to pay the player £100,000 a week.
Liverpool responded negatively to the offer and, as Laurens revealed on Monday, Arsenal had planned to take the case to court as they felt the Anfield club had to accept the offer.
However, Laurens said that Arsenal bottled taking it to the next step, for reasons unknown. If they had, Suarez may not have ended up at Barcelona in 2014.
