There are few players in Liverpool's history who could match Luis Suarez for drama.
The Uruguayan forward's three-and-a-half seasons at Anfield may only have yielded a solitary League Cup winner's medal, but his stint on Merseyside was littered with sensational goals, performances and controversy in equal measure. When the player nicknamed 'El Pistolero' wasn't being suspended for one reason or another, he was banging in goal after goal, each one more outrageous than the last, as former Norwich City goalkeeper John Ruddy would surely testify.
Despite the apparent baggage that came with Suarez, his stock in European football soared at Anfield. And with the talisman figuring in what was, initially at least, a pretty underwhelming Liverpool team, other sides became very interested in prising him away from Merseyside.
One of those team's was Premier League rivals Arsenal, who, a decade ago, were very much a fixture club in the Champions League under Arsene Wenger. Suarez was known to be somewhat disillusioned by Liverpool's seventh-placed finish the season before and fancied the move.
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Encouraged to go and get their man, The Gunners had a first offer of £30million plus £5million in add-ons rejected by the Reds, but if Liverpool took a dim view of that offer, that was nothing compared to the subsequent counter proposal. The North London outfit were under the impression that Suarez had a release clause in his contract that was triggered if any club bid more than £40million for him.
Armed with this knowledge, and knowing Suarez had virtually agreed to the deal, Arsenal returned with a fresh offer put forward to the Reds - £40million plus £1. As cheeky as it appeared, the Gunners had surely met the club's requirements? The only problem was that the alleged release clause didn't actually exist. Or if it did, Liverpool simply refused to play ball.
Instead, Liverpool insisted they simply had to inform Suarez of any interest, not actually sell the striker.
Arsenal's offer prompted a public response from Liverpool's principle owner John Henry, in what would become a legendary social media quip across world football.
Writing on Twitter, Henry said: "What do you think they're smoking over there at Emirates?"
And later at a fans event, Henry reiterated his stance and refusal to do business with the Gunners.
"I don't know why people ask us if we are selling the club or the best players, because we are not," Henry said. "We like to buy stuff, not to sell."
But that wouldn't be the end of the matter.
Suarez, infuriated by what he believed were broken promises made by Liverpool's hierarchy and still claiming that the buyout clause was in his contract, sat down with The Guardian and urged the club to let him go.
"Last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I'd be allowed to go," he said. "I gave absolutely everything last season but it was not enough to give us a top-four finish – now all I want is for Liverpool to honour our agreement.
"I don't feel betrayed but the club promised me something a year ago just as I promised them that I would stay and try everything possible to get us into the Champions League.
"They gave me their word a year ago and now I want them to honour that. And it is not just something verbal with the coach but something that is written in the contract. I'm not going to another club to hurt Liverpool."
But Liverpool stood firm and in the end it was club captain Steven Gerrard who personally intervened to end the row with Suarez. Pulling aside the Uruguayan on the training ground, Gerrard told his team-mate that Arsenal wasn't a big enough club for him and that, if he stayed one more year with the Reds, much bigger names would come calling.
And so it proved to be.
There would be no move to Arsenal for Suarez, but a man used to disruption was not about to be derailed by the fallout. The irrepressible Uruguayan went on to produce this best season for Liverpool, scoring a phenomenal 31 Premier League goals in 33 appearances. His goals and performances saw him sweep the board on Player of the Year awards and also earned him the European Golden Shoe accolade.
His incredible contribution, that pulled many of his teammates onto a higher level, brought Brendan Rodgers' team to within an ace of ending Liverpool's long wait for a 19th league title, falling just short at the finishing post. Suarez found himself back in hot water soon after when he was suspended for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - the third time he had been disciplined for a biting incident in his career.
He would never play in the red shirt of Liverpool again after a £64.98million move to Barcelona was agreed. And it was here that Suarez would go onto achieve the success his talent undoubtedly deserved with the Catalan giants, after forming a lethal partnership with Lionel Messi and Neymar.
But former Arsenal manager Wenger, later revealed just how close Liverpool's star player had come to joining their long-standing rivals in the capital. Speaking to beIN Sports, Wenger said: "He was very close. We had an agreement with the player. We had been wrongly advised that he had a clause, with a minimal clause, but we had an agreement with the player.”
On this occasion, the lack of a release clause worked in Liverpool's favour as they were able to offload the growing baggage of Suarez 12 months later for a much larger fee than Arsenal had been offering. And as far as anyone is aware, Barcelona did not need to offer a couple of extra 50ps to get the deal over the line.
A version of this story was first published in June 2022
