Suarez is an ‘honourable guy’ claims Nicol.
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Former Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has said that he has a great amount of sympathy for vilified striker Luis Suarez and has demanded that the club do right by him, talkSPORT reports.
Suarez has accused Reds boss Brendan Rodgers of not being true to his word in granting him an exit from the club in order to join a team able of offering Champions League football – namely Arsenal, who have already had a £40 million bid rejected.
The Uruguayan international has also claimed that he could have joined Italian giants Juventus last summer, but stayed with Liverpool in a show of loyalty to Brendan Rodgers, who told him that he would be allowed to leave during this transfer window should they fail to obtain their goal.
“What has been written tells you that Suarez is actually an honourable guy,” said former Liverpool star Nicol.
“For all the things he did on the field, he honoured his contract. He played for Liverpool last season and gave everything. It seems to me that it is the other party that is not being honourable.
“I don’t think there is any reason for him to come out and say what he did unless it is right. He seems pretty factual in the words he has spoken.
“Brendan Rodgers seems to have said, ‘if we don’t [qualify for the Champions League] then I’ll personally make sure you can go’. That totally changes everything. It makes sense that Suarez hasn’t really said an awful lot before.
“You cannot promise anything to your players and not follow through,” he continued. “That is a huge problem and Brendan is probably wishing now he had just kept out of it so that eventually it would be a battle between the people upstairs and Suarez’s entourage. That is not the case.
“Brendan is now stuck firmly in the middle of it and, if Brendan has given his word to Suarez, then I don’t think there is any way back for them.”
Liverpool have insisted that there is no buy out clause in Suarez’s contract and have said that the paperwork only stipulates that the player is informed of an offer worth over £40 million.
“I have never in my life seen a contract that ever stated you can talk to people if you are offered a certain amount. That makes no sense whatsoever,” Nicol added.
“The situation Liverpool find themselves in is this is going to arbitration and into the hands of a legal expert who will decide one way or the other who is right and who is wrong.”