There often comes a point where certain senior players need to be moved on, but there’s a good and a bad way to go about doing that.
Ideally you’ll part on good terms, get some kind of transfer fee and they’ll move to another league so they can’t come back to haunt you.
On the other hand you can do what Barcelona did with Luis Suarez, and that deal just continues to look even worse as time goes on.
They’ve essentially given a title rival the deadly striker they needed to enable them to push for the league, and Atletico Madrid are heavy favourites for the title just now thanks to Suarez and his goals.
READ MORE: Chelsea star Antonio Rudiger reacts to scuffle with Luis Suarez after being ‘pinched’ as ace previews second-leg against Atletico Madrid
It’s also worth pointing out that Suarez seems to thrive on the motivation of doing things to prove a point against someone, so leaving on bad terms has likely given him some added hunger to prove himself and win the league for Diego Simeone’s men.
It’s also fair to wonder if the decision to get rid of Suarez will play a part in Lionel Messi leaving as they were close friends off the pitch, while it appears the financial side of the deal is a shambles as well.
Barca were only in line to receive a fee based on certain achievements, and one of those was reaching the quarter finals of the Champions League so that’s €2m they won’t receive after their loss to Chelsea last night:
Con la eliminación del Atlético, el Barça dejará de ingresar 2 millones de euros por el traspaso de Luis Suárez.
Uno de los variables era este:
2 millones si el Atlético llegaba a cuartos de Champions.
— Sique RodríguezGairí (@SiqueRodriguez) March 17, 2021
Barca have been rightfully criticised for their transfer business lately and big money flops like Dembele, Griezmann and Coutinho show why, but this Suarez deal could end up going down as the worst of the lot.
A little more, and Suarez will be back home!