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| Steven Gerrard convinced Luis Suarez to stay another year |
But the year before he was pushing for a move to the Emirates after Arsenal had made a £40m+£1 bid.
And Gerrard said, as a Liverpool icon, he made it his business to make sure they didn't strengthen a rival by selling Suarez to Arsenal.
Gerrard met with the Uruguay striker to put him off and convinced him to stay put another season.
"Before the meeting you had Luis Suarez training on his own in the afternoon at Melwood," Gerrard told BT Sport.
"Brendan’s relationship with Luis had broken down.
"I don’t think it was Brendan’s fault. Luis wanted to move on, to play Champions’ League football and he had people in his ear and people around him forcing him to make moves that maybe he didn’t really wanna do.
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| Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez after the Norwich game |
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| Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard still have a good relationship |
"So I think it was just a case of being in the middle and trying to heal that relationship with him and Brendan and get him training with the first team again and just chatting to Luis and saying to him, is it Arsenal that you really want or do you want Real Madrid or Barca?
That was the jist of the conversation, because I knew, deep down that him and his family wanted Barcelona rather than Arsenal…
"For me and all the Liverpool supporters and Liverpool people it made no sense at all, him going to Arsenal because it would have made them an awful lot stronger.
"When you lose someone like Luis Suarez it makes you an awful lot weaker, so for me, I was prepared to do anything it took to try and make that not happen."
Watch a 30 minute BT Sport special --- “Sport In Focus - Steven Gerrard" – on BT Sport 1 next Wednesday 30 September at 3pm. Catch a preview on btsport.com from later tonight (24 Sept)
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