BARCELONA initially wanted to sign Sergio Aguero in 2014 before turning their attention to Luis Suarez, claims their former sporting director.
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| Barcelona signed Suarez (left) after the World Cup, having failed to land Aguero |
Suarez forced through a £75million transfer from Liverpool after the 2014 World Cup, in which he was disgraced for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini.
He was banned for four months for the incident, which apparently deterred a number of suitors.
And Andoni Zubizarreta claims Barca were already in talks with Suarez that summer - after initially failing six months earlier to land Aguero - and that the bite helped secure the Uruguayan's signature.
"We had some options. The first was not Suarez. He knows it," Zubizarreta told Marca.
"In winter we considered the signing of Aguero. That did not work out.
"In this situation, there was no doubt: Luis Suarez was our only goal."
He added: "During the negotiation process the incident with Chiellini occurred.
"The issue created a seed of doubt for other clubs who wanted him. They questioned his character.
"I thought it was the perfect time to accelerate the process of signing him.
"I liked everything about him: he was not static, knew his way around the outside of the box and gave us a profile which we did not have.
"From the outset his willingness to sign for Barca was huge."
Liverpool eventually cashed in on their ace and tried to sign Barca striker Alexis Sanchez as his replacement.
However, the Chile international instead moved to Arsenal.
And former boss Brendan Rodgers explained on Saturday his frustrations during the 2014 summer transfer window.
"It was a huge blow to lose Luis. I built the team around him," Rodgers, 42, told Sky Sports.
"Ideally, after the second season when we'd just missed out [on the title], you keep your best players, add one or two and then hopefully go on and win it.
"Unfortunately we lost a world-class player and you've seen his impact at Barcelona. I think his mind was made up. We needed a player who could press at the top, not just a goal-scorer, because Luis was giving us so much more than that.
"The huge blow was that we thought we were getting Alexis Sanchez and that he'd be a like-for-like replacement, in terms of how he pressed the game and his aggression.
"We thought he'd be perfect, it'd be a smooth transition, and Rickie Lambert would come in and be an option if we needed something else in the game.
"But we didn't get Alexis Sanchez and, bless Rickie, there was a lot of pressure on him when really that wasn't the plan.
"So we had to bring in someone. After the AC Milan game, I was asked the question and I felt Mario wasn't someone who suited the profile of what we were after.
"Mario has big talent. I wasn't thinking I'd be any different in terms of managers who've had issues with him but, at that moment, we didn't really have another option.
"Come the end of the summer we were struggling to get in the type of player we wanted and the ownership thought this was a player I could develop.
"It didn't quite work for us and it cost us."
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