He is said to be top of Pep Guardiola’s shopping list for this summer, but Luis Suarez says that he is going nowhere, even if Liverpool don’t finish in the top four this season.
Liverpool are seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League table with 14 games remaining and will face competition from Merseyside rivals Everton in fifth and sixth-placed Arsenal for a top-four berth.
“If you want to know what will happen to me if we don’t qualify for the Champions League, then I will say this: I have a contract with Liverpool and I am very happy here,” Suarez, contracted until 2016, told the British newspaper the Daily Mail.
“I will stay.”
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard told British media last month that Suarez, who has scored 43 goals in 84 appearances since he joined from Ajax Amsterdam two years ago, was ‘comfortably’ in the top five players in the world.
“Gerrard is such a good player and what he said about me I will never forget. It’s unbelievable,” said Suarez, who has scored 17 league goals so far this season, one less than Manchester United’s Robin van Persie.
“I get goose pimples when I hear he said that. In my country we call it Carne de Gallina. Like the skin of a chicken. That’s how I feel.”
Suarez lent his support to the more junior players at Liverpool after their mentality was criticised by manager Brendan Rodgers following Sunday’s 3-2 FA Cup defeat by third-tier Oldham Athletic.
“The younger players here are very good and the good thing is that many of them are home grown. That means they have a passion for the club,” Suarez said.
Liverpool have came under criticism this season for not beating anyone in the top half of the table, but Suarez points out:
“This is the way it is at the moment. Sometimes we play well, as good as being in the top four of the Premier League. Then other times we don’t play anywhere near as well. It’s just one of those things with football. As a player I just want to win every match but sometimes we just don’t play well enough.
“Every player feels differently about playing football. We are all different people. I am the type who wants to win all the time. I hate to lose. What I can say is the younger players here are very good and the good thing is that many of them are home grown. That means they have a passion for the club. I am sure they are doing the best they can.
“This year we are playing well against lower teams and are winning. Last year we were not winning those type of games.
“We are hoping we can do better against the big teams. If we do we have a chance. We have to become stronger in our minds.
“Look at the Manchester United game (Liverpool lost 2-1). The second half at United was actually very good. We were better than them. In that moment, mentally we were very good and this is the way we should play every week. We actually left the stadium happy, even though we lost.”
