Suarez: Gerrard stopped me from making Arsenal mistake

Luis Suarez says it was Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard who stopped him making a ‘mistake’ in joining Arsenal in the summer of 2013.

Suarez was the subject of interest from the Gunners almost 18 months ago, and looked on the verge of leaving Anfield having been told to train alone by Brendan Rodgers in what was the summers longest transfer saga.

The Uruguayan went on to stay at Anfield for another season, and scored 31 goals to take the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title before joining Barcelona in a £75million move.

And the 27-year-old has revealed it was Steven Gerrard who persuaded him to stay with the Reds.

“It would have been a big error that I would have made had it not been for Steven Gerrard,” he said. “We spoke about this when I went to Melwood [Liverpool’s training ground] to pick up my things at the end of the summer and he said: ‘You did the right thing, you waited until the best moment.’

“He had told me [the previous summer] to play well for Liverpool, give it another year and it will be Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Barcelona coming for you and then you can go where you want, because you have the quality to play at any of those three clubs.”