You would think after being labelled a racist, being banned for eight matches, and dividing football fans all over the world, Luis Suarez would have just taken a back seat at Old Trafford yesterday and tried to concentrate on getting his team a result.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be.
As a lifelong Liverpool fan, the whole saga has been very frustrating, and while initially I was in support of Suarez, his constant knack of finding headlines for the wrong reasons is starting to wear my patience thin.
He may be an unbelievable football player, but he is beginning to become a liability, not just letting himself down with his unnecessary antics, but also reflecting badly on his teammates and his club.
It certainly places myself and other Reds fans in a dilemma. Liverpool is an immensely proud club, very aware of its public image and maintaining its long-standing reputation as one of the biggest and best clubs in the world.
The fans are renowned for their devotion and passion, and generally any negativity directed at the players or the way the club is run is met with a barrage of opposition.
So when Suarez first burst onto the scene, displaying his scintillating talents almost from his first touch in a red shirt, it was hardly surprising that he quickly became the Kop‘s favourite new son.
Any minor criticisms (normally centered around the Uruguayan‘s apparent eagerness to play for free kicks) were dismissed instantly, and even when the FA banned him for racial abuse towards Evra, the vast majority of fans (myself included) were calling foul play from Evra, claiming that there was insufficient proof Suarez had done anything wrong.
That’s what made Suarez’s decision to deny Evra a handshake even more stunning.
Having emerged with his fan image relatively unscathed from some serious allegations, his latest antics come across as arrogant and immature, as if the club’s support was his right as a Liverpool player.
This is not at all the case. The club, and particularly Kenny Dalglish, have put themselves in the firing line, staking their reputation by going against the trend and defending Suarez right to the end, even after he was found guilty of racial abuse.
There’s certainly a valid case for fans wanting to stay loyal to their side, but going against the FA and the majority of England in a race issue is a big risk.
And now, just when fans seem to have got over the worst of it, Suarez comes asking for more support over an even more undeniable row that was clearly instigated by him.
It’s true that Patrice Evra did little to ease the tension, and he too deserves to be punished for his cynical antics after the game, when he decided to gloat about his team’s win right in front of a dejected Suarez.
But what really irritates me is how easily this could have been avoided.
All Suarez had to do was shake hands and Liverpool could have got back to focusing on their season. Instead, Suarez deemed the best way to deal with the very obvious tension throughout the stadium was to ramp it up even further.
It made a total mockery of all the support he had received in the weeks of his ban, and made Dalglish sound like a broken record as he staunchly tried to defend a man with absolutely no leg to stand on.
It is tarnishing the club’s great reputation, as neutrals now see the fans’ ‘passion’ towards the club as delusion.
The question is what to do now? Suarez is Liverpool’s talisman, the main man the team looks to for creating and scoring goals and providing the team with an x-factor.
There’s little doubt that when Suarez plays, Liverpool look more dangerous on the attack, and they face little chance of making the top four without him.
To punish him may create tension within the club and lead to a stand-off between player and club, but keeping quiet may do the same as teammates get sick of the controversy he generates.
If Liverpool wish to move forward as a club, then the only smart move is to punish Suarez and look to move him on if he continues to act so selfishly.
Despite his talents, he ultimately doesn’t help the team, as his moments of magic are ultimately outweighed by his moments of madness. No player is bigger than the club, and he cannot expect to always have support for every mistake he makes.
Giving him that ultimatum will only have a positive effect for the team – he either knuckles down and works to rebuild his image, or he gets pushed out of the side a la Carlos Tevez at Manchester City, and allows players who want to play for the team, as a team, the chance to do so.
Just quietly, that hasn’t worked out too badly for City.
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