Arsenal FC news: ‘I’m convinced Luis Suarez wanted to join us’ – Arsene Wenger on 2013 transfer saga with Liverpool

Arsene Wenger says he is ‘convinced’ Luis Suarez wanted to join Arsenal from Liverpool in 2013.

The Gunners infamously attempted to bring the Uruguayan to the Emirates by exploiting a clause in his contract and bidding £40m and £1 to sign him.

Suarez had netted 30 goals in 44 appearances [in all competitions] for Brendan Rodgers' side in 2012/13, as they finished 7th in the Premier League.

The Merseysiders were riled by Arsenal’s cheeky attempts to bring him to north London in the off season, with owner John W Henry tweeting: ‘What do you think they're smoking over there at Emirates?’

Liverpool refused to budge, offering Suarez a new contract and keeping hold of him for a further 12 months, where he so nearly fired them to the title, before he departed for Barcelona for a considerably higher fee.

"It was very close,” Wenger recently admitted in an interview with beIN Sports.

“We had an agreement with the player.

“We had been wrongly advised that he had a clause, you know, with a minimum [price]. But we had an agreement with the player. You can ask him.

"I'm convinced that he wanted to join us. And then they kept him for one more year, they improved his contract and promised to sell him a year later to a club abroad."

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One possible worry for other clubs about signing Suarez from Liverpool was his disciplinary past, having served bans for biting on three occasions, as well as a charge for racially abusing Patrice Evra at Man United in 2011.

He has taken his game to another level, though, since moving to the Blaugrana, scoring 113 goals and assisting 65 in 136 appearances as part of a front three with Messi and Neymar.

Wenger said: "He had some behaviours that were shocking, but you don't see them anymore since two or three years.

“He got rid of all the things that were a handicap for him. And today you don't see that anymore.

"He is still on the borderline with what a striker does well, like go down in the penalty box. But you want that from an intelligent striker, to provoke. But I think he got rid of all the rest."

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