to be so disappointed that Suarez has gone

[avocadoaddict]

And i'm not even a Liverpool supporter!

Ok, so he has a penchant for biting fellow players, but he really lit up the Premier League last season and (IMO) was easily the best player (let alone striker) in it. I will miss watching his relentless hard work, natural talent and sheer brilliance at tearing up opposition defences (and I say that as a Norwich fan...how many goals did he score against us last season?! )

He was pure entertainment both on and off the pitch, and I think the league will be a poorer place without him.

actually, the fact that he has been allowed to get away with it, and that people like the OP and others are sad about it, and can forget that he did that, has, for me, really put football into such a bad light. As long as someone's a good player they can be as criminal, vile, racist and thuggish as they like? Sorry, but that says so much about many of the clubs, players, managers and fans.

I have seen Fabergas in a Barca shirt in real life. Still lovely. Not sure about the Chelsea shirt crap. Oh well apparently Arsenal didn't want him back. I wonder if he will move back to where he used to live round the corner from me.

Fingers crossed Ramsey stays. We were loyal to RvP and look at the loyalty he showed .

I am glad Suarez has left as that hopefully mean Liverpool won't do as well this season. He was amazing though. The biting and racism does ruin it.

Yeah I do think that top level football in this country has gone to the dogs. Crazy wages, racism, diving, thuggish behaviour from players and managers (and yes, biting) have brought the game into disrepute. It was very different when I first started going to games over 20 years ago.

I still dearly love the game itself, but the only way I can keep trying to enjoy it nowadays is to try and ignore the less savoury elements. I don't know if it'll ever go back.

Or maybe it wasn't different but I watched it through a child's rose-tinted eyes

but surely if everyone keeps turning a blind eye or downplaying it (from your OP 'he has a penchant for biting fellow players' ), then it won't go away - there's no incentive for players to behave if they know that nothing will come of it and they'll still get snapped up by a top team and paid £££££££££ (or should that be €€€€€€€€€€ ), instead of being sent of to prison where they belong.

Are Barcelona fans out there, furious that their team has bought a criminal, racist thug? I'm asking because I have absolutely no idea. But if they're not, then they are twats of the highest order, and are totally complicit in allowing this kind of behaviour to continue. If they were, and boycotted accordingly, you can bet that the owners (twats as well) wouldn't be quite so keen to buy these people.

It happens because it's allowed to happen. Why the hell the rule of law couldn't be brought in on this I don't know - the man bit another player with bloody TV cameras on him? Why was he not prosecuted? I just don't understand at all.

Halle I didn't mind the Barca shirt but Chelsea... noooo. Just wrong.

RvP what a cunt he is.

I do agree with what you're saying River. I stopped watching football for a number of years in the mid 2000's as I became disillusioned with it, but then came back to it.

So, in your opinion, is football in the state it's in due to the supporters turning a blind eye to the behaviour of the players? - this is a genuine question, not a dig!

It would take a boycott of epic proportions to change the game for the better - I don't know if this will ever happen sadly. And yes, I , like many other people, still choose to watch football despite the problems - so I guess i'm part of the problem.

I think LS is a person with deep seated emotional problems.

I think under Brendan Rogers he had a chance, albeit a slim one, of dealing with his issues. I think he will have no chance at Barca.

I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up like Maradonna, totally out of control and fiercly unhappy...

All that said, I think most of the LFC fans are glad to see the back of him. He is a suprmely talenetd player, but he just causes headache after headache and who needs that?

I know what you're saying OP. If you separate his behaviour from his football - his behaviour was /is a nightmare but his football was genius.

With hindsight maybe I should have picked a less contentious topic for my first excursion into AIBU...

If we look through history, the worlds of great art, literature, sport and science and littered with people who were incredibly flawed emotionally.

well, I guess when it comes down to it, it's down to those who provide the money for the players - which is supporters, but also more importantly (I should have mentioned this before) sponsors. If any team who took on a player like Suarez instantly lost its lucrative deals, that would hit home pretty hard, wouldn't it? Along with fans refusing to buy season tickets - but the sponsorship is surely the key. And why any company would want to be associated with this man I can't think.

Fifa as well, I guess, they seem to be pretty spineless. Surely Suarez should have been banned from playing professional football, once and for all.

I'm ranting from a position to real ignorance, I have to say, hopefully other more knowledgeable people will be along soon, it's an interesting debate.

yes, that is very true, Word, it's not fair to single out football. But it does have a governing body who surely could indulge in a bit of governing.

Actually, I'm a real hypocrite I realise, as I remember an old thread about removing Rolf Harris's portrait of the Queen, and I believe I argued there on the side of keeping it, as his criminality shouldn't affect his output as an artist, along with a load of other artists in the National Gallery. Though, equally, of course, he is going to (has already gone?) prison for his crimes, unlike Mr Suarez. So maybe I'm not a complete hypocrite?

I'm now a bit and at myself!

I know very very little about football - but i know about LS and his biting. I hear he is still playing. A 'professional' footballer. Getting payed a fortune.

He has bought his own game into a terrible light. In what other profession can you bite someone (more than once) while at work and not get the sack!?!

I think he should get a permanent ban from football. He's beyond a disgrace.

I agree re the sponsors River.

I think part of the problem is also the clubs themselves. They are so desperate for success that they pander to the whims of their players and defend their behaviour in order to keep fielding them.

If a manager refused to field a player who dives/cheats/bites/whatever, and clubs refused to buy players that do these things then I think behaviour would improve instantly. Unfortunately managers have to succeed as they are forever only a few losses away from getting sacked (slight exaggeration but you know what I mean!).

Or should I say 'if a manager refuses to pay a player...' as some players are happy not to play and just sit on the bench so long as they are getting paid

The way I see it, is that no one should surprised when an impoverished street kid doesn't turn into a middle class role model. Particularly as every day of their lives, from 13, will have been about encouraging them to be competitive, aggressive and selfish.

LS has no off button and it's in no one's interests to help him build one.

LS thinks he's going to be happier in Barca (in part because his wife, who he is completely dependent upon, spent her formative years in the city and wants to move there - she hates the UK). So he thinks perhaps he can curb his behaviour if he's happier. I very much doubt it .

yes, it's a cumulative effect of a bunch of people in positions of responsibility refusing to actually exercise any. I don't really believe it is a manager's job to babysit his players, but if you're going to give huge sums of money to immature young men and there not be any sanctions in place for poor behaviour (god, it's like dealing with a bunch a toddlers!) then there will be problems.

RvP is a cunt.

I didn't mind the Barca shirt either. It was his dream to go back to play at Nou Camp.

Those Ashley the other cunt Cole photos of him lurking in Roma photos were funny though.

Isn't biting a criminal offence? Surely he should be cautioned or something. I remember when Tony Adam went to prison for drink driving. Maybe footballers are above the law now. Though obviously that was something that happened off the pitch. Suarez should be banned for life but there will be too much outrage by football clubs if he did. At least a year or two ban.

I'm sure biting is a criminal offence. IIRC Cantona got a jail sentence (reduced to community service) in the mid 90s for that kick. Maybe it's because that happened to a member of the public rather than a player???

In a way, it's not that complicated: professional football is corrupt from top to bottom. Fifa is completely corrupt and there is so much money in the sport that teams and players have no incentive to do anything except win.

Suarez obviously has serious emotional problems. I understand he was seeing a therapist the past year who thought he had turned a corner, apparently not.

I know he had a tough upbringing but many many footballers have the same and have not done anything like these things. I don't think it's about expecting him to be come a middle class role model, it's just sort of basic expectations of a human being (not to bite or be racist or cheat). If he can't manage that I think he has serious problems and it's actually pretty sick the way football is exploiting his immense talent and basically ignoring his pretty serious issues.

Like Word Factory and Carben I totally get what I think you meant OP.

If you could isolate his talent and natural footballing skills then to watch him on form is a thing of beauty and joy even for the opposition.

Sadly I also agree that he is deeply troubled and complex and requires micro management which he seemed to be getting more recently until he went to the World Cup. He demonstrated, however, that he easily 'reverts to type' and hasn't learned anything from his past punishments. For that reason YABU in your disappointment, he had too many chances and has brought too much disgrace upon himself, his (past) clubs and the game itself.

Take away our outrage as spectators, team mates or employers and he would make a fascinating study. He appears, from what you can tell, to be hardworking, to have a lovely wife, be a devoted family man and gets along well with his team mates of all races and religions. He's also inspired loyalty from his past managers beyond the time they've been working with him.
His totally indefensible behaviours only seem to manifest in competition on the pitch - again that's as far as we know, but I haven't heard of awful behaviour outside of playing opposition on the pitch or in his private life - contrast that say with Joey Barton who has continued a career in English football despite an appalling litany of various violent offences both on and off the field.

It certainly doesn't help that in Suarez's native Uruguay the general consensus is that his aggression isn't something to be particularly criticized
I'd love to be able to see a fantasy sliding door situation to compare and contrast how he developed if he'd always stayed at home and also if he'd not left Liverpool to play on the world stage, but admit I will keep a weather eye on what happens next in the Suarez saga.
I'm not holding my breath for a lack of drama though

The thing is, to get to the top in a lot of arenas, the very things that most of us would see as a flaw are actively encouraged.

Take Stevie G. He suffers from OCD. In the normal scheme of things, everyone would encourage an OCD sufferer to stop their repetitive actions, but in football, he has been actively encouraged to continue with them.

David Beckham too. He was encouraged to 'practice' his free kicks for hours and hours each day.

Possibly not the best course in terms of mental health and general well-being, but a gift for football!

He bites people when he wants to move teams. There is a pattern.

He's an utter twat.