Despite the tantrums, Suarez offers more than Torres

For a club which has historically flourished on the foundations provided by its British players, Liverpool’s foreign imports hold a special place in each supporter’s heart. So one can imagine the anguish when Fernando Torres submitted a transfer request in January 2011, and subsequently moved to Chelsea on deadline day. Liverpool have always had world-class strikers at their disposal since the 1960s and 1970s. At their peak, John Toshack, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen could have walked into any side in the world from any era.

Fernando Torres’ struggles have worsened at Chelsea

Torres, though, was something different. He had Owen’s pace, Rush and Fowler’s finishing ability, Toshack’s areal ability, and Dalglish and Keegan’s instinct to link up with his partner in crime, Steven Gerrard. But most of all, the romance of a lad from sunny Spain adopting the port city of Liverpool as home and declaring his love for the club before he even joined was unforgettable. It takes a lot to leave your home club and move to a foreign country, and the scousers recognised Torres’ sacrifices, and loved him for it. Until, of course, he decided to switch the red of Liverpool for the blue of Chelsea. Class may be permanent, but love, is temporary.

Or that was people would have believed for five weeks after Torres’ departure.

Luis Suarez had scored on his Liverpool debut against Stoke, scuffing in a finish inside 16 minutes of coming on from the bench on February 2. There had been some indications that he would more than just manage to put the ball across the line over the coming months, but fans really got an idea of what they had on their hands in March 2011, when Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick against Manchester United, but Suarez stole all the plaudits having put on a  display of skill and close control rarely seen in England. It was Messi-esque, full of twists and turns, of the impossible and the unimaginable. The red half of Merseyside slept soundly that night: Torres would not be missed after all.

Luis Suarez gestures after scoring his hat-trick against West Bromwich Albion on October 26 at Anfield, Liverpool.

The summer of 2013, then, brought a sense of déjà vu. Suarez tried every trick in the book to get a move from Liverpool to a club with greater chances of silverware of the European variety. He alleged broken promises, the overbearing media presence and the lack of Champions League football for craving a move away from Liverpool. While overtures from Madrid did not materialise into anything substantial, Arsenal beckoned, slyly bidding a pound over Suarez’s supposed buy-out clause.