Liverpool have embarrassed Arsenal with a release clause after a controversial transfer bid

Liverpool once went to incredible lengths to overtake Arsenal in the transfer market.

After being insulted by the Gunners’ infamous £40million-plus bid for Luis Suarez in 2013, Liverpool decided to take revenge.

Two years later, after bringing Roberto Firmino on board, the Reds inserted an £89m release clause into his contract. But the clause had a crucial catch: Arsenal could not activate it.

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It was revenge, served cold. And it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise given Liverpool owner John Henry’s iconic reaction to the news of Arsenal’s outrageous bid for Suarez. The American tweeted: “What do you think they’re smoking over there at the Emirates?”

It later emerged that the cheeky offer was submitted because Arsenal misunderstood Suarez’s release clause, believing that £40m plus one pound was enough to open contract negotiations with the forward. In fact, an offer in excess of £40m only contractually forced Liverpool to inform Suarez of the offer but not accept it.

However, the threat of seeing Suarez play for a Premier League rival seemed to scare the Reds so much that they went to unorthodox lengths to prevent it in 2014.

While negotiating the sale of Suarez to Barcelona, ​​Liverpool demanded that a clause be inserted into the Uruguayan’s contract barring him from joining Manchester United directly from the Catalan club. The clause even prevented him from signing for the Red Devils when his contract with Barcelona expired.

The club seem to have developed a taste for unusual but highly lucrative contract clauses and were at it again when they sold Phillipe Coutinho to Barcelona in 2018. The Anfield club negotiated a clause that forced Barca to pay hefty premiums to his players Liverpool for the next three seasons.

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The clause stipulated that the La Liga giants would have to pay £89m, on top of whatever sum Liverpool deemed fair for the player in question, effectively stopping Barcelona from swooping for their top talent.