Thirteen years ago, Arsenal made their infamous £40,000,001 bid for Luis Suarez, yet one crucial part of the story is almost never mentioned.

Suarez did have a clause that Arsenal triggered, and Liverpool’s owner admitted they just ignored it.

When Arsenal moved for Luis Suarez in 2013, the narrative quickly became about the extra £1.

The Gunners had reportedly believed the striker’s release clause was £40 million, so adding a single pound became the punchline.

The ridicule has endured ever since.

What continues to be overlooked is that Liverpool ignored the clause in Suarez’s contract that Arsenal activated, one that entitled them to open talks with the forward.

I’ve never understood why Arsenal were mocked for bidding £1 more than the figure in the player’s clause.

Why offer more than you need to? Simply to prove you can?

Arsenal were prepared to spend just over £40 million on Suarez, but they were hardly in a position to throw money around at the time. If the house you want to buy is on the market for £150,000, do you open with an offer of £160,000?

Of course not.

Suarez himself, along with Arsenal, had been led to believe the clause existed, something Liverpool owner John W. Henry denied.

At first, at least.

“We are not going to sell Luis,” Henry said in August 2013. “It’s very important [not to sell to a rival], but especially for Liverpool because we’re not in Europe this year.

“He won’t be sold even if a foreign club comes in because we do not have time to sign a suitable replacement.

“It’s not about finances. So late in the window… we can’t replace him. So for football reasons we can’t sell, and especially to Arsenal.”

The saga appeared to have been settled.

That was until, a year later, John W. Henry openly admitted that Luis Suarez did have a £40 million release clause after all, and that Liverpool had simply chosen to ignore it.

“Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League, which is arguably the top soccer league in the world,” Henry said.

“He had a buyout clause of £40m. Arsenal, one of our prime rivals, offered £40m plus £1. What we’ve found … is that contracts don’t seem to mean a lot in England – actually, in world football.

“It doesn’t matter how long a player’s contract is, he can decide he’s leaving. We sold a player, Fernando Torres, for £50m, that we did not want to sell, we were forced to.

“Since apparently these contracts don’t seem to hold, we took the position that we’re just not selling.

“It’s been great for Luis, it’s been great for us. We have three gentlemen up front Suárez, Raheem Sterling, and Daniel Sturridge, [they] are young, I think those three could be together for a long time.”

The fact Liverpool admitted they ignored a clause in Luis Suarez‘s contract is almost always left out whenever this story is revisited.

Instead, the focus remains on mocking Arsenal’s £40,000,001 bid, as though that is the only story worth telling.

Even Steven Gerrard has contributed to the mythology, claiming Arsenal bid £40 million plus 1p rather than £1.

That may simply be a case of misremembering the details, but it illustrates how the caricature of Arsenal’s offer has endured while Liverpool’s own admission has been ignored.

Suarez joined Barcelona the following year and enjoyed one of the most prolific spells of his career, scoring 195 goals and providing 113 assists in 283 appearances.

He moved to Atletico Madrid in 2020 before returning to Nacional two years later. A free transfer to Gremio followed just six months after that, and in January 2024 he joined Inter Miami, where he remains under contract until the end of 2026.

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