FORMER LIVERPOOL MIDFIELDER John Barnes has slammed Luis Suarez for sinking his teeth into the arm of Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic but feels talk of moving the striker on is “ridiculous”.
Suarez took offence to some touch-tight marking by the Serbian in the Chelsea box and was caught on camera biting his opponent.
Barnes, who played 314 times for the Reds, told BBC Radio Five: “He has to suffer the consequences of his actions – that’s all he has to do.
“I’ve heard talk about him not playing for Liverpool again, which I think is ridiculous. I’ve heard talk about him bringing the good name of Liverpool down, which is also ridiculous – he’s brought his own good name down.”
The former England international posed the reasonable argument of what major clubs would step forward and fight it out for the Uruguayan’s signature following his latest indiscretion. Suarez has previous when it comes to biting and received a lengthy ban for laying his molars into Otman Bakkal of PSV Eindhoven when he was at Ajax. Barnes said:
Whoever signs him, it’s going to reflect badly that they sign a player who Liverpool deem from a moral perspective not good enough. So Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona… they can sign him? But we can’t have him? If you’re questioning his moral character, what you’re actually saying is that if he can’t play for Liverpool he can’t play for anyone, which is ridiculous.”
Barnes added, “The reflection on Liverpool is their response to the actions and their response is right. The response from (managing director) Ian Ayre and the club is ‘it’s completely unacceptable and we will not accept it’.”
“The FA should act first and Liverpool will then see what punishment is meted out and then come up with their own conclusions, because they could ban him for five or seven games and then he gets another 10-game ban for the FA rather than the FA banning him or doing whatever they have to do first,” he said.
“They should see what the FA do and then respond after.”
