Liverpool forward Luis Suarez was the club’s biggest ever transfer when he was sold to Barcelona in the summer of 2014.
Suarez was sold to the Catalonians for a then club record €81 million, which has since been surpassed by the sale of Philippe Coutinho last season, but before he swapped the Premier League for La Liga he was briefly linked with Arsenal.
He had scored 23 Premier League goals for Liverpool in the 2012/13 season and finished just three goals behind Robin van Persie who had netted 26 times.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has previously claimed that Suarez had verbally agreed to move from Liverpool to Arsenal and Carragher said that he had tried to convince the Uruguayan to stay at Anfield with the help of former captain Steven Gerrard.
“We said you’re too good for Arsenal,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
“If you’re going to move you’ve got to move to Barcelona. That’s what I’m saying with Eden Hazard. The fact that he’s one of the best players in the world. I think the best players in the world play for your Madrid’s and Barcelona’s and at this point Chelsea aren’t.
“He’s won leagues with them, hasn’t won a Champions League, but I look at him as an individual player he needs a Madrid on his CV to sort of finish that career.”
Suarez admits that he was ready to leave Liverpool for Arsenal but that the conversation with Gerrard and Carragher ultimately convinced him to stay at Anfield for one more season before leaving for Barcelona.
Speaking to Otro, Suarez said: “We qualified for the UEFA Europa League but the season ended badly.
“I’m about to go to Arsenal, forcing myself to go, and Steven tells me ‘I promise that if you stay this year you’re going to take off and next year you’ll go to Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid or whichever one you want, but stay this year because you won’t be better off at Arsenal’.
“This was the last conversation I had with Gerrard at that moment and I told my agent that I had made my decision and I was staying.
“His words convinced me in that moment. They came from a person who cared for me, who wanted my well-being, who saw me suffer during training and saw me sad.
“They were words from a true captain that had an impact in that moment and helped me a lot.”
