Arsenal slammed for lowballing on Suarez

Arsene Wenger hit back on Saturday at Brendan Rodgers after the Liverpool manager insisted Arsenal's bid for Luis Suarez fell well short of the player's valuation.

Rodgers claimed Suarez's qualities meant he should be valued in similar terms to Gareth Bale, the Tottenham forward who has attracted a near $132 million approach from Real Madrid.

Speaking after his side's 2-2 draw with Napoli on the first day of the preseason Emirates Cup tournament, Arsenal manager Wenger confirmed the club had made a formal bid for Suarez - believed to be in the region of 40 million pounds ($61 million).

But he also insisted negotiations would remain in-house and admitted he was perplexed by Rodgers's decision to speak out.

"I do not understand this kind of thinking and would not like to talk openly about negotiations, because that is not my target in (this) press conference," he said.

"We have one month in front of us and we will work very hard to strengthen our squad, without naming any specific names, because I do not believe that will make negotiations easier.

"After that, you can make all kinds of thinking about the price of the players, and you can say as well they are all overboard anyway.

"I never said we have made a bid to Liverpool, now I can tell you we have made one, so at least that is some information. All the rest, I would like to keep to us.

"If we progress in that situation, we will inform you. At the moment, that is where we are."

Wenger and his club's board have once again come in for criticism in recent weeks after failing to secure any of their high-profile transfer targets, but the manager insists the club's approach to conducting business will not change.

"When you want to buy any player, you need the agreement of the club, of the player and you need to agree a price, so you need three agreements," Wenger said.

"It is like you go to your neighbor and say: 'I want to buy your house, so get out tomorrow morning.' He will not be necessarily happy about it.

"What is important is we focus on the players we have, that we are not too much drawn into these stories."

(China Daily 08/05/2013 page23)