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Luis Suarez left on sidelines as Liverpool face Celtic
LUIS SUAREZ has been left out of Liverpool’s squad to face Celtic in Dublin today as manager Brendan Rodgers continues to banish him to the periphery.
But Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger said last night he has not given up his chase for Suarez, despite Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry saying he is not for sale.
Speaking ahead of a friendly with Manchester City in Helsinki today, Wenger said: “If it will be done, it will be done in a respectful and amicable way with Liverpool. I didn’t read John W Henry’s statements but we’ll be faithful to the way we want to behave.
“To make a transfer happen, you need the agreement of the buyer, seller and player. We know what we want to do. The player, if I look at the statements, does as well. Liverpool at the moment do not agree. If they change their minds or not, I don’t know. We’ll respect that.”
Daniel Sturridge is included for the first time during pre-season and Raheem Sterling is also in, despite a night in police custody before pleading not guilty to common assault in court yesterday.
Daniel Agger, the subject of a £15million bid from Barcelona, is vice-captain after the exits of Jamie Carragher and Pepe Reina.
Suarez trained alone for the third day at Melwood after Henry warned he will not be sold at any price to any club before the transfer window closes.
West Ham, meanwhile, have resurrected their interest in Stewart Downing and are close to hammering out a deal worth about £6m, after an initial bid of £5m was rejected.
Hammers boss Sam Allardyce has muscled in front of former side Newcastle and talks are continuing.
Downing rebuffed a move earlier in the summer but, while he ideally wants to remain at Anfield, he does not want to spend the season on the sidelines and could hold talks with Allardyce on his return from Dublin.