‘Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers deserves credit for Luis Suárez saga’

Brendan Rodgers deserves credit for keeping Luis Suárez at Liverpool beyond the summer, according to the club’s chairman Tom Werner.

The 26-year-old forward expressed his desire to embark on a new challenge after the Reds finished seventh and missed out on a Champions League spot at the end of the 2012/13 campaign.

Liverpool rejected two big-money offers from Arsenal for the South American and Suárez eventually committed his immediate future to the 18-time English champions ahead of the new season.

And Werner insisted the Reds have no plans to allow the Uruguay international leave the club as Rodgers set his sights on securing a a top-four finish this term.

“There was interest in him from other clubs throughout the summer, but it was important for us to try and keep him,” Werner told Daily Mail.

“He is one of the great players of the world and we felt that we would be a stronger club with him than without him.

“That does not mean I don’t respect his intense desire to play in the Champions League.

“But it would be a very happy day next May, if and when we get to the Champions League by finishing in the top four, and he is part of it.

“It is our intention to keep him for a while. Our intention is to build a winning club and he is integral to that. The past is the past and I have great affection for him personally.

“I gave Brendan Rodgers a great deal of credit for making sure Luis knew how needed he was at Liverpool.

“Brendan made it plain to him how much he was embraced by the fans, and the supporters have been terrific.”