Liverpool owner John W Henry sent Arsenal incredible message 10 years ago today

Ten years ago, on this day (July 24, 2013), Arsenal bid £40m + £1 for Liverpool’s Luis Suarez; it was a bid that was promptly rejected, but it saw the club’s owner John W. Henry post a famous message on social media which memorably mocked the London club.

Suarez was one of the best forwards in the Premier League at that time; he had just come off the back of the 2012/13 season which saw him net 30 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, which included 23 in the league - and Arsenal were desperate to secure his signature as it was understood the Uruguayan was eyeing an exit.

The bid saw Arsenal become a laughing stock as a result, however, they were well within the rights to try to move for Suarez, who was becoming one of the most sought-after names in Europe. Of course, he got his move a year later as Barcelona came calling, but it had been believed that a £40m release clause existed in his contract.

Arsenal soon discovered that the clause merely meant Liverpool were obliged to inform Suarez of any offers they received over the £40m mark but the club was left with egg on their face.

However, in what seems like a lifetime ago now, Henry took to social media to mock Arsenal following the bid at the time in a unprecendented moment. He tweeted ‘What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates’ much to the delight of Liverpool fans.

Former Arsenal transfer chief Dick Law has since revealed they never meant to antagonise the club, but they merely wanted to look to begin negotiations. He claimed the tweet was ‘disrespectful’ from the Liverpool owner, but he has since gone onto reveal his version of events.

He told Goal: “That spring, news got round to us that Suarez wanted out of Liverpool. Now, we didn’t know if Liverpool received an offer of £40m whether they would say, ‘that’s not more than £40m’. We could have gone with £45m, but the point is we knew there was never a buy-out.

“So, it was never going to be a bid of £40m+1, it was always going to be the start of a negotiation. We knew that we had to exceed a certain threshold and so we decided to throw another pound on it. We could have thrown £50 or £500,000, but it wasn’t going to make any difference to the final negotiation.”