Liverpool’s highly rated young attacking midfielder Suso has completed his medical in Italy on Sunday, ahead of signing a four-year-deal with Serie A giants AC Milan.
Sky Sources: Liverpool winger Suso agrees four-year contract with AC Milan. #SSNHQ
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) January 11, 2015
The 21-year-old youngster arrived in Italy to complete his medical, as we have pictures of it, courtesy Gianluca Di Marzio.
#Suso had medicals with @acmilan. All the pics soon on @DiMarzio website #LFC pic.twitter.com/lb55FwR3Co — Guglielmo Cannavale (@GugliCannavale) January 11, 2015
James Pearce of The Liverpool Echo claims that Suso won’t be joining before 1st July, unless the club agree upon a nominal transfer fee to seal the transfer in the current window.
Suso has officially joined AC Milan pic.twitter.com/L2ChJQLFz8
— Mootaz (@Mootaz_LFC) January 11, 2015
Suso revealed that he has yet to speak with the Milan boss, but expressed his happiness to have joined one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
“I am very happy to be coming to Milan,” Suso told Sky Sport Italia.
“I haven’t spoken to coach Inzaghi yet. I came here for the medical and hope it all went well. Do I have a message for the Milan fans? I am not here for long then we’ll see when I am able to play.”
Suso, who made 21 appearances for the reds, is likely to divide reactions among the fans with many opine that the Spaniard hasn’t been given enough opportunities to shine at Anfield, although he was indeed offered a contract renewal last summer but he refused to accept it because it doesn’t guarantee him regular first team football.
We’re giving Suso away for nothing while giving Martin Skrtel a new contract and getting nearly 5m for Oussama Assaidi. Alright — Kolo Toure (@ThoseScouseLads) January 11, 2015
Earlier Suso’s agent Jamie Serra told Liverpool Echo, via This is Anfield that an agreement had been reached, the only point of conflict is whether he will join in January or next summer.
“Yes, I can confirm that there is an agreement between Milan and Suso on a four-year contract,” his agent Jaime Serra.
“There’s a possibility (he will arrive in January). We’ll just have to see what happens between now and the end of the transfer window.”
Suso is an amazing talent, a wonderful gifted player, blessed with outrageous skills and vision, and at one point it seemed like he would be the new face of Liverpool along with Raheem Sterling, after progressing through the club’s youth academy.
His is a frustrating case of being a victim of circumstances more than anything else. First, his application – Suso is a brilliant player going forward, no doubt, but his defensive work-rate is something that has let him down and prevented him for becoming a Liverpool regular. It is indeed sad that he couldn’t progress under Brendan Rodgers, who of all people, has always given importance to nurturing young talents.
Rodgers wanted him to play regularly and gain experience to boost his confidence and therefore he was sent on loan to La Liga side Almeria.
Secondly, the situation somehow worked against him, as I wrote few days back in one of my articles:
But probably his rate of development wasn’t at par with the way Liverpool progressed under Rodgers in his second season. The Reds not only improved immeasurably under Rodgers, they even went on to challenge for the title, and only missed by a whisker in the end to winning the league.
It was evident that Liverpool would spend big in the summer and the departure of Luis Suarez didn’t help either. Liverpool went on to sign several attacking midfielders like Lazar Markovic and Adam Lallana along with the already stocked talents of Coutinho and Sterling, which meant Suso dropped down the pecking orders, inevitably.
The interesting part that strikes here is, why Rodgers didn’t give Suso a chance in the first half of the season, as a part of experiment, when Liverpool were struggling in the league?
It leaves behind piles of conjectures to ponder on. It is due to Suso’s attitude in training? Has he not done enough to impress the manager? Was he stroked out of Rodgers’ plans very early?
Well, in the end, we can only say, good luck to Suso – he will get regular game time at San Siro and hopefully will grow as a good footballer in future.
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